Abby Sanner of Warsaw pulls down a rebound in the 64-27 win over Tippecanoe Valley Monday night. InkFreeNews photos by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

WARSAW – Warsaw was the better team from all angles of the 64-27 result in the girls basketball contest against Tippecanoe Valley Monday night.

“Proud of this group defensively,” said Warsaw head coach Lenny Krebs. “If you would have told me I would hold Valley to nine points in the first half, once again, I wouldn’t have believed you. Just a great, great defensive effort from the entire team.”

Once Warsaw established its inside game in the first quarter, feeding Audrey Grimm and Abby Sanner for largely uncontested layups, the difference in the two sides was quickly beginning to appear. It was crystal clear it was Warsaw’s night after a 10-0 run over the end of the first quarter into the start of the second that stretched into a 14-point Tiger lead.

The worry Valley had in trying to close down on Warsaw’s post opened up shooters like Kensie Ryman and Kacilyn Krebs to stroke open threes. Krebs buried a pair of open looks right before the half, the Tigers on top of a 37-9 lead.

Valley’s Kaydence Mellott works in traffic against Warsaw.

Valley head coach Chris Kindig could only stand in an abundance of silence for much of the half as Warsaw outrebounded Valley 19-3 in the first half, and 46-15 overall. The Tigers kept on the pressure, starting the second half on a 15-0 run, and all the while, completely shutting down a fully capable outfit from Akron.

“That’s kind of been one of our issues this year,” surmised Kindig, who added his team was outrebounded in a loss to Plymouth by 20. “So I think a lot of it is, part of it could be that this is our fourth game in six days, I think maybe we kind of ran out of juice a little bit.”

Sidney Wagner and Kaydence Mellott had been money of late for the Vikings (4-3), combining to score 42 against Argos and 31 against Wabash over the past week, both big wins. But the two were rendered pedestrian for much of the contest, Wagner held to a season-low seven points and Mellott to 12, but eight of Mellott’s coming in the fourth quarter.

“We really didn’t have to extend our defense a lot other than we picked up Wagner full court to try to make fatigue an issue,” said Krebs. “We weren’t trying to get turnovers. We weren’t trying to do anything other than fatigue her.”

Sanner and Ryman each finished with 11 points for the Tigers (7-2), with the trio of Krebs, Grimm and Bailie Stephens all at nine points.

“This is one game on your schedule,” Kindig said. “(Wagner) obviously has played, and will play, a lot better than she did tonight. But she’s gotta have help. I thought she pressed a little bit tonight. Maybe felt like she needed to do a little bit more than she needed to do. We’ve got to have other girls step up and want the basketball in those situations.

“We’re going to learn from this and hopefully get this fixed.”

Warsaw claimed the JV contest 43-28. Stats were not immediately supplied from the contest.