SYRACUSE – Offensive production was hard to come by for both teams in Tuesday’s girls basketball game between No. 12 Columbia City and host Wawasee. The Eagles used a shutout in the first quarter to spark a 40-22 victory over the Lady Warriors.

City slowly built up a lead in the first quarter to take an 11-0 advantage into the second. Wawasee squandered away multiple open shots in the opening frame and finally found some consistency in the second by opening the quarter on a 4-0 run. The Eagles, however, maintained their control of the game by outscoring the Lady Warriors 12-6 in the quarter to take a 23-6 lead into the half.

Wawasee became much more comfortable running its offense throughout the game, but it was the defense that really stole the show for both teams. City’s defense was clearly able to frustrate Wawasee when the Lady Warriors had the ball, including leading scorer Kylee Rostochak who only scored six points. The Eagles average nearly 55 points per game offensively, so Wawasee’s effort to hold City to just 40 points was a talking point for Wawasee head coach Kem Zolman.

“In my mind, we held that team under 40 points,” began Zolman. “We had some fouls at the end of the game so they (City) were able to hit some free throws. So, in my mind it’s in the 30’s, which is a heck of a defensive effort. With the exception of a few moments in the first half, I thought the defensive effort all night was a good one.”

After trailing by 17 to end the first half, Wawasee played City to a tight, 17-16 game in the second half, in favor of the Eagles.

City’s Macie Hinen led all scorers with 12 points. Hinen was the only player to score 10 or more points. Hinen only scored two points in the second half. The limited amount of scoring was most likely do to the eye-popping number of turnovers between the two teams, the final tally reached 59, unofficially.

Rounding out the scoring for City was Chelsea Pettigrew and Elise Cormany, both with nine points, Aubrey Wright (five points), Morgan Bales (two points), Baily Renstchler (two points and Holly Martinez (one points).

Rostochak tied with Hannah Haines to lead the Lady Warriors with six points. Allissa Flores and Aubrey Schmeltz rounded out the scoring for Wawasee with five points each. Zolman talked about the lack of offensive production from his team Tuesday night.

“It’s about confidence,” Zolman said. “We had a lot of open shots in that first quarter, we executed well and we got people the ball. But, the shots didn’t fall. This is a fragile team still. If that ball doesn’t go in, they start doubting immediately. Once we can get those shots to fall early, it will do wonders for these girls.”

Wawasee (4-11) will have its next opportunity to get shots falling early when it hosts Northern Lakes Conference foe Elkhart Memorial Saturday afternoon for a 1:00 p.m. tip. Top-15 ranked City (16-3) will host Homestead Saturday for a 7:45 p.m. tip.

Kabrea Rostochak led the Wawasee junior varsity team with nine points in the JV team’s 33-24 loss to Columbia City.