Hannah Haines of Wawasee speeds past Lakeland guard Cori Vaughn during play Tuesday night. Lakeland would rally from 12 down to beat Wawasee, 37-33, in overtime. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – A complete tale of two halves, and then an overtime, had a Wawasee girls basketball team in complete control implode while Lakeland awoke during a stunning 37-33 overtime win by the visitors Tuesday night.

Lakeland opened the game with a 7-2 run, but went ice cold from there, making just one basket the rest of the half. The third quarter wasn’t any better for the Lakers, where Abi Thompson’s hoop with 2:26 remaining had Lakeland still trailing 23-11.

Thompson, who had made Lakeland’s only field goal in the second period with 38 seconds to go, was the catalyst for the huge rally.

Wawasee’s Aubrey Schmeltz grabs an offensive rebound against Lakeland.

Six points from Thompson in the fourth quarter pulled Lakeland back to trail just 26-22. Wawasee, on the other hand, found its dry spell as the second half progressed. The Lady Warriors made just three field goals in the second half, and instead found the turnover bug to be infectious. A whopping 32 turnovers in the game by Wawasee included a pair of devastating giveaways late in the fourth, one allowing Ashtin Kaminer to drive in for a layup to tie the game at 26.

A three from Kylee Rostochak, who finished with eight points for Wawasee, gave the home side a 29-26 advantage to open overtime, but Lakeland would outscore Wawasee 11-4 the rest of the way. Thompson was a huge part of the success, finishing with 15 points for Lakeland, which beat Wawasee for the first time since 2004 when Brittney Bateman and Abby Neff led Lakeland to victory in Lagrange.

“It’s humiliating to lose a game like that,” said Wawasee head coach Kem Zolman from the coach’s office following the game. “I’ve been in this business for way too long, 30 some-odd years, way too long. It’s humiliating from an adult standpoint. I don’t know how they feel. But we’ll emphasize the first 16 minutes and work on the last 16 minutes. We played really well for about two quarters, maybe even into the third, but we ran out of gas.”

Wawasee JV guard Lexie Young is defended by Lakeland’s Sheridan Flores during the evening’s first game.

Lakeland had only averaged 32 points in the last eight games with Wawasee, but it was the 23 points in the final two quarters that left Zolman befuddled.

“We quit playing defense,” Zolman stated. “It’s a tiring game, and we are just young enough that they didn’t fight through it. Our defense is all positioning, closing out and running out to shooters. It’s the little things that we didn’t do.

“We went on a run after we were down 7-2. There’s no reason to believe that we can’t keep doing that. But we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. When they turned up their defensive pressure, we didn’t respond. We had 32 turnovers, are you kidding me? That is ridiculous.”

Kaminer added seven points, four rebounds and three assists for Lakeland (1-1) while Allissa Flores chipped in eight points and six rebounds for the Lady Warriors (0-2).

Wawasee returns to the home court Friday night to host South Bend Career Academy, which limped into its first year of IHSAA-sanctioned play with a 53-10 loss last weekend to Lakeland Christian Academy. Friday night’s card will only feature a varsity game, a 7:30 p.m. tip.

Lakeland’s JV also picked up a close win, holding off three Wawasee shots in the final minute to win 24-23. Jaden Conard had a nice game for Lakeland with six points and seven boards while Wawasee (1-1) had Aubrey Schmeltz score 10 points and Nicole Streby added 10 rebounds.

Allissa Flores gathers encouragement from the home fan base.