Wawasee’s Kylee Rostochak stops in the lane Tuesday night. The senior standout scored a game-high 15 points in a 42-38 loss at Fairfield.

GOSHEN – The Wawasee girls basketball team did a lot right Tuesday night in its bid for a big win at Fairfield.

The Warriors, though, simply could not overcome a tough shooting performance in dropping a hard-fought 42-38 final to the host Falcons.

Wawasee, which lost 55-36 to Fairfield last season, went toe-to-toe with the Falcons for 32 minutes in a physical contest which featured plenty of defense, foul calls and turnovers.

The Warriors rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final six minutes to put themselves in position to tie the game. Wawasee trailed 41-38 when a potential game tying 3-pointer by sophomore Kabrea Rostochak hit off the rim with about four seconds to play.

Senior Alyssa Zook then hit the first of two free throws with 2.8 seconds left to ice the win for Fairfield.

“You have to make layups and free throws and we didn’t do that tonight,” said Wawasee coach Kem Zolman. “I don’t know if it had to do with the physical nature of the game. We knew it would be physical tonight.

“We had shot after shot that just didn’t fall. We just didn’t make them tonight or make our free throws. That being said, we put ourselves in position and had an opportunity at the end to tie the game.”

Wawasee, which falls to 1-1, fell behind 34-24 on a rebound bucket by Fairfield’s 6-0 Andrea Hagar with 6:15 to play in the contest.

The Warriors rallied late behind the stellar play of Kylee Rostochak. The standout senior scored nine of her game-high 15 points in the final four minutes of the final period. She hit a pair of clutch free throws with 14.4 seconds left to make it 40-38 before Zook hit the second of two free throws with 12.8 ticks remaining to give the Falcons a 41-38 advantage.

“I never felt like we were out of it,” Zolman said. “When you have Kylee out there in charge and leaders like her and Aubrey (Kuhn) you are never out of a game.”

The points were hard to come by on both sides all game long.

Aubrey Schmaltz works on the baseline for the Warriors.

The Warriors led 9-7 after the opening period of play as the Falcons went the first 4:03 of the contest before getting their first basket. The two teams combined for 13 turnovers in the first quarter.

The Falcons, who improve to 2-0, hit a trio of treys in the second stanza to take an 18-17 halftime lead. Wawasee managed just one field goal, a 3-pointer by Erin Wiktorowski, in the third quarter in being outscored 12-7 to trail 30-24 entering the final frame.

Zolman, who started just one senior Tuesday night in Kylee Rostochak, knows one thing about this year’s group.

“This team is going to get better because these kids want to,” said Zolman, whose team finished 7-17 last season. “It’s their identity. There’s not a question about the effort I get from these guys. They did what we asked them to do tonight and they got after it on defense. So we lost this one tonight because we could not make shots.”

The Warriors and the Falcons could meet again in postseason play. Both teams will compete in the Class 3-A Tippecanoe Valley Sectional at the end of the 2015-16 season.

Wawasee went 14-24 from the free throw line in the loss. The host Falcons were just 13-24 from the charity stripe in the contest.

Wiktorowski, the only other senior on the Warriors, came off the bench to hit three huge triples and score nine key points.

Sophomore Hannah-Marie Lamle had seven points, junior Aubrey Schmeltz four and Kabrea Rostochak three for the Warriors.

Junior Alexis Thaxton led Fairfield with 10 points. Sophomore Erica Zook netted nine points and seniors Katie Kieper and Ayssa Zook five each for the Falcons. Hagar and Julia Brown each finished with four points, while Shelby Graber had three and Alexis Zook two.

Fairfield, which finished 15-9 a year ago, started five seniors Tuesday night.

Aubrey Kuhn looks for a teammate.

The Falcons won the junior varsity game by a 48-30 final. Sophomore Felicity Bontrager led Fairfield with 20 points. Freshman Casey Schroeder had nine points to lead Wawasee. Sara Pritchard and Gabbi Warner each scored six points for the Warriors.

Wawasee (1-1) hosts Westview (0-0) Friday night. Fairfield (2-0) plays at Elkhart Memorial (1-0) Thursday and at Goshen (2-1) Saturday night.