SYRACUSE – In a game where neither team led by more than three points, and with baskets hard to come by for everyone, the Wawasee Lady Warriors held a two-point lead over West Noble with about four-and-a-half minutes to play. A momentum-swinging three-pointer, a trio of full-court press-busting layups, and a half dozen made free throws later, the Lady Chargers left Syracuse with a 38-28 victory over Wawasee Tuesday night. Both teams worked hard on defense, making shots hard to find. But when there was an open shot, neither team had a lot of success getting those shots to fall. As a result, neither team could generate a lot of momentum. “We didn’t spend very long in the locker room at halftime,” said West Noble head coach Dale Marano. “We just needed to shoot the ball better. So we came out earlier to get some extra shots in before the second half started. “I told them this game was going to come down to one big breakthrough, and whoever gets it was going to win. Fortunately, we got that breakthrough and got a big win.” With the Lady Warriors nursing a two-point lead, Wawasee was continuing to play a 2-3 zone that had served them well to the 4:20 mark of the final quarter. At that point, after a scramble in the left corner, Lady Charger senior Shawna Young got a pass beyond the arc, just to the left of the free throw circle and with only a referee within 15 feet of her. She knocked down the wide open three-pointer that started the winning rally. After a Wawasee turnover at its baseline, the Lady Warriors pressed West Noble, but left Lady Charger Taylor Fisher wide open for a lay-up. Hannah Haines answered for Wawasee with a jumper from the right side of the lane with 3:45 left, but six seconds later the Lady Chargers broke the Wawasee press, and senior Kenzie Cox converted an easy lay-up. The next trip up the floor, the Lady Warriors were called for a charging foul, and Cox nailed a pair of free throws to expand the Lady Charger lead to five. Wawasee would not score the rest of the way, and West Noble hit six of nine free throws in the final three minutes before Cox missed four charity shots with less than 15 seconds remaining, after the issue had been settled. After getting nine of Wawasee’s 10 first-half points, Rostochak was held to a single bucket in the second half, and Wawasee made only three field goals after halftime. “We were aware of Rostochak; she is their leading scorer,” said Marano. “We made a point of emphasis to slow her down in the second half, and it was a total team effort. We didn’t have just one person guarding her; and everyone on the floor would help out. Anytime you can hold a team to 24 points, you have to be happy with your defense.” For Wawasee, it wasn’t a lack of opportunities to score against the Lady Charger defense, but not taking advantage of the shots that did come along. “We’re just really struggling right now hitting the basket,” Wawasee head coach Kem Zolman said. “In the first half, we could get any shot we wanted. If we wanted lay-ups, we got offensive rebounds, we got shots underneath; we just couldn’t hit ‘em. We know that’s our bugaboo. It’s been our bugaboo since last weekend (a pair of losses in the Triton tournament on Saturday). Zolman suggested the shooting issues may not necessarily be physical. “At practice they all want to know, ‘what’s wrong with my shot.’ During the season, you don’t have time to correct your shot. There’s too many games and not enough time to practice. Whatever you did in the offseason equates to what’s going to happen now,” he said. “If we’re shooting in the offseason with no purpose, then we’re shooting right now with no purpose. We’re trying to get their mindset off of shooting; we joke with them a little bit, make it so it’s not so serious, so they came come out here, relax and play. “It’s between the ears right now, and it puts a lot of pressure on them to them to get it fixed. They get down in the mouth pretty easily; they’re young people. We’re still working at it. We have to look back and see we played three quarters of pretty good basketball.” Now 3-5 on the season, Wawasee has time to prepare for its Northern Lakes Conference opener when they host Goshen at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 12. The following night the Lady Warriors will travel to South Bend Adams.
