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Gonzalez, Hayden score 6 each for Lady Vikes
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
WARSAW — Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball coach Rebekah Parker was looking at the big picture following her team’s game against host Warsaw at the Tiger Den Thursday.
The game itself was a blur as Valley lost to the Class 4A, No. 3 Lady Tigers 70-25.
Brooke Winchester, a Ball State recruit, scored 27 points and grabbed 15 rebounds for Warsaw, who bounced back from their first loss to Class 4A, No. 5 Homestead Tuesday and improved to 19-1. Miami (Ohio) commit Brooke Zartman added 14, and Division I prospect and 1,000-point career scorer Joslyn Bricker and Alexis Neely had 10 each.
Neely also had five steals.
Gaby Gonzalez and Lucy Hayden had six each for Valley. Hadley Wise had five, and Carlee Snyder and Dalynne Bussard had four each.
Valley dropped to 9-10. All of their losses have been to teams with winning records, and five of their losses have been to ranked teams.
Those include losses to Class 4A, No. 13 Northridge; Class 3A, No. 12 NorthWood; Class 2A, No. 10 Bremen; and Class 1A, No. 1 Marquette Catholic.
“That’s been our message all season really,” Valley coach Rebekah Parker said when asked how this game will prepare them for the postseason, which begins with Class 3A, Sectional 20 at Fairfield from Feb. 4-8. Valley is in the same sectional with defending regional champion NorthWood and No. 5 Columbia City. “I mean, our strength of schedule is tough. That’s definitely been a message for us going forward that these tough games and tough losses where teams come out and they seem like they’re that much better than us, I think we’re starting to figure out – it didn’t show tonight – but I think they’re starting to figure out you can weather the storm and then you can play with these people, and hopefully we figure that out come sectional time from the tip.”
At 6-0, Winchester can post up and score, make perimeter shots and be a playmaker. She was a unique challenge to Valley’s bigs.
“We have Carlee Snyder and Lucy Hayden that are not used to guarding a perimeter post that shoots it as well as she does,” Parker said. “That’s tough. It’s one thing if she just puts her back to the basket and scores that way. We’re familiar with that. We are not as familiar with a post that is that deadly from 3.”
Warsaw alternated between an aggressive 2-3 matchup zone, a 1-3-1 zone and a man-to-man defense. They tried to make Valley point guard Gaby Gonzalez uncomfortable.
“They run their 1-3-1, and they have an extended 2-3,” Parker said. “And so it wasn’t necessarily what Gaby was doing. We didn’t have people that wanted the ball other than that. So until we get four others that are demanding the ball from her … unfortunately, she starts with the ball in her hands. We’ve got to find people that really want the ball and help her out a little bit, but at the same time, she’s got to make better decisions.
“At times, all of our team, we put the ball above our heads so much. So we have got to learn to bounce-pass and not get the deflections by putting the ball above our head and throwing it over the top.”
Warsaw tried to force turnovers and get in their transition game, but they would even run after made baskets.
“They push after everything,” Parker said. “They like to get down the floor, and they have threats at every position. I think what makes them such a hard team to guard is that you have to guard so far out. You can’t just take away a layup, or you can’t just take away one thing. There are so many threats out there, and they do a good job of finding those people.”
Winchester’s two 3-pointers in the first quarter sparked a 23-4 first quarter. Warsaw also closed the half on a 10-0 run to make it 54-14 at halftime. The second half was played with a running clock, per the IHSAA Mercy Rule.
Warsaw also won the JV game 39-4.
Warsaw 70, Valley 25
VALLEY (25) (9-10)
Gaby Gonzalez 2 1-2 6, Hadley Wise 2 0-0 5, Dalynne Bussard 2 0-0 4, Carlee Snyder 2 0-1 4, Lucy Hayden 1 4-6 6, Hailey Stookey 0 0-0 0, Lydia Craig 0 0-0 0, Betty Shepherd 0 0-0 0, Malaynie Costello 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 9 5-9 25
WARSAW (70) (19-1)
Brooke Zartman 5 2-2 14, Abbey Peterson 1 2-2 5, Alexis Neely 5 0-0 10, Braylie Chastain 1 2-2 4, Brooke Winchester 8 8-8 27, Cassie Jackson 0 0-0 0, Reagan Robinson 0 0-0 0, Joslyn Bricker 4 2-3 10, Kyra Kiser 0 0-0 0, Leila Knepp 0 0-0 0, Cayleigh Goheen 0 0-0 0, Erin McManus 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 24 16-17 70
Three-point field goals:
Valley 2 (Gonzalez, Wise),
Warsaw 6 (Winchester 3, Zartman 2, Peterson)
Total fouls: Valley 14, Warsaw 8
Turnovers: Valley 16, Warsaw 9
Score by quarters
Valley 4 10 7 4 – 25
Warsaw 23 31 11 5 – 70
JV: Warsaw 39, Valley 4
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