Wawasee’s Hannah-Marie Lamle attempts to save the ball against Mishawaka Marian during the Knights’ 47-36 win at Wawasee Thursday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Meghan Urbanski hit a pair of big three-pointers to help Marian rally in the second half to beat Wawasee, 47-36, Thursday night in the girls basketball season opener for both schools.

Urbanski, who was the focal point of Wawasee head coach Matt Carpenter’s defensive pursuits throughout the night, found a way to get the big shots down when Marian needed them most. Urbanski came off a nice back door screen to drill a three to open the fourth quarter to give the Knights a six-point lead, then came down and hit another to give Marian its biggest lead of the night to that point, 34-25.

Hannah Lancaster

Up to that point, Urbanski had been relatively quiet. But the senior star finished with a team-high 14 points, the lone Knight to break double figures in the game.

“Urbanski is their best shooter and we lost her three or four times and it killed us,” Carpenter said. “It wasn’t just the two shots she made, it was times before that that allowed her to get some confidence and start firing shots from three-point range. She is a fantastic player and you can’t let shooters like her to get that many open looks.”

Despite Urbanski’s pair of triples, Wawasee wasn’t buried. In fact, Kabrea Rostochak hit a three to get Wawasee back to trail by just six, and after both teams swapped buckets, Marian’s Makayla Weaver made possibly the play of the game by pulling down an offensive rebound and got the putback to send Marian up eight at 38-30. Wawasee would get no closer as Weaver would hit a three to help cap a strong Marian second half.

“The key is for us to get some rebounds and hold teams to just one shot,” Carpenter said. “We have the energy and the will, we just have to do it. It wasn’t because we didn’t want the rebounds, it was because we weren’t moving people back on our boxouts. I got after a couple girls about letting (Payne) get another rebound, she’s killing us on the boards. Who’s their best rebounder? Find their best rebounder and get in front of her. Pursue the ball.”

Weaver, Anija Payne and Christina Himelick all finished with eight points for the Knights, despite all three teetering in foul trouble for most of the game.

Morgan Adkins

Rostochak led all scorers with 17 points, most of her sauce coming from the free throw line where she was 8-10. Hannah-Marie Lamle finished with nine points, and had a couple shots she would like back from point-blank range that rimmed out. Junior Casey Schroeder, sidelined with a sprained ankle suffered during the scrimmage last week, was a visible omission for Wawasee’s offensive and defensive rotations, forcing Wawasee to have to get, and continue to get, contributions from multiple players not used to shooting the rock.

Wawasee led for most of the first half, taking a 19-18 lead into the lockerroom. Marian opened the third quarter with a 6-0 run, answered by Wawasee with a 6-0 run of its own to reclaim a 25-24 lead. Marian would finish the quarter with the final four points to set up a 28-25 start to the fourth.

“It’s not going to be just one person for us on offense, it has to be everyone,” Carpenter said. “It’s five players on the court confident enough to get their own shot. Rostochak is a great outside shooter, but she has to get her feet set quicker and be ready to do it. H-M is a great finisher from 10 feet and in, and she missed a couple shots I know she will make down the line. Aubrey (Kuhn) has the ability to get hot. All three of my seniors can score. And they have to.

“They can’t take a backseat, they have to be aggressive, go to the basket and make sure we finish. We left a lot of unfinished trips where we had some good offensive movement and got good shots, we just didn’t hit them.”

Wawasee will look to its next game Saturday night against Prairie Heights, a 7:30 p.m. varsity tip.

Wawasee’s Caitlin Wortinger battles with Marian’s Anija Payne and Christina Himelick for a rebound Thursday night.