Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
AKRON - It looked early on as if Warsaw was going to have its hands full with host Tippecanoe Valley in girls basketball action Friday night.
Both teams struggled offensively and were tied 8-8 midway through the second quarter.
The Tigers seemed to be in more trouble when Butler-bound Julie Seiss picked up her second foul and was forced to sit.
Instead of folding without their leading scorer, the Tigers went on a 14-0 run to pull away from the Vikings. Warsaw never looked back as it cruised to a 57-33 win.
Warsaw's second quarter run was led by 5-foot-9 senior Jennifer Scherer. Scherer scored six of her career-high 13 points during the Tigers' surge.
"She's capable of games like this," said Warsaw head coach John Snyder. "During the season, you're going to expect (Julie) Seiss to score 20 to 25 points a night and Danielle (DeGeeter) is going to go for 10 to 15 a game. Scherer can provide that same sort of scoring for us."
While Scherer and the rest of Warsaw began to find its' stroke from the field, the Vikings struggled offensively for 32 minutes.
Valley managed just three points in the second quarter that came off a three-point play by Hannah Krueger with 6:29 left in the first half. The Vikings then went without a point until the begining of the second half.
The Vikings managed to put 10 points on the board in the third quarter, but as the Vikings found their stroke, so did Warsaw.
The Tigers came out of the halftime break on fire as they shot 75 percent from the field (9 of 12) in the third quarter en route to 23 points. Warsaw finished the first half with 22 points.
"For whatever reason we were playing off-balance in the first half," said Snyder. "Half the team was trying to force things and half the team wasn't. We were able to correct that in the second half."
After being forced to sit out most of the second quarter, Seiss was assertive as she scored eight of her game-high 17 points in the third quarter.
Seiss also finished an impressive 6 of 9 from the field to go along with four steals and a rebound.
Junior guard Danielle DeGeeter also came to life for Warsaw in the third quarter as she scored all six of her points in the period.
"We kind of let Julie get loose (in the third quarter)," said Valley head coach Gary Teel. "Danielle (DeGeeter) was also getting decent penetration. They broke us down with the weave. Our objective was to contain Seiss. We were able to do that for the most part. But they found other ways to score."
Senior forward Tasia Smith scored four points for Warsaw while pulling down a team-high five rebounds.
The Tigers were efficent from beyond the three-point arc as they finished 3 of 6 for the game. Warsaw also did a good job of protecting the basketball as it finished with just 11 turnovers.
The same can't be said for the Vikings as they turned the ball over 20 times.
Valley struggled with Warsaw's press and telegraphed too many passes on the night.
Until early in the fourth quarter when Snyder took out his starters for the rest of the night, Valley couldn't sustain any offensive momentum. The Vikings finally hit some shots in the fourth quarter as they nearly equaled their total through three quarters with 15 points.
Junior Chelsy Rhoades and Krueger led the way for Valley with nine points each. Jessica Rice had five points, while junior Rachel Sitts had four.
With just one senior on the roster, Teel knows his team is going to struggle at times to put a complete game together.
"We had some tough matchups against Warsaw inside. Then we got into foul trouble. We had some kids switching defenses. And that's tough to do that when the kids are young," said Teel.
And those defensive struggles carried over to offense.
"All our kids struggled tonight at one time or another," said Teel. "There were spots where they played well but there were spots where they struggled."
Warsaw moved its record to 1-1 on the year after starting the season with a 56-51 loss at Huntington North last week. The Tigers are in action today when they open their home schedule with a 6:15 p.m. tipoff against Crown Point.
The Vikings fell to 1-2 on the year and are off until next Saturday when they host the Tippecanoe Valley Tournament.
WARSAW 57, T. VALLEY 33
Warsaw 7 15 23 12 - 57
T. Valley 5 3 10 15 - 33
Warsaw FG FT R S Pts.
*DeGeeter 2-5 2-3 2 2 6
*Abbitt 1-2 0-0 1 0 2
*Seiss 6-9 4-5 1 4 17
*Scherer 5-6 0-0 3 1 13
*Smith 2-4 0-0 5 1 4
Clay 0-3 1-2 1 2 1
Denlinger 1-2 1-2 5 0 3 Logan 1-3 0-1 1 1 2
Snider 1-3 0-0 2 0 2 Wood 2-3 2-2 0 0 7
Totals 22-40 10-15 21 11 57
T. Valley FG FT R S Pts.
*Rhoades 2-9 4-5 6 1 9
*Krueger 4-9 1-3 5 0 9
*Rice 1-2 3-4 2 0 5
*Rohrer 1-5 1-3 1 5 3
*Sitts 2-3 0-0 4 0 4
Newman 0-0 1-2 1 0 1
Hoffman 0-5 0-0 1 0 0
Hoffer 0-1 2-2 1 0 2
Totals 10-34 12-19 21 6 33
Three-point goals - Warsaw 3-6 (Seiss 1-1, Scherer 1-2, Wood 1-2), T. Valley 1-6 (Rhoades 1-3). Turnovers - Warsaw 11, T. Valley 20. Fouls - Warsaw 19, T. Valley 16. Fouled out - None.
JV - Warsaw 35, T. Valley 15
