Wawasee Too Much For Lakers
SYRACUSE – Just win, baby.
The immortal motto of the late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis served as a perfect description for Wawasee’s 46-23 victory over visiting Lakeland Tuesday night. The Lady Warriors doubled up their opponent, but it was far from an attractive victory.
“It wasn’t exactly the prettiest thing, was it?” quipped Wawasee head coach Kem Zolman. “I thought for the first 15 minutes we played pretty well. The defensive effort was there, we were covering things pretty decently, we were seeing, finally, some box outs. Offensively I thought Kylee (Rostochak) was content to get the assists. The first 15 minutes she probably had as many assists as she did points, which is fine because now she’s getting her teammates involved.
“Now, for some reason, Lakeland scored those seven unanswered points at the end of the half and it changed the entire complexion of the game. I didn’t think we ever got back to that same intensity. We missed shots, we missed layups. Our first four possessions in the third quarter were nothing but turnovers. We just never got out of that funk, but we were still able to extend the lead. It just wasn’t the prettiest extension of a lead that I’ve ever seen.”
Wawasee came out looking strong, as it has in the majority of its few games so far, and would carry a 14-5 lead into the second quarter. As Zolman talked about, the Lady Warriors continued their smooth play up until the final minute of the second quarter where Lakeland would end the half on the 7-0 run. At the break Wawasee had forced 14 turnovers but had also given possession away nine times.
The home team built on its lead in the final two quarters, it just was without the pizzazz that fans may be accustomed to seeing. Wawasee mainly built its lead through its domination on the boards. The Lady Warriors recorded 42 rebounds to Lakeland’s 26 and would end up forcing a total of 25 turnovers for the game. Aubrey Schmeltz and Kabrea Rostochak led the team with eight rebounds each.
Kylee Rostochak led all scorers with 19 points. Hannah Haines added 10 for Wawasee. Schmeltz tallied seven while Aubrey Kuhn and the younger Rostochak had six and four points, respectively, to round out Wawasee’s scoring. Lakeland had seven girls score in total and were led by Beka Stroop’s six points. Wawasee was 14-19 from the free throws line, the Lakers were just 2-8.
Wawasee (2-2) will host Prairie Heights this Saturday for the team’s autograph night. Players will be signing photos for all fans following the conclusion of the game.
In the junior varsity contest Wawasee picked up its first win over the season 33-25. Madison Beaman led Wawasee with eight points.