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The Warsaw Lady Tiger basketball team entered Wednesday's contest with the Northrop Bruins with a perfect record of 3-0. While the word perfect is usually saved for the those moments that are truly sensational or without fault, to withhold the word from this article would be a tragedy. So let's talk perfection shall we?

Warsaw's inside play of 6'0' junior Kayla Stout and 6'2" Sarah Shilling was perfect. You would have to search long and hard in the dusty old record books dating back to the late 70's Lady Tiger Championship teams to find these statistics. Sarah Shilling shot a perfect (there's that word again) 6 for 6 from the floor Wednesday night. Shilling also swished a perfect 4 for 4 free throw attempts to score 16 points for the Tigers. Overall Shilling connected on all 10 shot attempts for the evening without missing. C'mon Tiger fans, dig deep and email us the last time you can recall that.

Kayla Stout was equally impressive - uh...er...perfect- though she did miss a few field goals. Stout played a perfect game for Head Coach Michelle Harter as she busted out with 19 points to lead the Warsaw attack. Kayla shot an impressive 7 for 12 field goals using both her right hand and left to maneuver around Northrop defenders under the basket. Stout was a perfect 5 for 5 from the charity stripe while also dishing out 3 assists. Tiger fans will have the pleasure of watching this budding star for the next two seasons. She is good.

Now let's talk about the flow of the game. The Lady Tigers started the game in a 1-2-2 zone defense as they tried to distort any Bruin pre-game strategy against a man-to-man. Coach Harter used her bench early and often as she so often does. This Lady Tiger team is do deep - using 9-12 players to wear down the opposition. Sophomore Ryesha Jackson and freshman Lindsay Baker entered the game at the 3:00 mark for the Tigers. Jackson connected on a running layup across the lane while Baker nailed a baseline 3-pointer to spark the Warsaw offense. Northrop senior guard Pre Reese nailed 2 3-point jumpers to lead the early Northrop attack.

Warsaw and Northrop were tied 14-14 after 1 quarter of action.

The second quarter began with Kayla Stout scoring a quick 8 points to give the Lady Tigers some breathing room. Just when it looked as if Warsaw would begin to pull away, Northrop sophomore guard Paige Wright would begin a hot streak of her own. Wright scored the final 5 points of the 2nd frame to keep the score knotted at 27-27 heading to the halftime break.

As all good teams do (yes this group of Lady Tigers is good) the Warsaw girls came out of the locker room looking to separate themselves from the Lady Bruins. Led by senior guard Kaelee Sands' defense and stellar outside shooting, the Lady Tigers would begin to build a lead. Sands and fellow back court companion senior Kelci Freds led a full-court pressure defense that came up with 4 big steals in the third quarter. As great defense triggers an offense to new heights, the Lady Tigers would begin to score in bunches. Sands and Stout scored a combined 15 3rd quarter points as Warsaw would amass a whopping 20 total points in the period.

Warsaw led 47-38 after 3 quarters of play.

With Northrop not willing to roll over and play dead, Warsaw continued to knock down shots. Now, we can't technically use this word perfect here, but since we started on this theme let's use it anyway. Perfect practice produces perfect results. Practicing foul shots each day can seem boring, tedious, and not so thrilling as compared to a slam dunk or 3-point bomb, yet oh-so-very necessary. The Lady Tigers used a 93.3% effort from the free throw line in this contest - connecting on an amazing 14 of 15 shots. The perfect (dang near) foul shooting would give no hope to the Lady Bruins down the stretch. Here were the foul shooting stats:

Kelci Freds (1-2), Kayla Stout (5-5), Sarah Shilling (4-4), Cendall Ogle (2-2), Creigh Ogle (2-2)

Nice work girls! Your perfect practice is paying dividends.

Complete Scoring for Warsaw: Kayla Stout - 19, Sarah Shilling - 16, Kaelee Sands - 10, Cendall Ogle - 6, Kelci Freds - 6, Lindsay Baker 5, Creigh Ogle - 2, Ryesha Jackson - 2

Final Score: Warsaw 66 - Northrop 58

With the Tigers now a perfect 4-0 on the young season, they will turn their focus to what could very well be their biggest regular season challenge of the year. Unbeaten Warsaw will travel to unbeaten and #1 ranked 2A Fort Wayne Bishop Luers next Tuesday night December 8th. What a game that will be. The Lady Tigers will find out just how good they are next week. Make every attempt to make that Fort Wayne trip to support our girls.

Nice work girls! Your perfect practice is paying dividends.

Go Lady Tigers!

Posted In: Girl's Sports > Basketball