Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Although Warsaw suffered a 10-point loss to the Huntington North girls basketball team Saturday in the Tiger Den, Tiger coach Will Wienhorst was not disappointed. In fact, Wienhorst saw some very positive things in the 60-50 loss to the 4A No. 10 Vikings.
"We can talk a lot about the positives in this games," said Wienhorst. "We competed the whole game. We outrebounded them. We did a lot of nice things."
But the Tigers dug themselves a hole in the first quarter of play. After Huntington scored the first basket of the game, Amie Poling and Natalie Chabot scored buckets to put the Tigers up 4-2. However, four straight baskets for the Vikings put the Tigers at a 10-4 disadvantage.
In the final 3:14 of the first quarter, Huntington North outscored Warsaw 8-3 to take a 18-7 lead into the second quarter.
"You can't spot an 11-point lead to a team like Huntington North," said Wienhorst. "It all came down to the first quarter. We came out on our heels, but the rest of the game we outscored them."
The Tigers clawed back in the second quarter. Ashley Wyatt and Hilary O'Connell sank three-pointers to cut the Tiger deficit to five, 18-13.
Huntington built a 29-15 lead with 3:32 left in the half, but an 11-5 run by Warsaw cut the lead to 34-26 at halftime.
The Vikings got fired up during the halftime break, and started the third quarter with three straight baskets.
However, Kara Kesler kept Warsaw in the game. In less than one minute, Kelser hit two free throws and two baskets to cut the Huntington North lead to eight, 40-32.
The Tigers kept chipping away at the Viking lead through the third frame, and by the end of the quarter Huntington North's lead had dwindled to seven, 46-39.
The Tigers and Vikings traded baskets for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. At 4:09 Huntington had incresed its lead to nine, 54-43, but O'Connell scored five straight points to decrease that lead to six, 54-58, with 3:38 left to play.
However, that was as close as the Tigers got, and Huntington finished the game with a 10-point win, 60-50.
"Through the course of the game, we made some runs," said Wienhorst. "We forced some shots, and we had some poor shot selections, but we got some good looks as well.
"I saw so many good things in this game. If we keep playing competition like this, we're going to improve and we're going to find the way to win."
Kesler led the Tigers with 16 points, while O'Connell added 10. Michelle DeGeeter pulled down nine rebounds for Warsaw.
Warsaw is 3-2 and will play at Northern Lakes Conference opponent Plymouth Saturday.
HUNTINGTON NORTH 60
WARSAW 50
Huntington North 18 16 12 14 - 60
Warsaw 7 19 13 11 - 50
Huntington FG FT R A S PTS.
Knecht (C) 10-13 0-1 7 1 2 20
C. Kline (G) 5-11 3-4 4 10 6 13
Hanson (F) 4-12 2-2 6 2 3 10
Fussleman (F) 4-7 1-5 2 1 1 9
Grogg (G) 3-8 0-0 4 1 2 8
MacDonald 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
M. Kline 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Flint 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Lauer 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Pike 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Wolf 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 26-51 6-12 27 15 14 60
Warsaw FG FT R A S Pts.
Kesler (G) 5-12 5-6 6 2 2 16
O'Connell (G) 3-12 2-2 6 2 3 10
Poling (F) 3-8 2-2 2 0 1 8
Knisely (F) 2-6 2-2 5 0 0 6
Chabot (C) 1-1 0-0 1 0 0 2
DeRenzo 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Wyatt 2-6 1-2 2 0 0 6
Leininger 0-1 1-2 0 0 0 1
DeGeeter 0-3 1-3 9 0 0 1
Team 0-0 0-0 7 0 0 0
Totals 16-49 14-19 38 4 6 50
Three-point goals -ÊHuntington 2-7 (C. Kline 0-2, Grogg 2-5), Warsaw 4-16 (Kesler 1-2, Wyatt 1-4, O'Connell 2-4, Knisely 0-3, Leininger 0-1, Poling 0-2). Fouls - Huntington l7, Warsaw 15. Fouled out -ÊKesler. Turnovers -ÊHuntington 17, Warsaw 25.
JV -ÊHUNTINGTON NORTH 43
WARSAW 17
Warsaw scoring -ÊJulianna Beck 2, Angelika Fussle 2, Lindsay Patterson 1, Rachael Franklin 3, Holly McGriff 2, Jessica Davis 1, Debbie Allen 2, Kayla Burner 2, Cassie Himes 2.
Huntington North scoring -ÊAmy Shalley 6, Michelle Kline 4, Marisa Pike 4, Danielle Hancock 4, Jessica Henn 5, Melissa McFadden 6, Allison Wolf 5, Holly Harris 5, Anna Flint 4
