LIGONIER – Whitko hit its first 20 free throws Thursday night, including 15 in the fourth quarter, helping the visiting Wildcats hold off West Noble 69-65. The Chargers held a four-point lead after a see-saw first half, and the Wildcats opened the third quarter with a trio of three-pointers, as Nate Walpole and River West each hit shots from beyond the arc, and Robby Owsley had a traditional hoop-and-harm three-point play to give Whitko the lead. Whitko head coach Roger Fleetwood made some adjustments at halftime, including starting Owsley, with the idea of improving play on both ends of the floor. “I thought our second half was fine. I thought we were very mediocre in the first half,” he said. “I didn’t think we showed any patience whatsoever offensively, and our defense wasn’t very good. In the second half I thought we played pretty solid. “Defensively, we wanted to match up a little better. I wanted to put pressure on their guards. I thought that worked; they didn’t get into their offense very well in the second half. Their guards were struggling getting the ball down the court. “Robby and Colin (Craig) may have been the difference in the game. Colin has not played well at all until this game. He was a great role player when we played at camps and stuff. He did all the little things and he had not done any of that up until this game. He took charges, he got rebounds, he helped out on defense. “We got 12 points out of Robby and Colin, and normally we get zero and zero out of them. That’s what we expect out of those two guys. They played hard for us all summer and we know what they can do.” Walpole led all scorers with 28 points, in spite of being constantly double and occasionally triple-teamed by the Chargers. “I tell the guys all the time they don’t know how hard that is to face that every game,” said Fleetwood. “Their goal was to go out and put as much size against him as they could. I thought they might go with a smaller guard, but they didn’t. They went with big people trying to bother his shot. We’re going to work harder next week on him shooting quicker off the dribble. Right now he wants to hang a little bit, which allows size to bother you. This was a good lesson for that.” Walpole was also credited with eight assists, including finding Tanner Gaff in the interior of the Charger defense for layups three times. Gaff finished with 12 points and West 11 for the Wildcats. The victory gave Fleetwood his 499th career win. Whitko will try and get Fleetwood his 500th win Saturday night when Wawasee travels to South Whitley.
