Wawasee’s Caitlin Wortinger follows through on a made basket against Goshen Friday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – The NBA has proven in recent years that being big doesn’t mean you have to play inside. A little of that notion showed up at Wawasee Friday night.

Goshen sophomore Brynn Shoup-Hill, standing 6-2 without shoes on, stepped out and hit a pair of three-pointers to spark the RedHawks to a 54-22 girls basketball win.

Shoup-Hill, who was scoreless and frustrated in the first half, keyed a 17-0 Goshen run to open the second half. With the score just 18-10 Goshen at the break, the run was all the difference, and Shoup-Hill’s treys were a big reason why.

“It’s nice to have a big who can score multiple ways,” Goshen head coach Shaun Hill said of his daughter. “They let her have it. She was inside and she popped outside and no one went with her. She’s bound to hit some of those. She hasn’t hit a high percentage of those this year, maybe that played into it. She works on that shot, I wouldn’t let her have it.”

Shoup-Hill actually got the run going with an and-one, and was followed by another hoop and harm from Maggie Gallagher. Shoup-Hill then scored 10 of Goshen’s next 12 points, her second three pushing Goshen to a 35-10 lead. Shoup-Hill ended the night with 20 points to lead all scorers.

Regan Mast also had a steal and layup on the other end during the run, and Liz Kirkton added a pair of buckets during Goshen’s 23-point frame. Kirkton ended with nine points, Gallagher had five points and Mast was one of four RedHawks to finish with four points.

“I was telling the girls at halftime, we’re not doing what we said we have to do in order to win this game,” Hill said. “We’re sick of these couple point losses. We needed to go out there and do your job. Do your job. Post up strong, guards take care of the ball and feed the post. Inside-out, that’s where the guards look for the three-point shot.”

Wawasee’s Amari Peete signs autographs for fans following the game against Goshen.

Wawasee, which had done quite a bit of successful work to keep Goshen off-balance on the offensive end in the first half, fell into a trap it has experienced multiple times this season. Warrior head coach Matt Carpenter, who was an assistant at Goshen before coming to Wawasee three years ago, noted his team’s second-half collapse Friday was similar to the one that did his team in Tuesday at Northridge.

“The girls executed the gameplan in the first half, same thing we did at Northridge Tuesday night and we’re down just four, then we’re down 18-10 here and Schroeder hadn’t gotten going, Shoup-Hill was scoreless as well. Both teams did the job on the best offensive threat that each other had,” Carpenter said. Wawasee eventually lost to Northridge 56-30 after a lopsided third quarter in favor of the Raiders. “My frustration is the gameplan and the execution mentality is not carrying over in the third quarter.

“I’m disgusted, not disgusted at my girls, but that we haven’t been able to do that together and get that fixed. That’s not the reason we’re going to lose basketball games.”

The Warriors also had its star, Casey Schroeder, struggling from the floor. Schroeder was held scoreless in the first half and didn’t score her first points until the 3:38 mark of the third quarter, which ended the 17-0 Goshen run. That basket was her only points of the night, leaving her eight points short of her average coming into the game.

Wawasee had Danielle Jenkins lead the team with seven points and Caitlin Wortinger was also held quiet, recording just four points and three rebounds.

“Danielle is still learning how to play under control at times,” Carpenter said. “She is improving a lot with that. We’ve moved her off the point sometimes at beginnings of games and come back in and handle the ball when we need it. Hannah Lancaster has been our primary point guard. She’s has some better games lately. She’s starting to figure it out.”

Wawasee moved to 8-2 in the JV ranks with a 33-26 win over Goshen. Kennedy White led the Warriors with 10 points and seven rebounds while Ava Harker and Becca Smith each had eight points. Hannah LaFary led all scorers with 12 points for the RedHawks.

Wawasee (2-8, 0-2 NLC) will step out of conference Tuesday in hosting Bethany Christian. Goshen moves up to 6-5 overall and 1-1 in the NLC, looking forward to a visit from South Bend Adams Saturday night.