Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NORTH MANCHESTER - Sitting in his office after his team's 47-34 win over Whitko Friday night, Manchester girls basketball head coach Mark Underwood talked about the Wildcats.
"My hats off to Whitko. I felt like they worked hard, they were well organized and they're a young team that has improved a lot," said Underwood. "They didn't look like a team that had only won one game."
This year's Wildcats sound quite familiar to the '03 Squire team that was filled with freshmen and sophomores and slogged through a 4-17 season.
Now those players are upperclassmen and combined with talented sophomores and are looking to give Underwood his first sectional crown.
Junior Cami Naragon came off the bench to provide a spark to a struggling Manchester offense.
Naragon started the second half in place of Sarah Purdy. Purdy was forced to sit out the beginning of the third quarter due to a cut on her knee that wasn't bandaged in time for the second half.
Naragon scored Manchester's first four points in the third quarter.
"I thought she was more offensively aggressive tonight than she's been in a lot of games," said Underwood of Naragon's performance. "She really tried to take it to the hole and make things happen, so I thought that was very positive."
Naragon scored eight points and pulled down four rebounds Friday night.
If the third quarter was Naragon's, the fourth quarter belonged to Purdy.
Purdy finished with seven points and six rebounds on the evening and led the Squires on a 13-3 run that broke the game open
"I thought in the fourth quarter, Sarah Purdy came out as a sparkplug defensively and got some of the other girls fired up, too."
The Wildcats came into the final period trailing by just nine points. Manchester struggled from the field in the first half but began to slowly improve as the game progressed. Underwood's squad shot 5 of 11 from the field in the final quarter, good for 45 percent. That's a far cry from the 11 of 41 (23 percent) the Squires shot in the first three quarters
While Manchester continued to improve from the field, Whitko struggled for all 32 minutes. The Wildcats connect ed on just 13 of 49 shots from the field and got to the free-throw line just 15 times, compared to 31 for Manchester.
Neither team put on a clinic from the charity stripe, however. The Squires connected on just 15 of its free throw attempts to end the evening at a 48-percent clip. Whitko was slightly better, finishing at 53 percent.
Coach Underwood believed his teams early shooting woes were cause to a lackadaisical mindset.
"I think the reason for our poor shooting in the first half was that we weren't mentally into this game," said Underwood. "I don't think it was anything wrong with our mechanics. When you're not focused and letting other things distract you, it's going to affect your shooting."
Whitko shocked Manchester and its hometown crowd early by jumping out to a 6-1 first-quarter lead.
Freshman Jennaca Juillerat scored four straight points in the opening quarter to pace Whitko.
Juillerat led the Wildcats in scoring with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field.
The Squires' early struggles from the field obscured Whitko's own troubles from the field and in the rebounding department.
Manchester out rebounded the Wildcats 31-18 in the first half.
Sophomore Libby Pattison brought down 10 first-half rebounds to go with eight points in the first 16 minutes. Pattison rounded out her double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
For Whitko, another frustrating loss does have some tangible benefits. While moral victories don't show up in the box score or help coaches sleep at night, Wildcat head coach Ryan Cunningham knows Friday night's loss served some good.
"We've had to the last couple years, rely on moral victories. And I don't like to do that. But I understand its a process. And if it takes a year or two to get to the level of Manchester's, Rochester's and Valley's then I'm going to be patient with it," said Cunningham.
While Whitko continues to grow up on offense, it is learning it takes desire, not talent, to play good defense. For Cunningham and his staff, his kids were threatened with learning that lesson the hard way.
"We gave them a gut check this week. If you give up x-amount of points, you're going to have to start running and doing some other things. So part of it was they didn't want to run and part of it was they took a little more pride in what they were doing tonight," said Cunningham.
Manchester's 29 percent shooting from the field and 21 turnovers should keep the wind sprints to a minimum.
The Squires, 7-1 overall and 2-0 in the Three Rivers Conference, host another TRC foe in Southwood Friday at 6 p.m. The Wildcats, 1-8 overall and 0-2 in the TRC, travel to West Noble Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
MANCHESTER 47, WHITKO 34
Whitko 6 7 8 13 - 34
Manchester 6 11 13 7 - 47
Whitko FG FT R S Pts.
*Juricak 2-6 0-2 3 1 4
*Busz 1-5 0-0 2 0 2
*Jersey 1-4 0-0 4 1 2
*Juillerat 3-5 4-6 3 0 10
*Begley 2-9 3-4 7 3 7
Wendel 0-3 0-0 2 0 0
Trump 0-4 1-3 1 1 1
Westness 3-10 0-0 3 3 6
Studebaker 1-3 0-0 0 0 2
Totals 13-49 8-15 25 9 34
Manchester FG FT R S Pts.
*Purdy 3-5 1-2 6 2 7
*Pattison 3-8 4-8 13 2 10
*Siebrase 2-11 2-3 6 2 6
*Peden 4-10 3-6 5 2 11
*Andersen 1-3 0-0 7 1 2
Naragon 3-10 2-4 4 0 8
Thomas 0-3 1-4 3 1 1
Fratus 0-2 1-2 3 0 1
Coble 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
Winterrowd 0-0 1-2 0 0 1
Carver 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 16-52 15-31 50 8 47
Three-point goals - Whitko 0-8, Manchester 0-6 Turnovers - Whitko 18, Manchester 21. Fouls - Whitko 24, Manchester 17 . Fouled out - Juillerat (Whitko)
JV - Manchester 24, Whitko 21
