It was a hard-fought loss for the Whiteoak Wildcats Tuesday night when they traveled to Western Latham High School to take on the Indians. The physical, fast paced game ended in a 60-41 loss for Whiteoak.
In the first quarter, the Wildcats played right with the Indians except for allowing a few baskets stringed together by their opponents, and at the end of the first eight minutes were down just eight points at 16-8.
Rebounding was a big problem for the Wildcats in the game, especially on the defensive side as Western was able to consistently get their own offensive rebounds for second chance looks at scoring. At halftime, Whiteoak had fallen further behind with a score of 29-17.
In the third and fourth quarter, the Wildcats were able to step up their scoring with 12 points in each of the eight minute frames, but Western was able to outscore them both quarters with 16 in each and take the win 60-41.
“[Western Latham] is athletic and we knew coming in that we needed to box out,” said Wildcats head coach Jeremy McGraw after the game. “Our gameplan was to keep them n front and not let them penetrate and get rebounds and we didn’t do that. They killed us on the offensive boards. Our effort was absolutely terrible tonight. We just got outplayed and outcoached tonight.”
Box
WHS – 8 9 12 12 – 41
WLHS – 16 12 16 16 – 60
Whiteoak – Ashbaugh 5(1) 2/2 – 15; Burns 2(1) – 7; Marler 3 1/2 – 7; McClure (2) 0/2 – 6; Crowe 1 2/2 – 4; Ross 1 0/2 – 2. Totals: 12(4) 5/10 – 41.
Western Latham: B. Brewster 6 3/4 – 15; Perdue 6 1/1 – 13; Herman 3(1) – 9; Stevens 4 0/2 – 8; Lykins 3 – 6; L. Brewster (1) – 3; Dunn 1 0/1 – 2; Fenewn 1/2 – 1; Hersman 1/2 – 1. Totals: 24(2) 6/12 – 60.
Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer.
