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North Manchester - The weather outside was frightful and the basketball played inside was equally scary, as far as the Whitko Wildcats girls basketball teamed was concerned.
With temperatures dipping near 15 degrees, the Wildcats were every bit as cold in falling to the Manchester Squires 52-37 in Friday's Three Rivers Conference game.
The Squires used a 13-4 second-quarter scoring advantage to put a once close game into the win column.
The Wildcats held a 10-9 lead after the first period, thanks to senior center Monica Sands. Sands scored all 10 Wildcat points, giving Whitko its final lead of the evening.
Manchester built its lead due Heather Terflinger's and Carrie White's play in the second period. Terflinger and White each scored three points.
Manchester decided to hold the ball for the remaining 2:12 seconds of the second period as Whitko coach Mike Sands and both referees inexplicably allowed the Squires to run out the half.
"We were content to go into the half up eight points," said Manchester coach Mike Parker. "I was a little concerned, though, to slow it down too much to take away from our rhythm."
The rule in high school basketball states that the trailing team -Êin this case Whitko - must force the action. Whitko sat back in a zone, and neither referee forced them to play man-to-man. In any event, Manchester took a 22-14 lead into halftime.
Whitko fired out of the blocks in the third period behind Teri Walter's three-point field goal to trim the lead to 22-17.
Angela Trump's layup at the 4:50 mark of the third cut deeper into the Squire lead at 24-21.
Sands' rebound of a missed shot and subsequent layup cut Manchester's lead to 26-23, but that was as close as the Wildcats would come, thanks in part to the foul problems that saddled Sands.
Sands' layup at the 4:00 mark of the third would be all the points she'd score for the rest of the evening as she picked up her fourth foul at the 1:24 mark. She would not return until the 6:13 mark of the fourth.
During that time, Manchester outscored Whitko 8-2, virtually ending the evening for the Wildcats.
"Sands' fourth foul gave us a better run," Parker said. "Jessica picked it up after Sands went out. When Sands gets it in the blocks, we were in trouble."
Hicks added three baskets and four rebounds in the absence of Sands, giving Manchester a 41-27 lead at the end of the third.
"Jessica really went after the ball tonight," Parker said. "She did well on the defensive end."
Hicks tallied 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Manchester closed out the Wildcats in the fourth for the win. Manchester moves to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in the Three Rivers Conference, while Whitko falls to 3-5 overall and 0-2 in the TRC. Whitko has lost three straight games, scoring 35, 35 and 37 points in the losses.
"I feel good," Parker said. "I wish our offense would catch up to our defense. It has been that way since the start of the season. We did shoot it better in the second half, though."
What Parker was referring to was the 18-of-45 shooting, a 40 percent effort.
Manchester also missed all five of its three-point attempts.
Defensively, Manchester limited Whitko to 12 of 38 from the field (32 percent) and 2 of 8 (25 percent) from beyond the three-point arc.
Terflinger hit 6 of 13 field goals and 6 of 7 free throws to lead Manchester with 18 points.
"Heather found some holes to go through," Parker said. "She went coast-to-coast a couple of times (in the second half)."
Manchester is at Maconaquah on Thursday, while Whitko is at West Noble on Tuesday.
MANCHESTER 52, WHITKO 37
Whitko 10 4 13 10 - 37
Manchester 9 13 19 11 - 52
Whitko FG FT A S R Pts.
Walter 2-7 3-3 1 0 2 8
Sands 5-10 5-8 1 1 7 15
Rowland 0-1 0-0 0 0 2 0
Wendel 0-0 2-2 0 1 2 2
Warner 2-8 0-2 0 0 0 4
Trump 1-4 0-0 1 0 4 2
Badskey 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0
Jersey 0-2 0-0 1 0 0 0
Cripe 2-4 1-2 0 1 0 6
Totals 12-38 11-17 4 3 17 37
Manchester FG FT A S R Pts.
Terflinger 6-13 6-7 4 3 4 18
Jester 2-4 1-2 0 1 1 5
White 2-6 2-3 0 0 6 6
Harms 3-6 2-4 1 1 4 8
Hicks 5-11 7-8 0 2 10 15
Keffaber 0-0 0-1 0 0 3 0
Rager 0-1 0-0 0 1 2 0
Brubaker 0-2 0-1 0 0 2 0
Brown 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 18-45 18-26 5 8 32 52
Three-point goals - Whitko 2-9 (Walter 1-2, Cripe 1-2, Badskey 0-2, Jersey 0-2, Warner 0-1), Manchester 0-5 (Terflinger 0-4, Jester 0-1). Total fouls - Whitko 22, Manchester 14. Fouled out -ÊSands.
JV: WHITKO 38, MANCHESTER 14
Whitko (5-1) scoring -ÊJersey 7, Hatton 3, Cripe 3, Rowland 4, Socha 4, Wendel 8, Sellers 7, Weisneberger 2
Manchester (0-6) scoring -ÊFox 2, Roser 4, Farmer 2, Hippensteel 2, Fairchild 4
