Washington and City High have had some memorable girls basketball games in recent history. They range from a state championship decided in the final second to another very physical match-up where teeth were flying along with elbows.

But never in recent history has there been a game like Tuesday’s when the third-ranked Little Hawks crushed the No. 10 Warriors 73-27.

“It was a night not to remember or it was a night to remember, and probably I’m going to choose to remember this night more than I’m going to choose to forget it,” Washington Coach Frank Howell said. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it never happens again.

“It was just one of those nights. It was just a perfect storm to get whupped.”

Both teams employ full-court pressure defense, but while City High broke it with ease, the Warriors struggled. Washington got 12 fewer shots from the floor in the first half because of its turnover problems.

“We had 21 turnovers by halftime, and that was a huge, huge part of it,” Howell said. “I’m not taking anything away from them. Potentially they could be the No. 1 team in the state. But we don’t want to fall down and die for anybody no matter how good the other team is. We’re going to keep working.”

Combine the ball-handling errors with poor shooting overall (25 percent), an inability to defend City’s 6-foot-3 all-stater Haley Lorenzen, and the fact that Washington was playing its season opener and you have a recipe for a blowout.

“We just tried to keep a lot of pressure on them and make them feel rushed,” Lorenzen said. “It’s having the advantage of having played two games, and they hadn’t played. So we had the advantage there. We talked really well tonight, and we really moved on defense and picked up other people.”

Howell was not disappointed with his team’s intensity and attention to the game plan but just with its execution.

City held Washington all-state forward Danielle Franklin to one basket in 11 attempts. Franklin, a Valparaiso recruit, averaged 17 points per game last year.

"Well, they had Lorenzen on her,” Howell pointed out. “She’s 6-3 1/2 with long arms, and she’s athletic. She runs like a deer, and she looks like she could do chin-ups on the rim.”

“We knew she was a really good 3-point shooter, so whenever she got the ball we just closed out on her,” City senior Kiera Washpun said. “Haley did really good. Haley had really good defense on Franklin.

“It was a team effort. Everyone pitched in; everyone helped out with Dani.”

Lorenzen led all scorers with 32 points.

“She towers over everyone,” Washington senior Aleena Hobbs said. “She was dominant.”

Washington started with Franklin on her but even when Lorenzen was double teamed the Warriors couldn’t stop her. Lorenzen had 21 points at halftime as City got out to a 36-20 lead.

“They got a couple quick baskets and so they got a pretty deep lead on us, and it was harder for us to come back towards the end when we wanted to make our own run,” Hobbs said. “We expected them to press. We turned the ball over a lot, more than we would obviously like to.”

The third quarter was a disaster for the Warriors as Hobbs was the only player to score in a seven-point quarter. City triggered the continuous clock in the final quarter with a 35-point lead.

“It’s a good thing we play Thursday so we can try to bounce back as soon as humanly possible,” Howell said.

City improved to 3-0 and Washington is 0-1. This was a non-divisional MVC game for the teams.

C.R. WASHINGTON (27): Aleena Hobbs 6-11 5-12 17, Jasmyne Jones 0-1 0-0 0, Danielle Franklin 1-11 1-2 4, Kandis O’Donnell 1-1 1-2 3,  M.J. Kamin 0-0 0-0 0, Allie Semrau 0-1 0-0 0, Sophie Ochs 0-0 0-0 0 Anne Visser 1-4 0-0 3, Kiki West-Doyle 0-2 0-0 0, Joniqua Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Lilly Hartman 0-2 0-0 0, McKenna Angellotti 0-0 0-0 0, Brittany Cullen 0-1 0-0 0, Kiara Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Courtney Squires 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 9-36 7-16 27.

CITY HIGH (73): Kiera Washpun 3-4 2-5 8, Payton Koenig 1-1 0-0 3, Courtney Joens 5-11 1-2 13, Kenya Earl 2-5 0-0 4, Haley Lorenzen 12-19 8-11 32, Sara Blowers 1-2 0-0 2, Sam Blowers 4-6 0-0 9, Sarah Plock 1-4 0-0 2, Venia Xayasene 0-0 0-0 0, Ronetta Jenkins 0-0 0-0 0, Emma Pradarelli 0-2 0-0 0, Lillie Christophersen 0-0 0-0 0, Jessica Onnen 0-0 0-0 0, Loshika Embery 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-54 22-36 73.

Washington      12   8   7   0 -- 27
City High        20  16  21  16 -- 73

3-point goals: Washington 2-16 (Hobbs 0-3, Franklin 1-7, Semrau 0-1 Visser 1-4 Squires 0-1), City High 4-12 (Washpun 0-1, Koenig 1-1, Joens 2-5, Earl 0-1, Sam Blowers 1-3, Plock 0-1). Total fouls: Washington 14, City 17. Fouled out: none.