By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
It was just two years ago when the Whitewater High School girls basketball team finished its season undefeated at 28-0 and were winners of the state title. After coming off an incredible high, last season ended in the second round of the playoffs, but the Whippets went 22-2 overall.
“Last year we only had two losses and both of those teams made it to state, so that’s a little bit easier to digest,” Whippets head coach Judy Harms said. “We’re really starting off with some really tough teams in Marshall and Stoughton ranked in the state.
“Our game against Marshall, I just think we needed a wake-up call. We shot very poorly as a team. We’re just going to put it behind us and move on… well, my girls really bounced back well against Stoughton. That was a huge, huge win for us and that was a road win. So, we’re very optimistic about the season… but we know that we have to play well every night.”
In the first game of this season, the Whippets faced Marshall, a team that, as Harms mentioned, was a high quality team that eventually lost to the same team that Harms’ group lost to in the playoffs last year. With a tough game came a tough opening first half and an eventual defeat, 66-60.
Marshall outscored the Whippets 39-29 in the first half and held on in the second. Harms mentioned the team shooting a poor percentage, but the foul discrepancy couldn’t go unnoticed, as Whitewater got called for 27 fouls compared to Marshall’s 14.
Marshall’s leading scorer, Elizabeth Lutz, scored 29 points, but 19 of them came from the foul line. For the Whippets, senior leaders Myriama Smith-Traore and Rebekah Schumacher led the way with 20 and 13 points, respectively.
In game two, Harms said her team’s intensity was like night and day between Marshall and Stoughton – the latter a ranked Division 2 team in the state. Whitewater competes in Division 3. Despite the division gap and road game, Whitewater came away with a 44-37 victory.
Schumacher led with 16 points and right behind her was Smith-Traore, amassing 15. With her 15 points, Smith-Traore passed the 1,000-point milestone, currently sitting at 1,007 – good for fourth in school history.
Over the off-season, the 6-foot-2 senior forward committed to Marquette. She had been heavily recruited since her freshman season and decided to stay close to home with the Golden Eagles. Her teammate, Schumacher committed to Quincy University, which competes in Division 2 in Illinois.
Harms talked about the team outside of those two players and the contributions needed in order for the team to reach its ultimate goal.
“We’ve talked about that all summer long, how last season, we became too reliant on Rebekah and Myriama,” Harms said. “We need to have trust in the other kids and our win against Stoughton was exactly that. We had some really outstanding drives by a couple of different kids and as long as we can keep having contributions from the bench, we will be fine. Against Stoughton, I was just so impressed with Myriama and Rebekah’s leadership on the floor. They talked a lot more than what they’ve ever talked and we need to continue that.”
Growing as the season goes along is a crucial part for any team if they want to succeed and Harms said free throw shooting is something that needs to improve. Against Stoughton, it wouldn’t have been a close game if the Whippets had knocked its free throws down because of how well they played, she said.
She also talked about the things her team has always done well.
“Our rebounding has been astonishing,” Harms said. “And then Marshall, for some reason, we got outrebounded terribly. It was a wake-up call. We’re good in transition, but we still need to tweak some things. We’ve already made huge steps up with our defense, but we have to continue to work on that. You know, it’s always a work under construction because there are always things you can work on.
“I think that’s a key too, to keep them working and you have to stay humble. You can’t have big heads thinking you can walk in and win because that’s when a team sneaks up and surprises you.”
For Whitewater, its next game will take place after the Thanksgiving weekend, at 7:15 p.m. on Nov. 29 at McFarland High School. Following the McFarland game will be another road contest on Dec. 2 at Edgerton and then the Whippets will be back home for a 7:15 p.m. game on Dec. 8 against Parkview.
