WARSAW – The term “hard-nosed” is cliche but certainly applies to the basketball title Warsaw won Tuesday in its Lady Tiger Tournament. A defensive gem, plus the guts from Kaylee Patton and the MVP performance from Madi Graham stirred into a 47-31 championship game victory for Warsaw over Chesterton.

Unlike Tuesday morning’s victory over Mishawaka that required a pair of runs to put the Cavemen away, Warsaw just used old fashioned defensive grit to hold down what looked to be an athletic Chesterton roster. The Trojans shot just 26 percent in the game (10-38) and had no player score over six points, which was Sarah Dzierba who needed two free throws to get to that mark.

Hailey Vale and Shannon McCoy, who combined for over 25 points per game coming into the tournament, were held to eight combined points on 4-14 shooting from the floor. Vale did grab nine rebounds in the first-ever matchup between the two teams.

The wizardry of Warsaw’s defensive effort, which also forced Chesterton into 24 turnovers to go with the 27 the Lady Tigers coaxed out of Mishawaka in the morning, had head coach Michelle Harter impressed.

“One really nice thing with our defense, the girls are really buying into what we want to do defensively,” Harter said. “We’re using our length to our advantage. When we don’t communicate, that’s when we see teams take advantage of us. But the girls have done such a tremendous job of just sitting in their stance, being disciplined on defense and allowing our defense to create some easy offense for us.”

In just a 12-9 game after eight minutes, Warsaw used a pair of steals and two layups to score the second quarter’s first four points. Warsaw also made the little plays, such as taking three charges – two by Patton and one by Kacy Bragg – in pulling away from Chesterton in the second quarter. Warsaw would go on to outscore the Trojans 15-5 in the frame.

Graham wasn’t electric like she was in the morning, but was effective enough. Scoring 13 points to lead the Lady Tigers, Graham was chosen as tournament MVP. Graham scored 18 in the morning contest, helping Warsaw to its first title since the 2013-14 season. Graham, who was just 4-12 from the floor, was quick to deflect attention from herself in stating the win was a total team effort.

“My teammates definitely helped out, especially with the inside-outside looks,” Graham said. “The guards have to attack to allow me to get the open looks, and it’s really them that helped make this. I have to give it up to them, getting me looks at the basket.

“Christmas break, you just have to prepare for physical games and be ready for teams to come in here and play us tough,” continued Graham. “We were expecting to take it, and just have to be ready for it.”

Dayton Groninger and Bragg were both named to the All-Tournament team. Bragg scored 11 points in just missing her season high, which was 12 back on opening night against Dwenger. Groninger, who was held to just two points in her lowest scoring total going back to last season against Wawasee, still had seven rebounds, three assists and a steal in providing other necessary work. Mariah Rivera added nine points and a pair of assists.

Patton, who broke her nose in a collision with Bragg in the third quarter of the Mishawaka game, started warmups and the second quarter with a protective mask on. But the gritty goalkeeper for the Tiger soccer program quickly shed the mask and immediately was in a scrum, then took the pair of charges. Those hustle plays have become benchmarks for the Lady Tigers, now 14-1 overall and winners of its past nine games.

“One thing you look at Kaylee coming out there with that broken nose, we left it completely up to her when they said it was fine for her to play,” Harter said. “And she wanted to play. And that says a lot about a freshman wanting to go out there and play, taking the mask off because it was bothering her. But that just helps the rest of our team. She’s coming out there playing like that, we need to be tough, too. I thought the girls mentally, we were tough. We had some turnovers, but they didn’t let that affect them.”

Also making the All-Tournament team were Vale, who scored 13 points in the win over Perry Meridian, along with Perry’s Sadie Hill and Mishawaka’s Raegan Freitag. Hill scored 22 points to lead Perry to a 45-40 win over Freitag and the Cavemen in the consolation game. Freitag, who was held to just six points against Warsaw, had a team-high 20 points against Perry. Hill scored 12 points in the morning game against Chesterton.

Warsaw will next play Jan. 4 at Wabash, then prep for a Northern Lakes Conference showdown with 14-1 Northridge on Jan. 7 in Rise ‘N Roll Country.