HAMLET — The rough start to the Warsaw girls basketball team’s season continued Thursday night. Warsaw’s brutal schedule took the Lady Tigers to The Den to play Class 2A No. 2 Oregon-Davis. The host Bobcats were challenged at times by the visiting Lady Tigers but were ultimately too much for Warsaw to handle on their way to a 62-42 victory.

The officials allowed both teams to get away with a lot for much of what would prove to be a physical game. Warsaw came out showing that it was not going roll over by taking an early 4-0 lead. The visiting squad held tough through the first quarter and trailed just 11-8 after one.

O-D started to separate in the second, fueled by a flurry of Warsaw turnovers, and would hold a 25-15 lead before a crucial point in the second quarter. Warsaw, trailing by 10, showed some great ball movement, eventually caught the O-D defense napping and created great look under the basket for Dayton Groninger. The junior couldn’t get the shot to fall and instead of cutting the deficit to eight points, Warsaw gave the Bobcats an opportunity to build their lead. Taylor Kranenburg drained a three on the ensuing O-D possession and the game just became more out of reach after that. O-D led 31-15 at the break. Kranenburg was one of four Bobcats in double digits with her 15-point effort.

One missed shot did not lose the game for the Lady Tigers, it just gave O-D a nice window to take momentum before the half. What ended up being the true killer for Warsaw was its 27 turnovers that led to 23 points for the Bobcats.

Those turnovers assisted O-D’s 9-2 run to start the second half. All nine of those points were from threes. O-D never gave Warsaw a break. The Bobcats pressed for the entire game and were very physical. There were times when Warsaw was figuratively punched in the mouth by the play of O-D, but the Lady Tigers kept fighting.

The Warsaw team that took the floor in Hamlet Thursday night was a very different one than what fans saw against Whitko last Friday. The Lady Tigers had a strong showing against another ranked opponent in Norwell on Tuesday and carried that over to Thursday’s game. Moral victories are not something the Warsaw girls basketball program is used to celebrating, but the play for the Lady Tigers has improved and the team is finally starting to gel and those are big steps moving forward.

“I was proud of the girls in how they continued to battle,” said Warsaw head coach Michelle Harter. “They never gave up. We were down by close to 30 points at one time but they continued to fight and got it back down to 17. We’ve got to do better at some things, like valuing the basketball and not turning it over so much. If we start doing those things then things will start to come around for us.”

Groninger led Warsaw with 11 points and had a game-high 16 points. Mariah Rivera and Kacy Bragg had very good nights for Warsaw as the duo combined for 15 points and seven rebounds.

O-D was led by Kyleigh Kubik’s 17 points. Kubik hit four threes in the game. Alexandria Bope had 15 for the Bobcats, Lexi Minix added 13. O-D (5-0) entered the game averaging 84 points a game.

Warsaw (0-8) travels to Carroll Monday night.

Warsaw lost the JV contest 62-45.