By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
As the No. 9 seed in the WIAA Tournament, the Whitewater High School boys basketball team faced No. 8-seeded Clinton on the road on March 1 in a first round playoff game. Prior to the playoffs starting though, the Whippets its regular season with a 97-60 loss to East Troy on Senior Night, on Feb. 25.
The team fell to 7-14 overall on the season heading into postseason play. In that game against East Troy, defense came hard to come by, especially in the second half – as the Whippets gave up 56 points.
Three Whippets scored in double digits but none had higher than Griffin Nathan’s 13. Two players for East Troy went for 23 or more, with Jake Nixon scoring 27. The Whippets made nine 3-pointers in the game but were outdone by East Troy’s 13 made shots from behind the arc.
In the playoff game against Clinton on Tuesday, the team got out to an early lead and led at halftime, 33-30. In the second half though, Clinton would storm back with less than six minutes left to play and eventually end Whitewater’s season with a 65-58 victory.
Clinton’s Zach Krause had a game-high 17 points while the Whippets got 16 apiece from Brodie Runez and Tyrus Wintlend. Daniel Fuller aided the Whippets with 12 as well.
The Whippets made seven of its 3-pointers in this game compared to Clinton’s six and Whitewater also missed four fewer free throws. Foul trouble reared its head as Whitewater committed 18 to Clinton’s 11 and sophomore forward Bryce Parrish fouled out of the game.
The loss may have ended the Whippets’ season for 2015-16 but the team did better than they did a year ago, finishing 7-15 overall with a 7-9 record in Rock Valley Conference play. In 2014-15, the team went 5-18 overall and owned a 5-11 record in the Rock Valley Conference.
The Whippets will lose two of its top five scorers from this year due to graduation, but retain its top three heading into next season. Runez, a junior guard, led the team in scoring and was the only one to average at least 10 points per game, with 13.6.
