By Kevin Cunningham
Sports correspondent
The No. 1-ranked team in the state just keeps posting double-digit victory after double-digit victory. The Whitewater High School girls basketball team had two games this past week and thanks to a 12-point and a 15-point win, are now 20-1 overall on the season.
The 12-point win came on Feb. 12 against McFarland, who is the second place team in the Rock Valley North Conference standings. Despite being right behind Whitewater in the standings, it was the Whippets who came out with a win on the road.
First halves have told the stories of a lot of games for Whitewater this season, often times seeing the team jump out to big leads. In this one, the two teams played more than just closely, they were tied at 22.
Then in the second half, the Whippets found their stride and out-scored McFarland by 12 for the 54-42 win. Myriama Smith-Traore led all scorers with her 24 points, all rebounders with 13 rebounds, and all players with four blocked shots.
“We made sure there wasn’t a repeat performance from McFarland’s Gabi Runde the first time around,” Whippets head coach Judy Harms said. “Whippets held Runde to just four points, including no 3’s, compared to her hot hand of 28 earlier in the season. We had some very nice defensive performances from several players that made a key difference.
“Cheyenne Minton especially did an outstanding job down the stretch, and [Rebekah] Schumacher nabbed some impressive steals, finishing with nine.”
With Schumacher’s nine steals came 13 points, which included going 7-of-7 from the free throw line. As a team total, it was McFarland who won the rebounding battle, 28-27.
In the team’s second game of the week, on Feb. 16, the Whippets travelled to play Oregon High School and it was the first half that made the difference. By the first half’s end, the Whippets doubled up Oregon, 28-14.
Then in the second half, the Whippets beat Oregon by one, en route to its 55-40 victory. The win marks the team’s 19th straight win on the season.
Smith-Traore had another 20-plus point performance in this one, scoring 23 with 10 made field goals. No other player made more than five shots from the field, and the game’s next high scorer was Schumacher with 13.
Oregon made more 3-pointers and shot a better percentage from the charity stripe according to wissports.net, but Whitewater displayed its dominance early. At 20-1 overall, the Whippets earned a No. 1 seed heading into the WIAA Tournament.
The team still has one game remaining on its schedule – a contest starting at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday at East Troy High School – but it was announced on Feb. 13 that the team had earned a first round bye in the state tournament.
Whitewater is in Sectional #3 and will face the winner of Beloit Turner-East Troy at 7 p.m. on Feb. 26 at Whitewater High School. East Troy, the team’s final regular season opponent, is 9-12 on the season, while Beloit Turner is currently 12-9 overall.
Along with East Troy and Beloit Turner in Whitewater’s Sectional are the state’s No. 2 and No. 7-ranked teams, Marshall and Brodhead, respectively. Marshall was 20-0 entering this past week while Brodhead was 17-3.
Whitewater and Brodhead met in early January, in Brodhead, and the Whippets won, 57-56. Smith-Traore was the show to see statistically, posting a 14-point, 15-rebound and nine blocked shots stat-line.
