MENTONE - In the past week Whitko's girls basketball team has faced two of the best young players in the northern part of the state.

Last Thursday Shanna Zolman, Wawasee freshman and Indiana's scoring leader, pulled out a 30-point effort with the flu. Tuesday night Maria Marchesano, Fort Wayne Elmhurst sophomore, connected on 6 of 9 three-point attempts in the first half.

The Wildcats lost the first of the aforementioned contests 54-50, and they lost the second 73-48 last night in the first round of the 3A Tippecanoe Valley Sectional, to finish with a season record of 10-11. Elmhurst moves to 13-8 and will play Fort Wayne Concordia at 6 p.m. Thursday. Concordia earned a trip to the semifinals with a 77-51 win over Peru.

Marchesano led all scorers with 33 points, while teammates Jamie Hibbard and Linda Graham added 12 and 11 points respectively. Whitko was led by senior BrieAnne Starkweather's 13 points. Senior Tisha Rowland and sophomore Stacie Warner each contributed nine points to the losing effort. Starkweather, who fouled out with 4:24 remaining in the fourth quarter, broke Whitko's single season scoring record with her 13-point performance. She needed 12 coming in.

"After a loss like this the seniors take it really hard," said Whitko coach Ray Davis. "BrieAnn left everything on the floor. It was a combination of things that got us tonight. The flu bug got us, we exerted a lot of energy in the first quarter and we weren't fundamentally sound."

Whitko shot just 14 of 47 from the field (29.8 percent) while the Trojans connected on 25 of 63 (39.7) field goal attempts, including seven three pointers.

Earlier in the season these two teams played to a 65-60 decision with Elmhurst coming out on top. In that game they played almost dead even in every category. Last night's game started much the same as the teams played to a 16-16 first-quarter stalemate.

Marchesano tallied two of her six three-pointers in the opening frame to finish the quarter with six points.

"You can't give her wide open shots," said Davis. "Our kids rotated over too much. She's a big-time player and she stepped up in tournament time when they needed it most."

If the 16-16 first-quarter score posed any questions Marchesano answered them in the second stanza. The Elmhurst sophomore connected on 4 of 5 attempts from three-point range in the frame, and added with a two-point field goal, she tallied 14 in the quarter giving her 22 for the half and giving her team a 10-point lead, 38-28.

Both teams struggled from the floor in the third quarter. The Wildcats shot 4 of 13 (30.8 percent); Elmhurst shot only 4 of 12 (33.3 percent) but still outscored Whitko 12-9 in the quarter to take a 50-37 lead into the final frame.

In the fourth quarter Elmhurst outscored Whitko 23-11 as the Wildcat bench began to shed some expected tears, most of those coming from Starkweather after she fouled out with 4:24 remaining.

"You don't want to see your seniors go down like this," said Davis. "We weren't fundamentally strong and Elmhurst took advantage of that."

Though Davis was disapointed at the outcome much of his postgame conversation with the media was positive reflection of the season, one game in particular.

"Last night (Monday) we had our sectional dinner with the parents," said Davis. "The parents framed the story from the Warsaw game for all the kids. It was the first time we beat them in something like 17 years, and that brings a smile to our faces." [[In-content Ad]]