SOUTH WHITLEY — After spending two years in Class 3A Sectional 23, the Whitko boys basketball team picked a tough year to return to Sectional 21. Enrollment numbers at Columbia City bumped Whitko from Sectional 21 to Sectional 23 the previous two seasons, but with Columbia City moving back to Class 4A this year, Whitko (1-19) is back and faces a tough West Noble team in Tuesday’s opening game at Wawasee High School. “It’s a great sectional,” second-year Whitko coach Scott Wessel said. Along with West Noble (16-5), the other Sectional 21 favorites are No. 5 NorthWood (18-2) and defending champion Tippecanoe Valley (16-3). Following Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. opener between Whitko and West Noble, host Wawasee will face Valley Wednesday at 6 p.m., followed by Lakeland and NorthWood. Fairfield will face the winner of the Whitko/West Noble game Friday at 6 p.m., with the winners of Wednesday’s second game taking the court in the 7:30 p.m. semifinal. The championship game will be Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Against West Noble, Whitko faces a team that entered the top 10 after getting its season started at 11-0, but then lost three-straight games. Since its 11-0 start, West Noble has gone 5-5, but Wessel knows what his team is up against. “They’re a great team,” he said of West Noble. “They’re long and athletic and all of them can shoot and handle the ball. They have five or six really good basketball players.” Instead of relying on film, Wessel has first-hand knowledge of West Noble, as Whitko fell 67-38 in Ligonier on Feb. 13. “Their length and athleticism really got to us,” he said. “We hung around early, we just couldn’t handle their pressure as long as we needed to. Going into halftime, we were down by 11, but with three minutes left in the half, we were down by one. The pressure got to us at the end of the first half and killed the momentum we had going.” Going just seven-deep, with only two primary ball-handlers, pressure can wear down Whitko, but Wessel says mental fatigue may be more detrimental than physical. “I think our conditioning is pretty good, it’s just our fundamentals,” he said. “When teams force us to be fundamental on every single possession, it’s really hard for us. We can do it sometimes. We just can’t do it all the time, yet.” Whitko’s top player has been senior Dylan Cumberland, who’s averaged 13.9 points, 4.6 assists and 3.8 rebounds from his point guard position. Whitko’s other reliable scorer has been a freshman, as Nate Walpole is putting up 13.1 points to go with 3.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Outside of Cumberland and Walpole’s 27 points, the rest of the team is averaging 12.2. With so many struggles outside of two players, it’s easy to see why Whitko has managed just one win this season. “We play one guy that had varsity experience this year,” Wessel said, referring to Cumberland who had only started to play significant varsity minutes as a junior. “Everyone else either played JV three years, two years, one year or played 8th grade basketball. So our experience level was almost non-existent. “Our kids are great kids,” he added. “They’re trying to do what we ask. Unfortunately, we’re just not skilled enough to do it yet. I think we’re getting there.” Sophomore Devon Adkins has been coming on lately, averaging 6.8 points and 3.0 rebounds ppg. With such a small margin of error, Whitko’s had to play flawless basketball to stay in games, and that margin will be razor thin against West Noble. “For us, it’s about limiting our bad touches and we have to make some shots,” Wessel said. “Last time (against West Noble), we only shot mid-30 percent from the field. If we shoot like that again, we're really going to struggle.”
