BENTON – Wawasee and Fairfield are only seven road miles apart, but both seemed to be in two completely different worlds Friday night. Wawasee looked mentally lost and were physically outworked by Fairfield in girls buckets, 45-22. The matters of execution were telling from both head coaches.

“They move their hands well, but they forget to move their feet,” stated Wawasee head coach Kem Zolman of his club, still seeking to create its identity. “We do a lot of slappy, happy stuff. Sixth grade stuff. We haven’t got them convinced that defense is moving with their feet. So we are getting young, defensive things that didn’t make sense.

“We were our own worst enemies. I really believe that.”

Even Fairfield skipper Brodie Garber wasn’t completely convinced his team was clicking on all cylinders. But Garber wasn’t exactly complaining about the lopsided result, either.

“This is the first game we faced zone-exclusive defense, and I feel we attacked the zone better than most teams do the first time they see it,” Garber said. “The big thing for us was how did we handle their zone defense, because this season we will see probably close to 50 percent of the teams throwing zone at us. I thought we did really well handling what Wawasee threw at us.”

The turning point in the game happened very quietly, but smartly, by a pair of Fairfield rebounders late in the third quarter. With Wawasee having snuck back into the game, trailing just 28-18 as time wound down toward the end of the quarter, Fairfield’s work on the offensive glass told the tale.

A missed free throw from Katie Yates was rebounded and put back in by Katie Kieper. Just moments later, Kieper missed a free throw and Yates returned favor, putting in an offensive bucket as the quarter was coming to an end. After Wawasee had thrown most of its energy into shaving the lead back to 10, Fairfield once again was in command and the Lady Falcons wouldn’t be challenged the remainder of the game.

The inside play was a problem for Wawasee all night, as Fairfield also exploited half court sets all evening. A dump into Haley Brown for two ended the first quarter with Fairfield up 15-6, then just before half, the Lady Falcons stalled for almost a minute before finding Andrea Hagar on a backdoor play to give Fairfield a 23-13 edge at the break.

Wawasee gave up 14 offensive rebounds to Fairfield and were outworked on the glass 38-25. The first half was glaring in the growth of the trend, as Fairfield shot just 4-13 from the floor and actually committed one more foul (11-10), but 19 free throw attempts and 14 makes set Wawasee on the chase as Yates and Kieper combined for 11 of 13 makes from the line.

“One of the main things coming into tonight we wanted was to be competitive the whole time,” Zolman stated. “When we’re not hitting baskets – we’re not offensive juggernauts, I know that – we’re not that bad of shooters. But with a young team, when things go bad on the offensive end, then the whole game goes kaput.”

Yates finished with a game-high 11 points and pulled down 12 rebounds while Kieper was one point back at 10 and chipped in five boards. Kylee Rostochak led Wawasee with nine points but struggled from the floor, shooting 25 percent (3-12) and missed all five of her three-point attempts as Fairfield hounded her all game. Aubrey Schmeltz added some zip on the defensive end, pulling down four rebounds, blocking two shots and recording a steal while adding three points.

The JV game had Fairfield’s December Setterberg score eight points and the Lady Falcons pulled away from Wawasee late in a 22-16 result. Hannah Haines scored seven points in the losing effort for Wawasee.

Fairfield (3-1) will get back at it Tuesday at Angola while Wawasee (1-3) will have to move on as it hosts Prairie Heights tomorrow afternoon in a 2:30 p.m. tip.

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