NORTH MANCHESTER - In a battle of oft-beaten teams, Manchester shot like a team with more than two wins.

The Squires shot 60 percent from the field in a 74-64 win over Three Rivers Conference foe Whitko Thursday night.

Manchester (3-13, 2-5 TRC) and Whitko (3-14, 0-7 TRC) have both struggled this season but both looked better than their records.

Sophomores Dan Bourne and Aaron Medley dominated the post for Manchester as the duo combined for 44 points on 19-of-24 shooting to go with eight rebounds.

The Squires' 74 points are their biggest scoring output of the season as they average just 43.7 points per game.

Manchester scored 40 points in the first half against Whitko. In six games this season, the Squires have failed to score 40 points in a game.

"For us to score 40 points in the first half is most unusual," said Manchester head coach Gary Goshert. "But it's most appreciated."

Manchester went 10 of 13 from the field in the first half as Medley scored 11 points in the first eight minutes.

Whitko, who was short-handed this week in practice due to illness, needed the three-point shot to keep from trailing by double digits in the first quarter.

Camron Walter hit two three-pointers while freshman Cory Snep hit one.

The Wildcats looked like a team suffering from illness as Walter, Snep, Brad Smith and Jeff Coats played the majority of the contest with five other players rotating in and not playing more than 20 minutes.

Manchester pushed its lead to 15 points at halftime. Whitko cut the Squire lead to 10 points with 1:44 left in the half before Manchester went on a 7-2 run to close out the first half.

Whitko cut Manchester's lead to 10 once again before the Squires outscored the Wildcats 5-2 to end the third quarter.

The Wildcats cut Manchester's lead to 10 several times over the course of the second half and once to nine points.

"We played like we were sick and we were," said Whitko head coach Rob Irwin. "But give Manchester credit they played really well tonight."

While the Wildcats were without three kids for practice this week, Manchester also had an interesting week of practice.

"We probably had the widest range of practices this week," said Goshert. "Monday was the worst one we've had all year, Tuesday was better and Wednesday was probably the best we've had all year."

Wednesday's practice carried over to Thursday night's game as the Squires looked sharp on both ends of the floor.

Goshert believes an improved defensive effort is directly contributable to increased scoring.

"Scoring that many points takes the stress off the defensive end of the floor," said Goshert.

After Whitko cut Manchester's lead to nine at 58-49, Squire senior Brad Briner hit a clutch three-pointer from the corner to push his team's lead back to double digits.

Briner finished with nine points and his three pointer was Manchester's lone one of the game.

Bourne led all scorers with 24 points and eight rebounds while Medley ended his evening with 20 points and five boards.

Snep finished his night with 20 points while Smith scored 17 and Walter finished with 14. Coats totaled nine points and five rebounds.

"Cory (Snep), that's a very good freshman," said Irwin. "And Cam (Walter) played pretty well. Our problem was we played slow early and dug a hole that we couldn't get out of."

Manchester ends its regular season with four non-conference games. The first of which is a Saturday afternoon clash at Heritage. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

The Wildcats host Fort Wayne Blackhawk Tuesday in South Whitley with. The junior varsity game will start at 6:15 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]