By Adam Knoll
Sports Correspondent
In what could have turned out to have been a great season last year, the Whippet girls had to settle for second place overall in the Rock Valley North and a season ending 55-48 defeat to Milton in the WIAA Regional Final.
Despite the arrow trending upward for the program, there is a sense of unfinished business with this team. Whitewater finished with a 20-4 record, with a 13-3 conference mark. Two of those three losses came to East Troy, who was a perfect 16-0 in conference last season, and the main obstacle for the Whippets this season.
Whitewater averaged 56.7 points per game last season, with its top three scorers accounting for 40 points per game. This type of top heavy scoring can lead to great outbursts of offense, as evidenced by an 81 point outburst against Lake Mills last year. It can also, however, leave a team listless against good overall defensive efforts, in the final four games of the season last spring, Whitewater cracked 50 points only once and lost two of those games. The defense held opposing offenses to 44.4 points a game on average.
The future looks bright for Whitewater, who seems poised and ready to make some noise this winter. Most of it will undoubtedly be made by their explosive 5’10 guard Brooke Trewyn, who averaged 20.7 points per game last season, good for #12 in all of Wisconsin. Trewyn had a high game of 37 points and has already scored more than 1,200 points in her career, a school record.
Flanking Trewyn are two juniors, Sarah Schumacher and Kailey Reynolds who averaged 9.6 and 9.3 points per game last season, respectively. Whitewater has been primed for a prolonged run as it lost very little in the way of production from its graduating class last spring. All told, the seniors last season combined for less than 10 points per game.
In looking at the season schedule, four of the first six games of the season are against conference foes, which could put some early distance between the teams if Whitewater is able to take care of business. The two showdowns with East Troy have been saved for the second half of the season, one of which is slated for the final day of the calendar. The home game on Feb. 27 may well decide who will hold the Conference Championship crown.
Early setback suffered
In the first game of a much hyped 2013-’14 season, Whitewater dropped to 0-1, losing 59-54 against Oregon in what head coach Judy Harms called a “very tough season opener on the road.”
True to form, Trewyn led Whitewater with 22 points, which included 3 connections from downtown. In what turned out to be an exciting turn of events, Oregon utilized its own high scoring guard, Maddy Gits, to match Trewyn’s effort. Gits finished with 22 points herself, including four 3 pointers.
Early on, the scoring was in Whitewater’s favor. After an even first quarter the Whippets used a strong second quarter to take a six point lead into the half. A competitive third quarter sliced the lead to just two points, and Oregon used that momentum to outlast Whitewater 18-11 in the fourth frame.
Reynolds and Schumacher both had 7 points while Dani Dolan added 9. Whitewater was only 66 percent from the free throw line, 14 of 21 while Oregon was 6 of 12 from the line. Though Oregon would have more fouls at the end, Whitewater would ultimately have two players foul out of the game.
The Whippets had to wait until after the Thanksgiving holiday to try and right the ship. They travel to Evansville Thursday, Dec. 5 for their first test against a conference foe.
