Warsaw’s Brielle Harrison drives the baseline against Penn’s Marissa Trewhella during the first half Tuesday. (Photos by James Costello)

WARSAW — Tuesday’s contest with IBCA No. 14-ranked Penn was a measuring stick game for Warsaw’s girls basketball team.

For most of the game’s 32 minutes, the Lady Tigers passed the test, but a pair of lapses against the Kingsmen’s pressure in the second half proved too much to come back from and Penn held off host Warsaw for a 51-43 victory at the Tiger Den.

“We’re not where we want to be yet, but I think we’re farther along today than we were yesterday, which is what I wanted,” said Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs. “This is exactly what we wanted. We talked about before the game we wanted to play a good team and get a measurement of where we were.”

The loss snapped a four-game win streak by the Tigers (4-2), and it also marked the first time they had seen significant defensive pressure since their season-opening loss at Fort Wayne Luers on Nov. 4. Warsaw handled Penn’s pressure a little better than it did Luers’ in that opener, but the Tigers simply didn’t have enough steam to rally all the way back from a pair of big second-half runs by the Kingsmen (5-1).

All told, the Tigers surrendered 17 turnovers at the game, which Penn punished with 24 points off turnovers. Ten of those miscues and a full 14 of those points came in the second half after the Tigers won the first half, 17-13.

Emma Bohnenkamper handles the ball as Penn’s Jordyn Smith, left, and Reganne Pate close in.

Warsaw pushed its lead out to nine points with Kacy Bragg’s two free throws at the 6:05 mark of the third stanza, but that advantage evaporated with a 13-1 run by the Kingsmen. Penn senior guard Sara Doi sparked the stretch with a steal and assist of a Tia Chambers transition jumper from the wing at the 5:30 mark, the lead changed hands for the final time on Chambers’ steal and quick lay-in with 2:01 on the clock, and Trinity Clinton’s steal and bucket at the 1:29 stop of the period capped the go-ahead run.

The Tigers trailed by a tenuous 31-30 deficit with 7:07 still remaining in the game, but another big run by the visitors — this one a 12-1 spurt stretching from the 7:07 mark of the fourth to the 3:28 stop of the final stanza — gave Penn a 12-point cushion, and the Kingsmen bounced back from their first loss of the season at Lake Central Saturday.

“In the second half, I thought Penn picked up the pressure on us, and that’s what we wanted to see. We wanted to see how we were going to respond in a key moment when we’re playing from in front, and a team starts to put the pressure on you,” explained Krebs. “We didn’t respond as well as I wanted to for about a four- or five-minute stretch, and then we kind of regained our composure and played kind of even from there. But against a good team like Penn you can’t have that four- or five-minute stretch where you don’t play well, and they made us pay the price for it with those turnovers in that stretch.”

Between their 17 turnovers and 25 trips to the line — as the Tigers converted 17 of 25 free throws in a game that featured a combined 44 fouls and 51 free throws by the combatants — the Tigers took just 22 shots from the floor. They knocked down better than 54 percent of those field goals with 12-of-22 shooting, but it wasn’t enough against Penn, which shot 3 of 13 from the field in the low-scoring first half but scored at an 11-of-19 clip after the intermission.

Maddie Ryman goes on a fast break while Jordyn Smith defends.

“When you’re shooting 54 or 55 percent, you’ve got to make sure you’re getting a shot every possession. We just can’t afford those 17 turnovers,” Krebs said. “What I’m taking from this is, if you go back to Fort Wayne Luers, we didn’t handle the pressure in any situation, and we’re continuing to see the growth of these young ladies as they learn how to play from behind, how to play from in front and all the different situations. You’re seeing them continue to grow.”

That growth was particularly evident in the stat lines of a pair of Warsaw players — Brielle Harrison and Emma Bohnenkamper — Tuesday.

Harrison recorded team-highs of 14 points, six rebounds and three assists, and the sophomore forward scored six straight points for her team as the Tigers closed the second stanza on a 6-1 run. Senior Bohnenkamper put up nine points in a solid floor game for the home team, meanwhile. Junior Maddie Ryman went a perfect 4 for 4 from the floor and 2 for 2 at the stripe for 11 points in another noteworthy performance for Warsaw.

“I thought both Brielle and Emma really stepped up their game today — both of them especially in the first half,” said Krebs.

“We’re continuing to find ways to put these pieces of the puzzle together, and I thought today both Brielle and Emma expanded their roles and showed what they were capable of. If we can continue to expand those roles of both Emma and Brielle along with Kaylee (Patton) and keeping Maddie and Kacy, everybody where they’re at, I think we’re going to be in pretty good shape by February.”

Penn was paced by Doi’s game-high 19 points — earned largely with 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc — followed by Jordyn Smith’s 11 points with four rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Penn returns home to host Elkhart Central Saturday, while Warsaw will take nine days off before playing at Oregon-Davis Nov. 30. The layover after a busy front end to the season will give the Tigers an opportunity to work on a few things, including some conditioning.

“I know the girls probably don’t want to hear this, but with a game and practice for about two and a half weeks we haven’t been able to go hard and intense. We’re going to get back to work by hitting some nice, intense practices,” Krebs said.

“It’s something that we need to do. I thought fatigue once again became a factor, and we have to try to find is it because we’re not in shape or we’re playing too many minutes. We’re going to find out where we’re at with that.”

Warsaw’s JV lost its contest with Penn, 38-14.

Brooklyn Fitzgerald finished with four points to lead the JV Tigers. Anne Goralczyk scored nine, and Grace Schutt and Caroline Morris both scored six for Penn.

Penn won the freshman contest 27-17. Lindsey Bradley and Sydney Lancaster each scored seven points to lead the frosh Tigers.

Tia Chambers, left, and Antreese Shelton surround Kacy Bragg.