In a gymnasium full of pink, the Warsaw Lady Tigers had the South Bend Riley Lady Wildcats feeling blue by the end of the night.
Playing on Senior Night, as well as wearing pink warm-ups and hair ribbons in support of breast cancer awareness, the Tigers dispatched the Wildcats 80-41 Thursday at the Tiger Den.After trailing 16-15, Warsaw junior Kelci Freds' hit her first of a school-record seven three-pointers, sparking a 13-2 run that gave the Tigers a 31-18 advantage with 1:46 remaining in the first half.
Of those 13 points, Freds scored 11 of them, including three treys.
"Kelci came in, got her feet set and starting hitting shots," Warsaw coach Michelle Harter said. "That really calmed the rest of the team down."
Freds' record-setting night eclipsed the previous record of six triples set by Amy Poling in 2001 and Julie Seiss in 2004.
"Kelci is quite capable of coming out and shooting like that every night," Harter said of Freds' 7-for-13 three-point shooting night, which resulted in a game-high 25 points. "Part of it is her getting into the flow of the offense. When she started to do that, she relaxed a little bit."
Freds wasn't alone in the three-point barrage, as Warsaw went 11 for 20 as a team, with junior starter Cendall Ogle and senior reserve Kaitlin Reichard hitting their first three-pointers of the season in a 25-point fourth quarter.
"The girls are good shooters," Harter said of her team. "We relaxed a little bit, got some confidence, and that's just contagious. The girls come off the bench, they get their feet set and they're ready to shoot. It was just a great thing to see all the girls cheering for each other and having so much fun out there."
Entering the game averaging 53 points a game, the 80-point outburst even caught Harter a bit off-guard.
"It was really nice to see us come out and put the ball in the basket," she said.
On the night, all 12 Tigers who entered the game scored, with junior Sarah Shilling netting 13 points, sophomore Kayla Stout going for 12 and senior Liz Tat scoring 10.
Stout also finished the game with a team-high 10 rebounds, while Ogle led the way with six assists, helping Warsaw record its sixth-straight victory, improving to 12-5.
"This is really when you want to peak, and have your team playing its best ball," Harter said. "The girls are doing a nice job of listening, working hard and they're having fun with each other."
The win over Riley wasn't Warsaw's only win Thursday, as the IHSAA sectional draw was also announced, with the Tigers drawing a first-round bye in Sectional 4.
Playing the sectional at the Tiger Den, Warsaw already has a berth in the Feb. 13 semifinal, playing either Elkhart Memorial (15-2) or Elkhart Central (5-11).
With Memorial having already defeated Central 71-31 on Jan. 7, the Tigers can likely prepare to play the Crimson Chargers in the semifinal, a squad they also close their regular season with Feb. 5 in Elkhart.
"It makes it nice, because we play them Thursday," Harter said about the possibility of playing Memorial. "This way, we can go through the week, look at film and see what we need to do to beat them at sectional."
"It's like I told the girls, 'You have to play them sometime. So why not Friday night?" she added.
Prior to the sectional, Warsaw still has three regular-season games to play, beginning Saturday at NorthWood High School, where the junior varsity tips off at 6:15 p.m.
