Warsaw Basketball: To Upset, Or Not To Upset
WARSAW – It was a question that was bandied about in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s stunning 66-42 Warsaw girls basketball win over Tippecanoe Valley. Was the win by the unranked Tigers a big upset over the Class 3-A No. 4 Vikings?
For those in the Warsaw corner, the win was just another step in the right direction for a 4-0 program that was looking for a signature win ahead of a torrid upcoming schedule. An outstanding third quarter did the trick for Warsaw, which held Valley without a field goal for over 11 minutes to start the second half. In that time, a 23-all tie at the half had ballooned into a 46-31 Tiger lead.
Warsaw outscored Valley 16-3 in the third quarter as the Tigers got into a groove while Valley couldn’t hit anything from the floor. Mixed into that stretch of time was a fourth foul that Valley’s Anne Secrest picked up at the 2:11 mark of the third quarter, forcing the do-it-all forward to sit. Valley scored one point with Secrest on the bench.
“We had to come out and play great defense, not allow them to get off easy three-point shots, and they did in the first quarter,” stated Warsaw head coach Michelle Harter. Valley led 14-6 after one quarter of play. “We knew Secrest is a great player. She is going to get her points but you have to limit everybody else. And the girls did a great job responding after that first quarter.”
Warsaw also had fate on its side in the closing of both the second and third quarters with desperation shots falling. Kaylee Patton hit a runner in the waning moments of the second quarter after she had hit a three just moments before the buzzer beater. At the end of the third, Page Desenberg had the ball in her hands with less than a second left, turned, and chucked a shot at the rim to get the Lake City Bank bank shot of the game to fall. The shot seemed to be the nail in the coffin.
“You have to have other players step up because you can’t have one player carry you all the time,” Harter said. “Dayton (Groninger) pressed herself early on but let the game come to her. But everybody else stepped up when they needed to step up.
“That’s what you want when you talk about having a great team effort. And that’s what we saw tonight.”
Groninger added 13 points, 10 rebounds and three assists and Madi Graham would lead Warsaw (4-0) with 15 points. Kenzie Welk had one of her better varsity efforts with 12 points and two steals.
The 24-point win by Warsaw was the largest in the series since Warsaw beat Valley 61-37 in 2008. The past three games – all Valley wins – had been won by a combined 12 points.
Valley, on the other hand, had its very big crowd sitting in stunned silence.
Secrest would power through the foul trouble to finish with 14 points, but had a season-low three rebounds and was rendered handcuffed after picking up a second foul early in the second quarter and taking the fourth in the third quarter. Addy Miller had 10 points for the Vikings, hitting two of the three treys on the night. Tippecanoe Valley, which had hit 24 of 52 three-pointers (46 percent) coming into the night, were an abysmal 3-of-17 from behind the arc.
“Give Warsaw a lot of credit, they played extremely well,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Chris Kindig, whose team falls to 3-1. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. We were 3-17 from the three-point line, and a lot of that is scrambling in the second half. But when you score three points in the third quarter, it’s hard to make that up. They had five turnovers, we had 14, that said a lot about the two teams tonight.”
Warsaw now prepares for the second of four-straight ranked opponents when the Tigers pack up for Mishawaka Tuesday for a date at The Palace with Class 4-A No. 6 Penn (4-0). Warsaw wraps up November at Class 2-A No. 1 Whitko (6-0) next Friday and then hosts Class 2-A No. 5 Oregon-Davis (2-1) on Dec. 1.
Tippecanoe Valley will open Three Rivers Conference play Tuesday night at Maconaquah (0-2) before hosting its home tournament next weekend against Fort Wayne Wayne and either Fort Wayne South or Appleton North (Wisc.).
The JV game had Warsaw have its way in a 59-24 victory.