Warsaw Lady Tigers Trying To Repeat As Sectional Champs
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Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
Call it coach speak, or maybe cliché, but like every other coach in Indiana, Warsaw’s Michelle Harter wants her team playing its best basketball during the state tournament. Harter believes the Lady Tigers have made major improvement from November to now, and that they are in fact playing as well as they have all season heading into Tuesday’s 4A Sectional 4 opener at Northridge. “That’s what these 20 games, or in our case 18 games, in the regular season are for,” said Harter. “You use the regular season to get ready for the sectional. Every team in the state wants to win a sectional championship. That’s our goal every year.” Warsaw has won 16 sectional titles in the program’s rich history, most recently last year, when the Lady Tigers ended a decade-long drought by winning sectional and regional championships. Warsaw opens defense of its sectional title at 6 p.m. Tuesday when it plays Elkhart Memorial, followed by a contest with Concord and Elkhart Central. At 6 p.m. Friday, the host Lady Raiders play either Warsaw or Memorial, followed by Goshen and Tuesday’s other winner. Friday’s winners will meet in the championship game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. “We believe we can win this sectional,” said Harter. “If we play as a team, not as individuals, and if we do the little things, we can win this sectional. We’re playing well right now. We need to come out focused and do the things we’ve practiced over and over. The girls have the right attitude, they believe we can win.” On paper, Northridge is viewed by many as the favorite. The Lady Raiders have the best record in the six-team field and are playing on their home floor. Northridge has played each team in the sectional, posting a 4-1 record. The Lady Tigers are the one team in the field that beat Northridge this year, winning 30-28 in Warsaw on Jan. 11. Before Warsaw and Northridge can do battle again though, the Lady Tigers have to beat Memorial on Tuesday. “If we’re fortunate enough to win Tuesday, we’ll look forward to playing Northridge,” said Harter. “Northridge is a good team. They’re well-coached. Both teams would step up and play a great game. Our focus right now is on Memorial. If we don’t beat Memorial, we won’t be playing Friday.” Tuesday’s game with Memorial is not only a postseason contest, but will also be counted toward the teams’ Northern Lakes Conference record. Warsaw and Memorial were scheduled to play Jan. 25, but the game was postponed because of the weather. The game was rescheduled for Feb. 4, but was again called off because of weather. “We know each other,” Harter said of Memorial. “We play in the same conference, in the same sectional, so it’s not like we’re preparing for a team we don’t know.” Warsaw and Memorial are similar in that both teams got off to slow starts but have won the majority of their games as of late. Memorial lost its first seven games of the season but has since won six of its last nine games. The Lady Tigers, on the other hand, got off to a 2-7 start but have turned things around, winning seven of their last nine games. “At the start of the season, we weren’t playing well, or being consistent,” said Harter. “The second half of the season, we’ve played pretty well. A lot of that has to do with the leadership of our seniors. The seniors have stepped up and are really leading this team. When we play as a team, and not as individuals, we’re pretty tough to beat.” Among the seniors leading the way are Nikki Grose, Eryn Leek and Brooklyn Harrison, all three of whom played major roles in Warsaw’s run to the semistate last year. Grose leads Warsaw in scoring and rebounding, averaging 13 points and seven boards per game. Harrison and Leek average seven and six points per game, respectively.
