Goshen’s Jillian Kissinger dives for a loose ball after making contact with Warsaw’s Kacy Bragg during the first half of an NLC game in Goshen Saturday. (Photos by James Costello)

GOSHEN — Warsaw’s girls basketball game at Goshen was likely not the homecoming reception Lenny Krebs was hoping for.

After 14 seasons at the helm of Lady Redhawks basketball, Krebs decided to take the reigns of the Tigers, and Saturday’s Northern Lakes Conference contest back in Goshen was one his old team had probably been thinking about far in advance of tip-off. They certainly seemed ready to play.

The Redhawks welcomed Krebs back with a lopsided 23-7 start and still led by 13 at the half, then held off Warsaw for a 39-26 victory in front of a sizable home crowd in a game with a championship atmosphere in Goshen.

“It was definitely an emotional day all around, probably for both teams. You don’t spend 14 years of your life somewhere and not fall in love with the people, the city, the school system,” said Krebs. “It was a choice that my family made to leave, and I’m sure they were wanting to win this game. Congratulations to them. They stepped up and they made the plays that they needed to right from the beginning.”

The Tigers (12-7, 3-2 NLC) looked unable to match Goshen’s physicality at the outset, and they led just once at 3-2 after Kaylee Patton’s 3-pointer from the wing at the 5:48 stop of the opening stanza. After that, the visitors underwent a stretch of more than seven minutes without a bucket. Then, following Kennedy Patton’s score from the paint on an Emma Bohnenkamper entry pass at the 6:41 mark of the second period, they underwent another extended scoring drought — this one longer than five minutes — as the Redhawks (11-8, 2-3 NLC) rattled off 10 unanswered points to push their advantage to 18-5 with a pair of free throws by Hailey Mast with 2:06 remaining in the half. Brynn Shoup-Hill’s steal and layup with just 6.8 ticks left in the half ballooned the home team’s cushion out to its largest lead of the night at 23-7, a margin too big for Warsaw to come back from.

Kaylee Patton splits Maggie Gallagher and Brynn Shoup-Hill for a layup in the second half.

The Tigers made just 3 of 10 shots from the floor over the first half, which wasn’t all that surprising to first-year Goshen head coach Shaun Hill. The bigger surprise was the Redhawks’ own 9-of-16 conversion rate before halftime.

“Defensively, if you’ve followed us, we’ve hung our hat on defense all year. We haven’t scored the ball to match our defense. When we do, good things happen,” explained Hill. “We got stops, and we shot over 50 percent in the first half to go along with the good defensive effort, which is huge for our team. My seniors led that charge, and it’s just awesome.”

“I’m disappointed in the start of our game. I thought we would be a little bit more ready to win this game,” said Krebs. “The start of this game is what really caught us off guard. We just have to do a better job of responding when someone smacks us in the mouth. That’s what happened here — they were physical and we didn’t respond well. But we’ll go back, and we’ll get it fixed.”

Warsaw finally answered the bell in the second half, and a 7-2 run at the start of the third period cut the Tigers’ deficit down to eight points when Bohnenkamper ripped down an offensive rebound, and forward Kacy Bragg showed off some range converting the second chance opportunity with a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 4:24 stop. Bragg’s putback with 2:26 to go in the period kept the visitors within eight, and Warsaw was still hanging around at 32-24 with Kaylee Patton’s slashing layup with just 2:08 remaining in the game.

But foul trouble finally caught all the way up to the Tigers late. Kaylee Patton fouled out with a full 1:36 left to go, Bohnenkamper was saddled with her fifth foul with just under 53 seconds remaining, and the Redhawks closed it out with 6 of 8 free throws for the game’s final six points. Already in the bonus with a minute to go in the third period and in the double bonus just 24 seconds into the final frame, Goshen converted 10 of 18 charity tosses in the second half to hold off Warsaw.

The Tigers’ fouling woes began early and certainly didn’t help them down the stretch as they tried to dig their way out from under double-digit deficits late.

“I think foul trouble hurt us personnel-wise because we had to put some lineups on the floor that might not be used to playing. At the same time, that foul trouble puts a team in the bonus and on the free throw line that early, especially in the double bonus. That’s something that we have to avoid,” explained Krebs. “We have to find ways to get to the free throw line at the same time. It’s like I told the girls in the locker room — we’re not going to stand there and point fingers at the officials. We have to take responsibility for our play and the fact that they were more aggressive on both ends of the floor.”

“Also trying to come back from foul trouble, all of a sudden we have to keep our hands off a little bit more,” he added. “It just compounds and magnifies all the mistakes, makes them a little bit worse than what they would normally be.”

“We’ve played against physical teams, so for us it was just weather the storm by matching their physicality and trying to be first. So we were just scrapping with them just trying to be first,” said Hill. “There’s calls going both kinds of ways, and we actually were able to get in the bonus in the third quarter, which I thought was huge. And I thought us being strong with the ball helped us get in that position, where they wanted to pressure, but they had to kind of settle back with us being in the bonus.”

Goshen benefitted from a balanced scoresheet that saw Regan Mast put up 10 points alongside 6-foot freshman Shoup-Hill — who also pulled down nine rebounds and blocked three shots Saturday — and Maggie Gallagher score a game-high 12, while Jillian Kissinger passed out six assists off the dribble showing off a quick first step. When it was over, the Redhawks erupted in celebration of a win that was bigger than their 2-3 NLC mark might suggest.

“It was a great conference win. Warsaw is a great team, well-coached by Lenny Krebs. I appreciate any fan that came out and cheered for us a little bit,” said Hill. “A great win.”

Goshen celebrates its win after the final buzzer Saturday.

“They deserved to win this game. That’s a hard thing for any coach to say — that someone else deserves to win a basketball game, but they definitely deserved to win this game,” said Krebs. “They were tougher than we were tonight. They were more physical than we were. They executed better, and that comes back to me. I have to take ownership for that as a leader of this team. We’re going to go back, and we’re going to get it fixed.”

Kaylee Patton wound up with seven points, while Maddie Ryman made 6 of 7 free throws for all of her six points. Bohnenkamper didn’t make the scoring column but did a little of everything else for the Tigers, while Brielle Harrison clutched seven caroms to go with four points. Likely the biggest impact for Warsaw was made by Bragg, however, as she battled in the paint in a gritty, physical second half performance that saw her score five of her seven points and hustle down four of her six rebounds.

“She battled hard. She had a tough job inside battling some of those bigs,” said Krebs of Bragg. “They were big. They were strong. They were physical. She didn’t always finish shots, but that’s part of the game. I’m proud of her game and her heart, her battle.”

Emma Bohnenkamper is surrounded in the paint by a quartet of Redhawks.

Saturday’s loss represented the Tigers’ second in the NLC within a span of about a week after their first conference defeat at the hands of Northridge Jan. 6. That likely takes Warsaw all the way out of contention behind 5-0 Northridge and 4-1 NorthWood. The Tigers will play host to Homestead next Tuesday before resuming conference play versus Concord next Saturday at the Tiger Den.

For his part, Krebs believes his players will respond.

“We’ve talked all year long about this being a process. I’m not a result-driven guy. I’m not disappointed because we lost; I’m disappointed because we didn’t play our best basketball for 32 minutes when we should be peaking,” said the Warsaw coach. “But the number one thing is I believe in their ability to rebound and to bounce back from this type of game. They’ve done it every other time this year, and I have no doubt that they’re going to do it again.”

Warsaw won its JV game in Goshen, 31-16. Kenzie Ryman scored 14 points to power the Tigers JV. Goshen got six points from Hailey Mast.