SOUTH WHITLEY - Whitko High School's varsity boys basketball team improved to 2-1 on the young season as the Wildcats hosted Norwell in a physical game Friday.
The Wildcats held off a late charge with clutch free throws down the stretch from freshman Logan Irwin and got some hot shooting from junior Travis Lepper to prevail 59-53 over the Knights.Irwin was a perfect 8 for 8 from the free-throw line and Lepper chipped in five points in the fourth quarter to hold off the Norwell charge.
"Norwell played a little physical game tonight," Whitko coach Rob Irwin said. "They are big and young. Our defense kept them from doing what they wanted to do. They mostly beat us from the three-point area."
Whitko broke the game open in the second quarter and never trailed the rest of the way.
Irwin, who finished with 16 points on the night, hit a jumper and a three-point basket to lead the Wildcats on a 12-2 run to break a 10-10 tie after the first quarter.
On top of his offensive night, Irwin also finished the game with four steals.
Whitko went into halftime with a 28-17 lead with the help of eight points in the quarter by Irwin.
"The kids played extremely hard tonight and we did what we needed to win," Rob Irwin said. "We may have become the team that we want tonight."
The Whitko defense held Norwell to 20-of-47 shooting from the field, including a dismal 7 of 23 in the first half.
The Knights cut the score to 36-31 in the third on a three-point basket from Kyle Johnholz and appeared to take the momentum.
However, Lepper came right back down the floor and hit a three-pointer to take the score to 39-31 late in the third quarter.
Lepper led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field.
"We had a great team effort tonight," said Irwin. "Kaden (Krull) scored a big basket down the stretch. He's starting to come into his own. He is becoming a force to be reckoned with."
Krull finished with eight points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor.
"Max Elder probably played his best game of his career tonight," Irwin said. "He is not a guy who is going to be the one who scores 20 points a game. He is there around the ball and he did a good job on defense and rebounding tonight."
Norwell cut the lead to three at 48-45 with 2:39 to play on a three-point basket by Brock Morphew.
Irwin then hit six-straight free throws to take the score to 56-49 with 40.7 seconds to play in the fourth.
Whitko shot a blazing 10 of 11 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, finishing the game at 15 of 16 from the line.
"We had the right guys get fouled tonight at the right time," said Irwin. "The guys know if we don't hit the free throws they run more in practice."
Whiko plays host to Central Noble Tuesday in an effort to improve to 3-1 for the season.
"I am proud of the guys," Irwin said. "They played the game and never gave up. We constantly stayed in their faces. Logan, Travis, Kaden and Zac (VanDeWater) all did what we needed them to do and it showed in the end."
Norwell was led by a balanced scoring attack.
Jordan Shady led the Knights with 13 points, followed by 12 points each from Johnholz and Klay Fiechter
