With just one week in the regular season remaining, local girls basketball teams Whitko and Lakeland Christian met in Winona Lake Tuesday night for the penultimate game of the regular season. The Lady ‘Cats passed the test with flying colors, going up early and cruising to a 48-27 victory.
The Lady ‘Cats enjoyed a fast start to the game, with Reese Stonebreaker and Ally Brown scoring the first four points of the night in the first two minutes. In addition to playing well on offense, the defense of the visitors was smothering, preventing LCA from putting up any clean looks at the basket in the game’s opening minutes.Midway through the first quarter, the Lady Cougars had more turnovers than shots attempted.
Lakeland Christian was playing some solid defense of its own after the opening surge by Whitko, forcing the Lady ‘Cats to attempt some tough shots that they had a hard time making. Even still, getting anything to go offensively was becoming a major struggle for LCA, as five minutes into the game, the home side was still looking for its first points.
Finally, with a little under two minutes to go in the first senior Dayton Sibert put her team on the board with a putback layup after an offensive board. It was quickly answered by Whitko senior Braisha Harrison, who came off of the bench to bury a timely three. That seemed to open the floodgates on the outside shooting for the visitors, as Jayma Stonebreaker hit another deep shot from the corner a possession later to make it a double digit game.
A second basket by Sibert with just seconds remaining would be the final points scored in the quarter, and after eight minutes, the visitors held onto a 14-4 lead.
Scoring was still a struggle as the second quarter got going, with just two points going on the board over the first three minutes. Holding onto a 12-point lead, the Lady ‘Cats seemed content to take their time offensively, passing around the perimeter while working on different plays. Possessions were beginning to drain an awful lot of clock with no more points being scored until a three by Adriyanna Phillips with 3:45 left in the half.
Similar to the first period, LCA was unable to get anything going offensively until a bucket by freshman Olivia Hawks with three minutes to go. They were unable to match the pace of the visitors, which while not blistering, was enough for Whitko to continue to expand on their lead. With a little under a minute left in the second, a pair of steals and scores led to some easy looks at the rim that extended the lead to 20.
That's where things would stay as halftime arrived, with the Lady ‘Cats holding onto a commanding 26-6 advantage.
A pair of buckets by Hawks and Phillips got the scoring started about two minutes into the third quarter. Whitko was using its defense to create some easy offense once more, getting into passing lanes and turning steals into quick buckets in transition. The lead would get up to 25 for the visitors before two straight buckets by LCA broke things up a smidge.

    LCA senior Katie Reimink drives down the lane as Reese Stonebreaker of Whitko defends...Nieter

In the latter half of the quarter, the Lady Cougars finally started to find some rhythm offensively, combining it with a string of stops in a row to inch closer to Whitko. Even still, the home side was still down 19 and needed to speed things up if they wanted to pull off the comeback.
The Lady ‘Cats got back on track in the final minute of the third, scoring three of the final four baskets in the quarter to open their lead back up to 23 at 39-16 heading into the final eight minutes of action.
A second three for Harrison to begin the fourth extended the lead to 26, the largest of the game thus far. The visitors didn’t stop there, adding onto their lead with a series of scores throughout the period. With about five minutes to go in the game, Whitko emptied its bench and let the reserves go the rest of the way. Among the players who played well during this stretch was freshman Hazel Leffers.
With the starters out of the game, LCA was able to find a bit more success on the offensive end to cut into the lead in the contest’s final minutes. Hawks, the team’s leading scorer, continued to put in the work inside as she piled up the points.
Whitko (16-4) wraps up the regular season Thursday at home against Wawasee, while Lakeland Christian (10-11) plays its regular season finale Friday against Lakewood Park Christian.