Whitko Basketball: Wildcats Stave Off Upset Bid [VIDEO]
SOUTH WHITLEY – If you ask either girls basketball program about Friday night’s 40-37 Whitko win over Warsaw, both would probably roll their eyes. Largely, because both did after a game filled with blown opportunities and less than top-shelf play from either side.
Whitko, entering the night as the No. 1 team in Class 2-A, did jump on Warsaw early, but found its hot start only to fizzle into a 12-11 Warsaw advantage after converting three straight Whitko turnovers into points. The 28-24 lead Whitko held at the end of the third quarter felt like Mt. Everest the way the game was going.
Whitko had missed all of its three-point attempts in the first half, and only had Brianna Cumberland splash a pair, the second at the 5:32 mark of the fourth, to give the ‘Cats a 31-27 lead. Warsaw’s Page Desenberg then had one of the finer offensive sequences of her career, scoring eight straight points to rally the Lady Tigers to a stunning 37-33 lead.
But the ping pong balls bounced back to Whitko as Aly Reiff took the next possession and went right to the hoop, which has become the Xavier University recruit’s bread and butter. The and-one brought the ‘Cats within one, and a backdoor bucket by Haley Yohe put Whitko back in front with less than two to play.
Cumberland’s two free throws followed a huge Reiff block on Dayton Groninger, preserving the one-point lead that Cumberland made into three. Warsaw’s final sequence in the last 16 seconds didn’t produce a basket as the horn sounded.
Whitko remains undefeated at 7-0 and likely on top of the 2-A heap for another week; Warsaw missing its chance to upset a third-straight ranked opponent in losing its first game of the year to drop to 5-1 overall.
Reiff and Hanna Yohe each finished with 11 points to lead Whitko. Reiff, the reigning IBCA Player of the Week, was largely quiet on the offensive end, hitting just 3-10 shots from the floor but making 5-8 from the line. Yohe feasted on the 10-foot jumper, hitting early buckets from the distance to pull Warsaw’s zone out even further in a key early development in the chess match. Cumberland would wrap up with 10 points.
“You have to pick your poison with us,” said Whitko head coach Brandon Bradley. “When you key on Aly and Brianna, we have four seniors who have multiple letters who have played in these environments before. Tonight they tried to take away those two, and it was Hanna who stepped up and hit those shots she has made her entire career. When you add that to what Aly and Brianna were finally able to do, I really think that put’s the odds in our favor.”
Desenberg would finish with a career-high 16 points on 7-15 shooting and added five rebounds and three steals in a fine all-around ballgame. Groninger was held in check by Reiff in a juicy one-on-one matchup all night, going 1-7 from the floor and just four points, a season low. Kenzie Welk helped pick up the slack, scoring nine points including a couple of big shots to bring Warsaw back in the second half. Her three-pointer opened the fourth quarter, getting Warsaw within one.
“We came out flat and didn’t come out with the normal energy we typically have been coming out with on the defensive end,” stated Warsaw head coach Michelle Harter. “We were slow offensively and just back on our heels the entire time. We just never got out of that funk. We turned the ball over uncharacteristically in the first half which led to some easy points for them. Just one of those perfect storm type of things that happened to us tonight. Just not competing like we had been competing.”
The game itself saw both teams combine for 28-80 shooting (35 percent), 5-20 from three (25 percent), commit 28 turnovers to just 13 assists and had the Wildcats get 0.78 points per possession to Warsaw’s 0.70.
“We’ve talked about pressure,” Bradley said. “Really our goals are the same as the past three years. We want to win the sectional for the first time ever. We want to win conference for the second time ever. And that’s been our primary drive. As soon as we got to number one, the girls kind of agreed. As far as the polls go, we’ve accomplished that and that’s as high as you can go. We’ve accomplished that and no one can take that away. But that doesn’t affect our conference or affect our sectional. Our girls were as loose in the lockerroom and before the game as I’ve ever seen them.”
The JV game had Warsaw crush Whitko by a 57-20 count.
Whitko will put its undefeated mark on the line Wednesday at home against Fort Wayne Northrop while Warsaw will take on its fourth straight ranked opponent when it entertains Class 2-A No. 5 Oregon-Davis.