Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - Saturday's Wawasee/Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball game was the first of many confrontations to come between two local roundballers sure to make their marks on the game.
One of them, Wawasee freshman Shanna Zolman, has already made a name for herself.
Zolman, who leads the state in scoring, poured in 43 points, snared six rebounds, made three steals and dished out three assists to lead the Warriors over their county rivals 89-75. The win improves Wawasee's record to 9-2. Valley fell to 6-5.
Rhonda Doud's 33 points and 10 rebounds, good enough for a double-double, were tops for Valley. Viking freshman Tabitha Pratt, the second of the two aforementioned local roundballers, chipped in 15 points and five rebounds.
Sara Frantz tallied the first two points of the game just 30 seconds in, then Zolman showed the Vikings why she deserves the attention she gets as she accounted for 17 of Wawasee's 30 first-quarter points.
"Our girls worked very hard," said Valley coach Gary Teel. "I can't fault them, they hustled we just didn't win. She (Zolman) was just on. She was uncanny today."
Despite Zolman's domination in the first half, 27 points, Doud's 14 first-half points kept Valley within 48-36 at halftime.
"What can I say," said Gary Teel. "She (Doud) had an all-out gutty performance. She works so hard, always goes full speed and hustles. She's a winner and wanted to win so bad."
Zolman started the second- half action with a three-pointer, extending the margin to 51-36. Doud played toe to toe with Zolman in the third frame, scoring eight points to Zolman's nine, but Wawasee's 89 total points was just a little to much for the Viking offense to match.
"We gave up more than we wanted to," said Teel. "Their whole team was hot and that hurt us. It's hard to beat a team like that."
For the game, the Warriors shot 53 percent from the field, Valley was 40.1 percent from the floor.
Valley (6-5) plays at Rochester today with the JV starting at 6:30. Wawasee (9-2) will be in action today with a 6:30 tip-off in Goshen.
WAWASEE 89
T. VALLEY 75
Wawasee 30 18 21 20-89
Valley 20 16 15 24-75
Wawasee FG FT A S R Pts
Zolman (F) 17-29 4-4 2 3 6 43
Lamb M. (C) 5-10 3-5 0 0 11 13
Price (F) 5-5 1-1 1 0 7 12
Frantz (G) 3-8 0-2 3 1 2 6
Hymer (F) 1-6 1-2 0 1 4 3
Hunziker 1-3 0-0 0 0 0 2
Krull S. 1-2 0-0 0 0 1 2
Krull D. 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 1
Henderson 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Lamb A. 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Gunden 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 35-66 11-17 6 5 33 89
Valley FG FT A S R Pts
Doud R. (G) 11-22 8-9 0 2 10 33
Pratt (F) 3-13 8-10 0 2 5 15
Fisher (F) 5-10 1-5 0 2 5 11
Studebaker (C) 5-7 0-0 0 0 3 10
Baker 0-3 3-4 0 0 4 3
Sanders (G) 0-1 2-2 1 0 3 2
Martin 0-1 0-0 0 0 1 0
Rose 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Whetstone 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Pontious 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Doud J. 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Kindig 0-1 0-2 0 0 0 0
Wilcox 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 24-59 22-32 1 6 31 75
Three-pointers - Wawasee 6 (Zolman 5, Price), Valley 5 (Doud 4, Pratt). Turnovers - Wawasee 16, Valley 9. Fouls - Wawasee 20, Valley 16.
Referees - Brett Patrick, Eric Coburn
JV score: Valley 37, Wawasee 25
