Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Valparaiso, ranked fourth in 4A, won its seventh Tiger Tournament in eight years by beating Mt. Vernon 55-52.
Valparaiso improved to 15-1, while Mt. Vernon dropped to 11-3.
Warsaw lost to Perry Meridian 46-38 in the consolation game.
Something the Warsaw girls basketball team has used as an advantage nearly all season turned out to be a disadvantage Saturday, free throws.
In the Tigers' 46-38 loss in the consolation round of the Tiger Tourney, postponed from three weeks ago, to Perry Meridian Warsaw (10-4) shot a dismal 8 of 20 (40 percent) from the charity stripe. The Falcons (11-6) connected on 6 of 10 free throws.
After falling 63-52 to Mount Vernon in the opening round,the third time in four years they've lost to the Marauders, and then in the consolation round the Tigers' record moves to 10-4 on the season. Warsaw boasts the best record in the 21 year history of the tournament at 27-13 but haven't been in the championship since the 1994-95 season.
Added to their free throw woes, turnovers also proved to be a thorn in the Tigers' side. For the game Warsaw turned the ball over 23 times, Meridian commited 19 turnovers.
"We do turn the ball over," said Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst. "We don't make good decisions. In practice we're going to work a lot on entry passes. I also think they (Meridian) are a good team. Eight of 19 free throws is very uncharacteristic, that and we missed a lot of bunnny shots."
Katie Elliott led Warsaw with 12 points, Jenna Rooney added 10. Perry Meridian was led by 13 points from Andrea Nordholt.
Rooney broke into the scoring column first putting the Tigers up 2-0 in the first frame. She a total of 10 in the quarter to give Warsaw a 13-10 advantage heading into the second stanza.
Warsaw's Laura Overton started the second quarter action with a steal followed by a Kara Kesler layup that pushed Warsaw's lead to 15-10.
With 2:07 remaining in the first half Sara Parker's free throw gave the Tigers another five-point lead at 19-14 and Warsaw led 20-14 at the break.
The second half was a completely different story. The Tigers scored 18 total points in the third and fourth quarters, Meridian tallied 17 in the third frame alone.
"They came out ready to play and that's the bottom line," said Wienhorst. "We missed some shots and they made theirs. They're a good team, they're consistently ranked in the top 10."
The Falcons outscored Warsaw 32-18 in the final two quarters accounting for the eight-point win.
Warsaw (10-4) will travel to South Whitley on Tuesday to face Whitko. The JV game is set to be tipped off at 6:30 p.m.
"We've gotta regroup," said Wienhorst. "Our goals are set on the state tournament and the conference. We win two games and we can win the conference outright."
