NAPPANEE - The NorthWood girls basketball team closed its 2010-11 home schedule with its first Northern Lakes Conference win Saturday.
The Lady Panthers (11-8, 1-5 NLC) capitalized on 18 Warsaw Lady Tiger (9-8, 3-3 NLC) turnovers in a 52-44 victory at the Panther Pit."Warsaw has a team like us - young," NorthWood coach Steve Neff said. "They've had some great games this year, a lot like us, and they've had some games where they don't look so good. It's kind of a strange year, because you can't compare who beat who on a given night. It's who comes to play, and our girls came to play tonight."
In a game between two evenly matched squads, the flow went back and forth on a number of occasions.
At one point in the game, Warsaw responded to an 11-0 NorthWood run with an14-0 run of its own. However, once that run was over, NorthWood embarked on a 9-0 run to take a 32-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
"Tonight, we didn't come out and play our game," Warsaw coach Michelle Harter said. "We weren't as focused and weren't as mentally ready, going into the game, that we've been. We need to make sure, that when we come out, we need to be ready to play every single night. Tonight, we just weren't."
In the final stanza, Warsaw used a 7-0 run to get within 39-36, but after that, NorthWood scored on every one of its possessions, holding on for the win.
Perhaps the biggest play of the game came with 1:38 left in the game when NorthWood senior Taylor Olson grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in while being fouled. After converting the three-point play, the Panthers had a 46-40 lead.
The offensive rebound was NorthWood's 13th of the game, but it was Warsaw's 20-of-44 shooting that grew the most ire out of Harter.
"We have got to start coming out and hitting our shots," Harter said. "That's flat out what it needs to be. We shoot 20 of 44 from the field and a lot of the shots we get are in the lane. We've got to start putting the ball in the basket. Yes, maybe we're getting bumped, but get your feet underneath you and go up strong."
Warsaw senior Kayla Stout led all scorers with 20 points and teammate junior Sarah Heagy had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
NorthWood was led by junior De'yahnna Styles' 14 points, 10 of which were layups that came directly off her steals.
"We just have to get it controlled," Neff said about Styles' quickness. "It's good when it looks good, but it's not so good at other times. She did have quite a few nice ones tonight."
The quickness of Styles may have helped force some Warsaw turnovers, but Harter also wanted to give her team some credit for them as well.
"NorthWood played well tonight," she said. "You have to give them credit. Give it to them, they played a good game - the best game I've seen them play this year. But, a big part of that was us standing and not attacking. We allowed them to cause turnovers because we didn't attack in the gaps, looking for open players or our shot."
The Lady Tigers close out NLC play tonight at Northridge High School.
On top of facing a 15-2 Northridge Lady Raiders squad, the Lady Tigers will also be dealing with playing their fifth-straight road game before returning to the Tiger Den Thursday for their regular-season finale.
"It's not that easy to play that many road games going against good competition, but you have to come out ready to play," Harter said.
