Warsaw Avoids Letdown

Warsaw's girls basketball team won one of its biggest regular-season games in several years when the Tigers beat NorthWood 48-38 Tuesday to win the Northern Lakes Conference title.

Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst probably had several questions about his team going in, but undoubtedly one of them was this: Would Warsaw avoid a big letdown?

Yes.

Save for the first quarter, the 13-5 Warsaw Tigers avoided a letdown with a 72-52 win over the 7-11 Peru Tigers.

Senior center Katie Elliott scored 20 to lead Warsaw. Jenna Rooney added 15, Kara Kesler 11 and Sara Parker 10. Lyndi Cruikshank led Peru with 23 points, while teammate Ivana Shumpert added 14.

The first eight minutes belonged to Peru. Warsaw sleepwalked through the first quarter on the defensive end, allowing Peru to claim a 21-17 lead. Shumpert, a sophomore, scored 10 of the 21. Peru hit 10 of 16 field goals.

"On Tuesday, we hold NorthWood to 38 points in the game and play great defense," Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst said. "At the start of this game, Peru got all kinds of good looks and great angles to the basket. They have 21 points at the end of one quarter.

"In the sectional, if we come out and play like this, we will be down 21-8."

The final 24 minutes were all Warsaw's. Warsaw outscored Peru 55-31 over the last three quarters.

Peru's 31 points in those three quarters edged its number of turnovers in those same three quarters, 29. After hitting 10 field goals in the first quarter, Peru hit but 12 field goals over the next three quarters.

Wienhorst credited Warsaw's improved play to players who woke up and to a change in defenses.

"We hadn't used it in a while, but we went to the 1-2-2 zone," he said. "That stopped them in the second quarter. Then we played good basketball in the second half."

The Tigers outscored Peru 15-9 in the second quarter to take a 32-30 halftime lead. Rooney ignited Warsaw at the start of the third quarter, scoring the first five points to bump the lead to 37-30.

Warsaw's lead only grew from then until the end. Warsaw outscored Peru 19-10 in the third quarter to take a 51-40 lead.

WARSAW 72, PERU 52

Peru (7-11) 21 9 10 12 - 52

Warsaw (13-5) 17 15 19 21 - 72

Warsaw FG FT A S R Pts.

Elliott (C) 9-17 2-2 3 4 6 20

Rooney (F) 6-9 2-3 1 0 5 15

Kesler (G) 4-5 3-5 2 2 1 11

Parker (F) 3-5 4-6 5 4 7 10

Zaugg (G) 1-1 0-0 1 0 1 2

Taylor 2-3 2-3 0 5 5 6

Cavert 0-0 4-9 0 0 5 4

O'Connell 1-6 1-2 0 1 2 3

Conley 0-0 1-2 0 0 1 1

Colt 0-3 0-2 0 0 0 0

Overton 0-3 0-0 0 1 0 0

Stanley 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 0

Kessler 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 26-53 19-34 12 18 33 72

Peru FG FT A S R Pts.

Cruikshank (G) 8-17 6-7 1 5 1 23

Shumpert (F) 7-14 0-4 1 2 8 14

Bennett (G) 3-9 1-2 3 2 2 7

Jn. Browning (F) 2-4 0-0 2 0 3 4

Nesser (G) 1-4 2-2 3 0 3 2

Je. Browning 1-2 0-0 0 1 2 2

Parkman 0-2 0-0 0 0 3 0

Johnson 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Engel 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 22-53 9-15 10 10 22 52

Three-point goals -ÊWarsaw 1-8 (Rooney 1-1, Colt 0-3, Elliott 0-2, O'Connell 0-2), Peru 1-6 (Cruikshank 1-3, Bennett 0-3). Turnovers -ÊWarsaw 23, Peru 30. Total fouls -ÊPeru 24, Warsaw 15. Fouled out - Shumpert. Technical foul - Shumpert.

Officials -ÊDoug Cook, Jack Urbin.

JV: WARSAW 57, PERU 21

Warsaw (14-4) scoring -ÊStephanie DeRenzo 10, Janna Knisely 9, Andrea Saldivar 6, Natalie Jones 6, Amie Poling 6, Ashley Wyatt 4, Erin Cook 4, Nicki Lambright 3, Chelsey Hartle 3, Angela O'Connell 2, Shara Becker 2, Kyla Stanley 2.

Peru scoring -ÊAudrey Myers 7, Kelly Nesser 4, Nikki Kunkle 3, Rocio Arias 3, Jewel Binkerd 2, Stephanie Payne 2.