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AKRON - How often does a girls high school basketball team score 63 points, and lose?
How often does the game's leading scorer play for the losing team and double the point total of the winning team's high scorer?
How often does a team score 100 points in its season-opener?
How many times these things have happened may be uknown, but not unheard of. In fact, they all happened Friday when Warsaw opened its season with a 102-63 win at Tippecanoe Valley.
While Warsaw moves its season record to 1-0, the Vikings fall to 1-1.
Valley sophomore forward Tabitha Pratt led all scorers with 32 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field. She also made good on 8 of 12 free throws and pulled down five rebounds and made four steals. Senior Jennifer Studebaker added 12 points and six rebounds in the loss.
Sophomore Hilary O'Connell and senior Christy Colt paced the Tigers with 16 points each. Jenna Rooney and Janna Knisely added 15 and 12 points each.
"We knew when the season started that we would have three or four real good ball players," said Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst. "We knew we could score. The question was who could play defense. In the first half there was a lot of offense, but we didn't move our feet. Valley was 17 of 22 at the free throw line in the first half. Give them credit."
The Vikings were able to stay relatively close in the first half with the Tigers committing 14 personal fouls. And as Wienhorst said, the Vikings made good on 17 of 22 free throws. What negated Valley's first half free throw success was the 17 turnovers it committed in the first 16 minutes of play.
For the game, Warsaw scored 42 points off Viking turnovers.
"We turned the ball over, and Warsaw got a lot of points off turnovers," said second-year Valley coach Gary Teel. "They (Valley players) got flustered when the game got away from them. The biggest positive for us was our free throw shooting."
The Tigers weren't too shabby at the charity stripe, either. For the game Warsaw was 36 of 49. The Tigers connected on 24 of 32 free throws in the second half.
Warsaw's offensive output breaks the school record for most points in a game, as well as most points in a quarter.
In the 1991-92 season the Tigers scored 101 points against Northern Lakes Conference foe Plymouth. In the 1975-76 season Warsaw scored 31 points in one quarter against Triton.
Last night the Tigers racked up 34 points in the third quarter of play. Valley put a mere four points on the board in that period of play. That's when Teel said the game was completely decided.
"We just had one bad quarter," said Teel. "We had the game down to 10 points. I was comfortable with that. A 28-4 run in the third quarter changed the tide completely."
Senior Nerecia Taylor put the first point on the board when she hit a free throw at the 6:47 mark of the first quarter. Pratt turned around and hit one of her four three-pointers, giving Valley its only lead of the game.
Rooney made good on two free throws and hit a jumper, giving Warsaw the lead for good with just 2:47 off the clock.
The Tigers kept the lead near 10 the rest of the first half and took a 45-31 lead at the break.
"It's kind of interesting," said Wienhorst, "it was 45-31 at halftime. If they (Valley) score the first seven points of the second half, they're back in the game."
Instead, it was the Tigers who scored the first nine points of the second half, giving them a 54-31 advantage. Studebaker gave Valley a bucket at the 5:51 mark of the third quarter, but Warsaw eventually pushed its lead to 79-35 by the beginning of the final frame.
"Warsaw is a very tough ball club," said Teel. "It's also an advantage when you have 12 equal people you can run in and out. When you have 12 people running in and out when you run the press, it takes its toll."
Everyone on Warsaw's roster scored at least one point.
"I think everybody scored for us tonight," said Wienhorst. "It's not anything I've done. The girls have come to play. Taylor is going to be a big part of our offense, and she only scored five."
Warsaw (1-0) will host Bremen tonight at 6:15 p.m.
Valley (1-1) will travel to Culver Saturday for a 6 p.m. junior varsity tip-off.
"As I said last year, one game doesn't make the season," said Teel of the 39-point loss to Warsaw. "It's better that we don't have an opportunity to dwell on this. I'm not happy about giving up 102 points. They feel bad about it, but they're just kids. They did their best, but sometimes your best just isn't good enough. Kids recover quickly. I probably won't sleep at all tonight (Friday). I wasn't going to stall the ball."
