Triton’s Charlotte Morris and Warsaw’s Page Desenberg fight for a rebound during Warsaw’s 44-18 win Tuesday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WARSAW –  Warsaw may have gotten a much needed spark to reignite its season.

A tremendous defensive effort from Warsaw Tuesday night held Triton to just one field goal in the second half of a 44-18 girls basketball victory. That one basket came with seven seconds left in the game.

Warsaw’s Dayton Groninger drains a jumper.

“I challenged our girls at halftime that I did not want (Hannah) Wanemacher to get a three-point shot in the second half,” said Warsaw girls basketball head coach Michelle Harter. “The girls came out focused, we picked up the intensity. We were trapping and had active hands. When we do those things, it helps us relax on the offensive end as well which we saw tonight.”

Wanemacher, who scored a career-high 26 points Saturday in a win over Pioneer, hit both of her three-point attempts in the first half but was held without an attempt in the second half. Two Wanemacher free throws in the third quarter was all the Trojans would get until Charlotte Morris’ layup with seven seconds left in the game.

Warsaw held Triton to just a 6-20 shooting performance. The low attempts figure languished as Warsaw forced Triton into 21 turnovers, much of which came in the full-court press Warsaw used throughout the contest.

Warsaw scored 27 of its 44 points off turnovers, if a statistic could tell the tale. Showing signs of maturity in its offense, Warsaw also found gaps in Triton’s defense to accumulate easy attempts. Kacy Bragg converted a pair of and-one opportunities after over-the-top passes found her open under the basket. Bragg finished with 10 points and five rebounds.

Triton’s Nicole Sechrist ducks under for a layup attempt.

Dayton Groninger led the Tigers with 16 points and collected four rebounds. Page Desenberg, who scored just one point, may have played one of the more pivotal roles for Warsaw. Collecting two steals, an offensive rebound and forcing Triton into a timeout while diving to save a loose ball, Desenberg’s dirty work was attached to Warsaw moving what was an eight-point lead to a 28-14 advantage in the third quarter.

“Page uses her quickness as an advantage and gets on the ball,” Harter said. “It’s difficult for a lot of girls to read quickly like she does. What Page does allows other girls to get into lanes and create turnovers. Tonight, she was the spark plug for us. She made the little plays that weren’t necessarily on the score sheet. Most people just look at the scorers. She does so much of the intangible stuff for us.”

Warsaw moves to 3-10 overall and will host Perry Meridian (4-8) at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the first game of the Tiger Holiday Classic. South Bend St. Joseph’s (10-1) and Chesterton (5-8) meet in the other morning game. The two winners will meet for the championship that night, the losers playing first in the consolation game.

Triton falls to 5-10 overall, facing another huge challenge Jan. 6 at Class 2-A No. 2 Oregon-Davis (9-2).

“We’ll take what we need from this, but there isn’t much to take from this,” said Triton head coach Adam Heckaman. “We just want to continue to get the girls healthy over the break, get some of our injuries healed up. For the O-D game, we have to get better at our press break. We have to work on breaking the press and getting better looks, better shots. Ultimately, this is a loss today, and win or lose at O-D, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of what we are trying to do.

“We are still in the conference race, and that’s one of our goals. We have the Bi-County which we want to do well in, and then we have sectionals in about a month. Playing games like these are exposing our weaknesses, which can only help us get better at them. We’re still focused on the end of the year.”

The Warsaw JV defeated Triton 48-25 in the Career Center Gym. Statistics from the game were not supplied.

Warsaw’s Kacy Bragg follows through on a shot attempt as Triton’s Nicole Sechrist (22) and Jaela Meister (14) converge.