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Whitko sweeps county for first time in school history |
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Monday, November 12 2007 |
By MARK PARKER
for The Post & Mail
The Whitko Lady Wildcats finished a sweep of its Whitley County rivals on Saturday night with a 55-35 win over the host Churubusco Lady Eagles. The Lady ’Cats, for the second night in a row jumped out to a large first-quarter lead and then made it stand up with a sticky defense. Even though the Lady Eagles were able to play the Wildcats even through the second half, Whitko was able to run their record to 3-0 with the win.
The visiting Lady Wildcats ran out to an 8-0 lead with six-foot one-inch center Emily Bidwell notching five of those points on the inside.
The Lady Eagles got onto the scoreboard when sophomore Shannon Teague hit two free throws, cutting the lead to 8-2. That would be as close as the Lady Eagles would get. The Lady Wildcats went to their outside shooting to combat the Churubusco zone defense, hitting four three-pointers in the first quarter. Senior Jennaca Juillerat recorded two triples and eight points in the first quarter to help lead the Lady Wildcats to a 20-4 lead at the first stop.
“We get a little tentative in looking for our shots. It should be shoot-pass-dribble in that order, but sometimes we go pass-dribble-shoot and when we do that we’re not very good,” Eagle coach Jeff Sheehan noted. “Whitko is a very good team, very well-coached, with a lot of seniors who have played together for several years.”
The Lady Eagles switched zone defenses in the second quarter and it showed as the Lady Wildcats were limited to only 4-of-13 shooting from the field. Two of those field goals were three-point baskets from senior Amber Stephens who finished with three triples for the game. The Lady Wildcats were able to get to the free throw line for 13 attempts in the quarter, led by junior Niki Shepherd, who hit for five out of seven and seven points in the second quarter to pace Whitko to a 37-16 lead at the half.
The Lady Eagles hit for 12 points in the second quarter with senior Cassie Puff hitting for four of her team high 14 points in the period. The Lady Eagles had their offense slowed by 19 turnovers they committed in the first half. “We’re out of shape and once our guards get a little tired we start making mistakes,” Sheehan said. “Our goal is to take care of the ball and we are trying to cut down on our turnovers.”
In the third period the Wildcats suffered through their lowest offensive output of the season scoring only five points and hitting on only 1-of-19 shots from the field. “This is a tough game for us to play, it comes at the end of a long week that started with a game on Tuesday and then with a very emotional high in the game against Columbia City on Friday night, we come into a game that we should win and there is an emotional letdown,” Coach Rob Bell commented. “We can’t let that emotional letdown happen, we have to come in and play our game but tonight we just didn’t play with intensity. In the first quarter we did a nice job of working inside out and our offense worked well but once we got a little tired we got a little stagnant and just settled for that outside shot.”
The Lady Eagles out scored the Wildcats by a 7-5 count in the third quarter with Puff, Teague, and Taylor Amber all hitting for two points in the quarter. The teams entered the fourth quarter with Whitko leading 42-23.
The fourth quarter saw Churubusco senior Cassie Puff put in another six points to lead the Lady Eagles, while Juillerat tossed in four of her game high 17 to lead the Lady Wildcats. Teague added four points on inside baskets in the quarter to end the game with nine points for the Lady Eagles. Teague’s 10 rebounds also led the Lady Eagles to a 26-22 advantage on the boards. The Lady ’Cats were able to hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final quarter to close out the contest by the final 55-35 margin.
The JV contest ended on an interesting note, with Churubusco pulling out a 19-17 win despite having only four players on the floor. The Lady Eagles lost two player to fouls but still held on behind eight points from Alex Walker. The Lady Wildcat JV was led by Caila Carroll with 10 points.
Whitko will return to action on Friday when they travel to Fort Wayne Elmhurst while Churubusco will travel to Fort Wayne Wayne for a Tuesday evening contest with the Lady Generals. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, November 13 2007 )
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