SOUTH WHITLEY – Three Whitko Wildcats scored in double figures, led by junior Nate Walpole’s 27 points, as they turned a two-point game in the third quarter into a 66-49 win over visiting Wawasee Saturday night. The win gave Whitko’s Roger Fleetwood his 500th career head coaching victory. Wawasee sophomore Jairus Boyer kept his team in the game early, as foul trouble plagued Warriors. He scored 11 of his team-high 14 points before halftime. Meanwhile, Whitko was in the double bonus 10 minutes into the game and took advantage by hitting all 11 of their free throw attempts in building a 31-22 halftime lead. Four points from Parker Hatfield, a Boyer trey and a tough layup from Dalton Pearish brought Wawasee back to within two at 35-33 midway through the third quarter. Whitko closed the quarter on a 9-0 run, then exploded in the fourth quarter. River West, who finished with 16 points, hit a pair of treys and Devon Adkins scored eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter to salt the game away. Fleetwood said his team stuck to the gameplan and he was pleased with the performance the Wildcats turned in. “We played pretty well all night,” he said. (Wawasee) came out with a lot of enthusiasm. They played really hard to start the game. They were changing defenses, which we felt like they would. We knew they were going to play Nate real hard and River real hard; that’s a broken record that’s going to happen for the next 18 games or whatever we have left. “We stuck to our guns tonight. I was really pleased that we showed more patience offensively tonight than we have in a lot of other games. We didn’t allow all that pressure to get us out of what we were trying to do. We really got the ball to the open guy tonight. We weren’t making them early, but Nate kept us in there until River started making shots and Dev scored some. I was really proud of how well we played the second half, especially the last quarter-and-a-half. “When they jumped back in the game and cut it to two, I thought it was big that we turned it around on ‘em. Then we came out and played our best quarter of the year in the fourth quarter on both ends. That wasn’t just an offensive show; that was a really good defensive effort without fouling.” A year ago when the two teams met in Syracuse, it was Wawasee that had the advantage in experience and the home court, and Whitko was finding its way in the Warriors’ 62-39 win. This year, the roles were reversed. “This is a really good win for us,” Fleetwood said. “Wawasee has a young team, an inexperienced team; they had a lot of seniors last year. That showed over 32 minutes. We had a lot of guys back and that showed too.” While appreciative of the spark Boyer brought in from the bench, and the run to make it a close game early in the second half, Wawasee head coach Steve Wiktorowski recognized his team’s troubles brought on by the early fouls. “I thought we really struggled tonight to get into any kind of a rhythm because of our fouls,” said Wiktorowski. “I thought defensively we didn’t do a bad job overall; we’ve got to learn to play that kind of defense without fouling. I thought most of them were fairly legitimate fouls. “We had some great play off the bench tonight. Obviously Jairus (Boyer) and Dalton (Pearish), both those kids came in and did a nice job. I thought defensively we did a pretty good job on Walpole, even though he scored a lot of points. He’s really difficult to defend. He got some of our kids into foul trouble. I thought later on in the fourth quarter he played very unselfish; he found some open people as we were trying to key on him. “It was obvious that team played all of last year together, and they played in a little better rhythm.” “I liked how we came out in the second half and made a run at ‘em. It got a little bit away from us there at the end. I thought clearly there were some positive things as we continue to grow. But our offense obviously has to get better. “ Pearish finished with 11 points for the Warriors. Tanner Gaff pulled down 10 rebounds for the Wildcats. Whitko (4-2) hosts Tippecanoe Valley in Three Rivers Conference play Friday. Wawasee falls to 1-4 and opens Northern Lakes Conference play against Warsaw in the Tiger Den Friday.
