Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
For the second straight season, the Whitko girls basketball team enters the second weekend of the Indiana state tournament as sectional champions. Last February, the Lady ‘Cats made history by defeating Bremen 53-44 to capture the team’s first ever regional championship before falling 58-45 to Eastside in the opening round of the semi-state.
A year later, Whitko finally has its chance to exact revenge.
The Lady ‘Cats (24-1) and Lady Blazers (22-3) will meet at Warsaw Community High School on Saturday night in a 2A regional game with an opportunity to go back to the semi-state on the line. It’s a big game regardless, but if you ask Whitko head coach Justin Jordan, it's personal.
“I’d love to sit here and tell you no, it’s not, but we definitely still have that nasty taste in our mouth from last year,” he said. “We definitely want to redeem ourselves. They took it to us in every aspect last year, played harder, shot well. We’re going to need to bring our A-game to change the result.”
Jordan isn’t the only one that remembers last year’s result. A large chunk of this year’s Whitko team was on the roster last year and experienced the pain of having their season ended by the same opponent that awaits them at the Tiger Den.
“I’m excited for the opportunity. We all know what we’re capable of doing but we don’t want to go into a game expecting it,” senior captain Reese Stonebraker said. “We’re making sure we’re extremely focused in practice this week and preparing the best we can.”
Despite Reese being the lone senior on the roster, the Lady ‘Cats boast a group of seasoned players with a long postseason run under their belts. According to Jordan, their experience is just one aspect they can use to their advantage.
“I think they’ve matured so much in the past year. They’ve played in a lot of these big games now so I don’t think the crowd is going to be a factor,” he said. “For us, I think the biggest thing is going to be playing hard, grabbing rebounds, playing defense. We have to establish our brand of basketball. These girls have been here before, so there are times I don’t even need to coach them through this stuff.”
Eastside will undoubtedly be one of the toughest tests Whitko has faced this season. The Lady Blazers ran through the Northeast Corner Conference, going 13-1 to win it. The team began the season 12-0 before losing three of five in the middle of the season. Since then, Eastside has won eight straight games, most recently defeating Central Noble 45-38 in its sectional championship game.
Junior Taylor Mack leads the team in scoring, averaging 17 points a game with 30% shooting from deep and nearly 80% from the charity stripe. Fellow eleventh grader Lucy Kitchen is the only other player on the team to average double figures, scoring 10 a night. One of the team’s two seniors, Adelaide Elden, is the team’s third scorer, averaging 9.7. Defensively, the Lady ‘Cats will have their hands full, but they are always up to the challenge.
“Honestly, the only time these girls argue is when they’re trying to figure out who is going to guard the other team’s best player,” Jordan said. “We’re going to need to stop them early in transition, get some good ball pressure. We’ll also need to limit their second chance shots.”
Offensively, the Lady ‘Cats are no slouches themselves. In the team’s three sectional games, three different players (Hazel Leffers, Kyra Lowe and Jayma Stonebreaker) led the team in scoring. That’s been the case all season long. While the Stonebreaker sisters are the only two players averaging double figures (Lowe and Ally Brown are not far behind at 9.5 PPG), the team has a total of seven players who score six or more.
“One of the best things about playing for this group is that we’re all rooting for each other no matter whose night it is,” the elder Stonebraker said. “I could be having an off night but another one of us who might average eight scores 20. It’s really exciting.”
Even with Whitko’s many offensive successes, the calling card for this team all season long has been its defense. Those who are catching the Lady ‘Cats in action for the first time this Saturday are in for a treat. The winners of the Three Rivers Conference are as tenacious as it gets, never taking a play off and often wearing down their opponents and demoralizing them by the time the fourth quarter rolls around. Going through a gauntlet of a sectional, Jordan believes that it was his team’s ability to defend no matter who is on the court that carried them to the trophy.
“There were times where we got stagnant on offense and we had to rely on our defense to kind of get our offense going,” he said. “The biggest thing for us going forward is if we get stagnant again, can we continue to get stops, and can we continue to keep moving the ball.
“Our depth has been so crucial for us. I can sub three or four girls at a time and there’s really no drop off. Everybody is doing their job and playing together.”
The game is expected to tip off at 7 p.m. and will follow the 1A regional contest between West Central (18-6) and Elkhart Christian (21-4)
