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NAPPANEE - Wawasee coach Kem Zolman and NorthWood coach Steve Neff used gameplans President-elect George W. Bush would have been proud of.
They went conservative. Close to the vest. Vanilla. You name it.
Neither girls basketball coach cares much for the Northern Lakes Conference Tournament, and they grudgingly met for Wednesday's second-round game. Wawasee, ranked No. 3 (3A), beat No. 4 (3A) NorthWood 61-54. Wawasee improves to 11-0, while NorthWood drops to 7-1.
Several NLC coaches dislike the tournament because it sets up situations where teams could meet three times in a season: the regular season conference game, the conference tournament game and the sectional. Beating a team three times in a season, especially a talented team, is often close to impossible, coaches reason.
Neff and Zolman realize they meet again at Wawasee on Jan. 5 for the game that counts in the conference standings. Not only that, the Jan. 5 game is the first game for each team after the NLC Tournament. Wawasee has one NLC Tournament game left, Saturday's championship game, while NorthWood is finished. And they could meet again in February, as NorthWood plays in Wawasee's Sectional.
Out of the three games to win, this tournament game ranked No. 3 to Zolman and Neff.
"This was not one of our goals, to win this tournament," Zolman said. "Now that we're in the championship game, we might as well go ahead and do it."
Neff was even more blunt.
"This game didn't mean anything," he said. "We didn't do anything special."
Nothing special was using a straight man-to-man defense on Wawasee's Shanna Zolman, the state's leading scorer at 33.8 points per game. She finished with 32 points on 7 of 17 shooting from the field, but she hit 14 of 14 free throws. She's now shooting 93.2 percent from the free throw line (82 of 88).
"All we were gonna do tonight was play her straight man-to-man," Neff said. "What can you say? She's a very good player."
Sophomore forward Jessica Leach added 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Kem Zolman, Shanna's father, likewise scripted a basic gameplan for Wawasee.
"Play (a 2-3) zone," he said. "Try to plug up the middle."
Wawasee did that, as 6-foot-2 NorthWood junior center Carol Duncan, who's attracted Purdue's attention, among others, finished with just seven points despite averaging 18 per game. She picked up her fourth foul with 2:03 left in the third quarter.
"Our kids did a good job of surrounding her," Kem Zolman said. "That was Jessica Leach's main job."
Containing Duncan and hitting free throws are the two main reasons Wawasee won. The Warriors hit 23 of 24 free throws, while NorthWood finished 7 of 9.
Those two areas allowed Wawasee to overcome its turnovers. Wawasee turned the ball over 21 times through three quarters and finished with 23, while NorthWood had but 11. Wawasee also shot much better, hitting 17 of 34 field goals (50 percent) to NorthWood's 22 of 61 (36 percent). The Warriors outrebounded NorthWood 28-21.
"We didn't shoot very well, didn't rebound very well, and when we weren't supposed to foul, we did," Neff said. "Then they hit 23 of 24."
After playing to a 25-25 halftime tie, NorthWood took over early in the third quarter, scoring nine points in the first two minutes to go up 34-27. As hot as NorthWood's offense was to start the quarter, Wawasee's met the challenge to end the quarter. The Warriors outscored the Panthers 15-6 the rest of the quarter to take a 42-40 lead into the fourth.
Wawasee led the rest of the way and coaxed the Panthers into foul trouble, enabling the Warriors to convert 13 of 14 free throws in the final quarter, including 8 of 8 by Zolman.
A key stretch occurred from the 2:59 mark through the 1:52 mark. With Wawasee leading 52-45, Zolman stole the ball from NorthWood with 2:59 left. Wawasee's offense then went into stall mode and ran the clock down to 1:52, when NorthWood, unable to steal the ball from Wawasee, finally fouled. Reserve Jessica Henderson hit two key free throws to stretch the lead to 54-45.
After beating NorthWood in last year's Wawasee Sectional, the Warriors own two straight wins over the Panthers, and Kem Zolman made it clear he can do without the 'Is-this-a-statement-by-beating-NorthWood' question. For years NorthWood had Wawasee's number, but Zolman believes his team is past that.
"No statement," he said. "We respect NorthWood. We're Wawasee. We're just as good as anybody in the state. This was No. 3 against No. 4. We're supposed to win.
"If there was a statement made, it was against Warsaw when we beat them in back-to-back games."
Wawasee won at Warsaw 72-43 on Saturday then hosted and beat Warsaw 81-66 in Wednesday's first round of the NLC Tournament. Wawasee advances to face No. 6 Plymouth (7-2) in the tournament championship game. Plymouth beat Northridge (5-6) 50-38 in Thursday's other second-round game in Nappanee.
The site has yet to be determined. The championship will take place at 6 p.m. Saturday at the largest school of the two boys and two girls teams left in the tournament.
No. 3 WAWASEE 61
No. 4 NORTHWOOD 54
Wawasee (11-0) 13 12 17 19 - 61
NorthWood (7-1) 14 11 15 14 - 54
Wawasee FG FT A S R Pts.
Zolman (G) 7-17 14-14 4 2 5 32
Leach (F) 5-7 2-2 1 1 10 12
Wallen (F) 2-3 2-2 1 2 4 6
Higginbotham (C) 2-3 0-0 0 0 4 4
Fawley (G) 0-0 0-0 4 0 1 0
Bradford 1-2 2-2 0 0 0 4
Henderson 0-1 3-4 1 0 3 3
Lamb 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Sorenson 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Totals 17-34 23-24 11 5 28 61
NorthWood FG FT A S R Pts.
Ky. Chamberlin (G) 9-19 2-2 3 4 4 21
Ke. Chamberlin (G) 7-12 1-2 1 2 4 15
Newcomver (F) 3-10 0-0 0 1 1 8
Duncan (C) 2-6 3-3 2 1 9 7
Nunemaker (F) 1-7 0-0 3 1 1 2
Sandy 0-6 1-2 1 2 0 1
Bowers 0-1 0-0 0 0 1 0
Howard 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Totals 22-61 7-9 10 11 21 54
Three-point goals -ÊWawasee 4-10 (Zolman 4-8, Henderson 0-1, Bradford 0-1), NorthWood 3-18 (Newcomer 2-4, Ky. Chamberlin 1-7, Sandy 0-4, Ke. Chamberlin 0-3). Turnovers -ÊWawasee 23, NorthWood 11. Total fouls -ÊWawasee 12, NorthWood 19.
