Lady Eagles Roll Past WhitkoSOUTH WHITLEY — After earning their first win of the season over Lakeland Christian, the Whitko Lady Wildcats basketball team faced a larger foe Friday night against county rival Columbia City.
The Eagles got off to a hot start and never looked back, as the visiting Lady Eagles prevailed 51-18 over Whitko.
“There is only so much you can do prepare for Columbia City,” said Whitko head girls basketball coach Mike Howard. “Being able to prepare for them, all we can do is talk conceptually, practice as best as we can, but we can’t replicate their speed, size, any of those things.”
Columbia City scored the first 20 points of the game and held a 34-9 lead at the half.
While turnovers and other errors added up, Howard was able to see that their free-throw shooting was intact.
“We shot free throws well when we were able to get to the free throw line. We had some kids playing hard on defense, but not consistent enough effort with all five players,” said Howard. “Just a lot of scrambling.”
In the loss, Whitko (1-1) was led by sophomore guard Elizabeth Miller, who finished with 10 points.
The Lady Eagles (2-1) made seven three-point baskets, including four from senior guard Olivia Shearer. Shearer led all scorers with 14 points.
With another 4A team in Huntington North arriving in South Whitley Friday, Howard looked at this game that can be used as a building block for the future.
“This was a game where we can learn from, as long as we do not let it defeat us,” said Howard. “To be able to get used to this speed and pressure and to know how we have to approach practice now, our effort and our intensity even with a small group is just a way for our younger kids who have no experience to now get experience from a really good team with a lot of depth.
With Whitko fielding just 11 players, including six freshmen, one that’s currently injured and four that have not played basketball before, Howard said that their output should not be questioned.
“We have a lot of multi-sport kids, and they are helping the school out so we can field a team, so we want to make sure we always respect their effort in doing that,” said Howard.
The Lady Wildcats look to bounce back and will travel later tonight for a 6 p.m. tipoff against their other Whitley County rival, Churubusco.
