Winamac girls basketball roundup: Kroft scores 13, Iverson adds strong 4th quarter to secure win over W. Central

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Kandace Kroft

Winamac 34, West Central 27 (Tuesday)

Kandace Kroft hit two 3-pointers and scored a game-high 13 points, and Marissa Iverson added 11 for the Winamac girls basketball team in a win over visiting West Central Tuesday.

Iverson scored all of her points in the second half. She outscored the entire West Central team 8-4 in the fourth quarter.

West Central led 19-18 at halftime. The game was tied 23-23 after three quarters.

Winamac was 11 for 16 from the foul line while West Central was 3 for 4.

Winamac extended their winning streak to three and improved to 7-1.

WEST CENTRAL (27) (4-2)

Burger 3 1-2 7, Allen 1 0-0 3, Lattimore 1 0-0 2, Scholz 2 0-0 4, Endris 0 2-2 2, Bau 0 0-0 0, Moon 1 0-0 2, Holle 1 0-0 2, Mellon 2 0-0 5

TEAM: 11 3-4 27

WINAMAC (34) (7-1)

Maggie Keller 0 2-2 2, Kandace Kroft 3 5-7 13, Sadie Popejoy 1 1-2 3, Corinne Ulerick 2 0-0 5, Marissa Iverson 4 3-5 11, Kylie Fisher 0 0-0 0, Jordan Compton 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 10 11-16 34

Three-point field goals:

West Central 2 (Allen, Mellon),

Winamac 3 (Kroft 2, Ulerick)

Total fouls: West Central 14, Winamac 9

Score by quarters

West Central 14 5 4 4 – 27

Winamac 11 7 5 11 – 34

Winamac 46, Hebron 28 (Nov. 24)

Sadie Popejoy

Kandace Kroft hit three 3-pointers and scored a game-high 25 points for the Lady Warriors in a road win over Hebron Nov. 24.

Sadie Popejoy added 10 for Winamac (6-1), who was playing without starting forward Marissa Iverson due to illness.

Winamac hit twice as many 3-pointers as Hebron (6-3) and twice as many free throws (14-7).

Winamac led 23-12 at halftime and extended the lead to 35-18 after three quarters.

Avery Groen led Hebron with 10 points. Megan Balas hit three 3-pointers and added nine.

Hebron is a new addition to Winamac’s schedule.

WINAMAC (46) (6-1)

Maggie Keller 3 1-1 8, Kandace Kroft 6 10-13 25, Sadie Popejoy 3 2-3 10, Corinne Ulerick 0 0-0 0, Abby Keller 1 0-1 2, Kylie Fisher 0 0-0 0, Jordan Compton 0 0-0 0, Willa Byroad 0 1-2 1, Elizabeth DeLaCruz 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 13 14-20 46

HEBRON (28) (1-5)

Groen 4 2-4 10, Hetrick 0 0-0 0, Clark 1 1-3 3, Balas 3 0-0 9, Dilbeck 0 2-2 2, Popplewell 1 1-2 3, Fox 0 0-0 0, McDonald 0 0-0 0, Grabski 0 1-2 1

TEAM: 9 7-13 28

Three-point field goals:

Winamac 6 (Kroft 3, Popejoy 2, M. Keller),

Hebron 3 (Balas 3)

Total fouls: Winamac 15, Hebron 17

Score by quarters

Winamac 10 13 12 11 – 46

Hebron 6 6 6 10 – 28

Winamac 30, North White 20 (Nov. 20)

Kylie Fisher

Kandace Kroft scored 10 points, and Marissa Iverson overcame early foul trouble to score six points and grab seven rebounds for the Winamac girls basketball team as they outlasted visiting North White 30-20 in a defensive struggle Nov. 20.

Winamac improved to 5-1. North White dropped to 0-5.

Kroft came in leading the state in 3-pointers with 24 in her first five games, but she did not hit any in this game.

North White got as close as 24-16 on an Autumn Reif free throw with 5:26 left, but Sadie Popejoy hit a 3-pointer – it was the only trey made by either team – to get the lead back to 11, and the Lady Vikings did not make another field goal.

Reif, a 5-10 senior post, had nine points and nine rebounds. Reif came in averaging 16 points per game.

Iverson picking up two fouls in the first 1:20 did not affect the defensive strategy against Reif.

“Try to keep a body in front and a body behind,” Winamac coach Tony Stesiak said. “That’s all we wanted to do is make them go anywhere else for offense but her. Iverson getting in foul trouble was not what we had planned on, but (Jordan) Compton came in and it took her a few possessions to adjust early on, but once her and (Corinne) Ulerick got things together, I thought that was the key. … I thought our guards rebounded exceptionally well. But yeah, Reif, we had to stop her. It was not an easy matchup, but I thought we did a really good job.”

Known more for their 2-3 zone defense under 12th year coach Bryan Heimlich, North White played a man-to-man instead and closed out quickly on Kroft when she had space to operate on the perimeter.

“Shots aren’t falling this week, and it doesn’t look as good,” Stesiak said. “But as I told them, if you give up 20, you don’t got to score a lot. So that’s the ebbs and flows. I thought we took great shots. I’m so proud of our defensive effort. … We’re in the grind. Not a lot of practice days.”

North White never led after the first quarter.

Getting a boost from freshman Kyle Fisher, Winamac led 16-12 at halftime. Fisher had as many points in the second quarter as the entire North White team (four).

Kroft got creative to start the second half. On a baseline inbounds play, she threw a pass off the backside of a North White player and collected the loose ball and laid it in. A Kroft driving banker pushed the lead to eight, and a Kroft feed to Iverson for a layup and an Iverson putback of her own miss capped an 8-0 run and forced a North White timeout as the lead reached 24-12.

Ulerick sees future in coaching

Corinne Ulerick is back playing after undergoing shoulder surgery that forced her to miss the entire 2024-25 season. She still currently wears a brace on the shoulder.

Unable to play last year, Ulerick helped her father Cullen as an assistant coach on the sixth grade girls team.

Corinne Ulerick comes from a coaching family. Her father Cullen is also the varsity soccer coach at Winamac. Her uncle Chris is the football coach at Caston.

Corinne said she learned that as a coach that you need to be energetic. You cannot be too hard on a player, or they will not be as motivated to play for you. 

“I plan to coach next year if I can,” Ulerick said. “I love to motivate other people to do what they can do. And then I helped to coach sixth grade last year with my dad, and I loved it. … Just being able to coach the kids and see their love of the game and just motivate them more.”

Ulerick said she was cleared to play in May after physical therapy sessions that she described as “boring.”

“I dove and I tore my labrum,” Ulerick recalled. “And then I had two surgeries and then physical therapy. It was a long recovery for that. … It’s kind of a thankful thing that I am able to play because it’s not fun having to sit out and not do something, so it’s kind of like you appreciate things that you’re able to do where some people can’t do the things you can do.”

Stesiak praised her defense against North White.

“Her defense in helping out inside was big,” Stesiak said. “She’s not usually used to playing that spot. She’s been a guard all her life, but she’s gotten stronger and smarter after a season off, and I thought her defensive presence in helping those freshmen inside was big.”

Winamac 30, North White 20

NORTH WHITE (20) (0-5)

Chamille Spear 0 0-0 0, Ella Hunt 2 2-4 6, Katy Westerhouse 1 0-2 2, Adriann Conn 1 0-0 2, Autumn Reif 2 5-8 9, Arianna Valdizon 0 0-0 0, Melanie Crawford 0 1-2 1

TEAM: 6 8-16 20

WINAMAC (30) (5-1)

Maggie Keller 0 1-2 1, Kandace Kroft 5 0-0 10, Sadie Popejoy 1 2-6 5, Corinne Ulerick 1 0-0 2, Marissa Iverson 3 0-2 6, Jordan Compton 0 2-2 2, Kylie Fisher 2 0-0 4

TEAM: 12 5-12 30

Three-point field goals:

North White 0,

Winamac 1 (Popejoy)

Total fouls: North White 15, Winamac 12

Turnovers: North White 12, Winamac 13

Score by quarters

North White 8 4 3 5 – 20

Winamac 10 6 8 6 – 30