SYRACUSE — It was an ugly finish but thanks to a hot start the Wawasee girls basketball team was able to pick up a win Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Warriors held on for a 39-34 win over South Bend Adams to snap a five-game losing streak.

“I thought today was just a typical less than 24 hour game,” said Wawasee head coach Kem Zolman.

Wawasee tipped with Adams at 2:30 p.m. Saturday following a physical game Friday night with Northern Lakes Conference foe Goshen.

“Our decision making was not very good, but that’s expected,” Zolman continued. “The part that was really encouraging for us was to have our girls build a big lead at the beginning and force Adams to play from behind. We’ve had to play from behind the past two or three games, so it was good to see us get that lead today.”

The Lady Warriors jumped out to an 18-8 lead following the first quarter but struggled with turnovers and missed shots after that opening frame. Wawasee recorded 12 turnovers for the contest, but would overcome that stat with a great performance at the free throw line.

Adams kept fouling and it gave Wawasee plenty of chances from the charity stripe where the home team was 23-26 in the game.

“That free throw line was huge,” Zolman said. “You get 23 points on 26 attempts, that’s 89-percent. 23 of our 39 points. That’s pretty good.

“There were a lot of positives from this game. I know we didn’t shoot the ball very well, but we built a lead and were able to control a very athletic team. I’m thought overall that it was good the girls stuck with it from the beginning to the end and hung on.”

Wawasee was led offensively by Kabrea Rostochak’s nine points. Hannah-Marie Lamle and Kylee Rostochak added another eight points each while both Aubrey Kuhn and Aubrey Schmeltz scored six points for Wawasee. Erin Wiktorowski added two points in the final minute to help hold of Adams’ late push. Schmeltz led all players with nine rebounds.

Samantha Jankowski led all players with 12 points for Adams.

Wawasee (3-7) will play at Bethany Christian Tuesday night.

Wawasee also won the JV contest 34-31. No stats were provided for the game.