Aubrey Schmeltz gets called for a charge in the first half of Tuesday’s game at Whitko. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SOUTH WHITLEY — It was far from a pretty game by either team, but there was definitely no lack of effort from the Wawasee and Whitko girls basketball teams Tuesday night.

The Lady Warriors made the trip south to take Class 2A No. 8 Whitko in a battle of former sectional foes. The Lady Wildcats were able to survive several runs by Wawasee throughout the game to earn a 57-41 victory.

“When we got here today, right after school, our attitude was different,” said Whitko head coach Brandon Bradley. “The girls were more calm. There was more confidence. It wasn’t like the last month where we were nervous going into every game and pressured ourselves into thinking every game was a big game.

“We played harder longer and were just calmer overall.”

In what a was a very physical game both teams relied on scoring runs to grab momentum.

Wawasee jumped out to an 8-5 lead in the first quarter before a 12-2 run from the ‘Cats left the Warriors trailing 17-10 going into the second. Wawasee used a 10-3 run to close the gap to 29-17 at the break.

The Lady Warriors have struggled to find offense at times this year and that was the case for much of the first half as the bounces at the rim simply did not go Wawasee’s way. Those empty possession allowed Whitko to build a lead.

Whitko, which rolled over Southwood 54-32 Saturday night, welcomed the fight Wawasee brought the table with a 10-5 run to close the third quarter.

“Each time we stretched it out, Wawasee cut into the lead again,” Bradley stated. “I think that was a very big positive. We needed a game like this. We needed a team like Southwood on Saturday night, an opponent that we could stumble with but still be alright. Tonight we had to work. I thought we worked when we needed to, we just need to expand that into a full 32 minutes now.

“It’s always a battle with Zolman’s teams. They take their personnel and figure out what they’re great at and play a real physical game, which is good. I wish our kids were a little more physical like that. Wawasee just doesn’t back down. They just fight and fight and fight.”

Wawasee’s toughness certainly brought the best out of Whitko at times and no player benefited more than Jen Reiff.

The senior led all players with a career-high 26 points. She also was a presence on defense as she led the way with six steals. Whitko also received big contributions from Brianna Cumberland and Aly Reiff who each had 11 points. Whitko did commit 21 turnovers, which was outdone by Wawasee’s 23.

Again, it wasn’t the prettiest of games at times, but both teams figured out how to play through the mistakes.

Wawasee cut Whitko’s lead to 38-34 in the fourth quarter before the ‘Cats pulled away for the last time.

“Whitko has tremendous length,” said Zolman. “We can’t emulate that length at practice. So it takes a while a to adjust to that and we struggled to adjust to their length tonight. We came out ready to play and we didn’t wait to start playing until we were already down like we’ve done in the past. We just had a tough time adjusting to that length.”

Wawasee did win the battle on the boards 28-25, led by Aubrey Schmeltz’s game-high five rebounds. Offensively Wawasee was led by Kylee Rostochak’s 21 points. The Lady Warriors also returned Erin Wiktorowski from injury. The two seniors are great examples of what hard work can do, according to Zolman.

“Those girls just keep hammering away,” Zolman said of his seniors. “Kylee’s banged up, she falls like a sack of potatoes sometimes and I wonder if she’ll get back up but she always does. She just goes all out all the time. Erin battles back problems and, unless you’ve had back problems you can’t really understand what she’s dealing with. But to have those two seniors keep battling as we near the end of the season is a great example for our young players to look at and understand what it takes.”

Whitko (13-6) will host Northfield at Grace College Saturday night. Wawasee (5-13) will host Prairie Heights Wednesday night.

Whitko won the JV game 45-30. Suzanne Sickafoose led the JV ‘Cats with 15 points. Casey Schroeder led Wawasee with eight points.