The Warsaw girls basketball program seems to have taken offense to its 2007 home loss to the Whitko Lady Wildcats. Since that 65-58 overtime defeat, the Lady Tigers (3-1) have outscored Whitko (2-4) 142-59 in its last two meetings in the Tiger Den, the latest being a 60-26 victory Friday night. In the win, Warsaw outrebounded Whitko 43-21 and held the Lady Wildcats to just 7-of-39 shooting. "The difference, essentially, was just they are a solid, steady program," first-year Whitko coach Brandon Bradley said. "They've been with their coach for a few years now. They know what to do in all situations. Right now, we're still learning what to do in each situation." A situation the Lady Wildcats found themselves in was trying to defend Warsaw's tandem of post players, 6-foot-1 senior Sarah Heagy and 6-1 sophomore Nikki Grose. Scoring 11 of her team's first 15 points, Heagy finished the game with 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Grose came off the bench to post 10 points and 14 rebounds. "We knew they didn't have a really big post presence," Warsaw coach Michelle Harter said. "Their post player was young on the inside, so we thought we could execute and take a little bit of advantage of that. We did." Coming off the bench, Grose also blocked two shots and had a game-high five assists, finding Heagy for several buckets. "It's really nice that I can play both of them together, because they work well together and can pass well," Harter said. "Sarah can come out and play people out on the perimeter. It's nice to have two post players that can work like that, because it gives us an extra advantage, especially on the boards." While Heagy and Grose were dominating inside, the entire Lady Tigers defense did a good job on Whitko's two offensive threats, as Micaela Sylvester scored just five points and Karissa Olinske had two. "A big key for us tonight was to control Sylvester's dribble penetration, not allowing her to get easy looks and get to the free-throw line," Harter said. "Then, we knew Olinske was a great outside shooter. We just need to contest hard, but also be under control, because she's also a good dribbler penetrator. The girls really listened to the scouting report and what we need to do defensively." Despite their struggles, Whitko trailed 15-7 with 4:44 left in the first half, but a 15-1 run run put the home team in front for good at 30-8 before Sylvester hit a free throw with three seconds remaining to make the halftime score 30-9. As a first-year coach for the Lady Wildcats, Bradley has been seeing some growing pains, but credits it to seeing a different type of team from game-to-game. "Today, we played against a different press," he said. "So, we ran a new press breaker. It worked well at the beginning, but didn't work so well in the middle of the game when we dribbled a little too much. Hopefully, we'll learn from that." Along with the styles of play being different, Whitko's recent opponents have also been pretty good, losing consecutively to Class 4A No. 4 Elkhart Memorial (3-0), Fort Wayne Northrop (3-1) and Warsaw. And with known of those losses being in-conference, Bradley is staying upbeat. "Our biggest goals on the season are getting a conference championship and a sectional championship," he said. "Those two things are clearly in our grasp and very achievable." Warsaw plays its third-straight Three Rivers Conference opponent Dec. 6 when it hosts Wabash, while Whitko's next game is its TRC opener Dec. 3 at North Miami.
