By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
Going into the holiday break, Whitewater High School’s girls basketball team was ranked No. 3 in Division 3 according to wissports.com. The team then played against Lake Mills on Jan. 3 and was victorious, 63-43.
With the 20-point victory at home, the Whippets currently sit at No. 2 in the rankings behind Madison Edgewood, the team Whitewater lost to in last year’s playoffs. Against Lake Mills on Tuesday, the Whippets opened up to a 30-15 halftime lead and then never trailed.
As a team, Whitewater shot 26-of-81 from the field and 3-of-21 from three-point range, but the shooting percentages didn’t deter the team from winning. Whippet head coach Judy Harms said the team was coming off a long break, not playing a game in nearly two weeks, but despite being a bit sluggish, the fans got to see some nice spurts.
She also said it was nice that the team was able to play a non-conference foe before getting back into the swing of things against the Rock Valley Conference. Senior forward Myriama Smith-Traore led all scorers with 17 and added 14 rebounds to go along with her four blocked shots and four assists.
Ali Ketterhagen finished with 14 points and Rebekah Schumacher added 13. Schumacher also recorded eight assists, eight steals and two blocked shots in the contest.
For Lake Mills, aside from Megan Will’s 16 points, no other player scored more than eight. With Whitewater’s win, the team is now winners of its last eight games.
The team played Brodhead at home Jan. 5; results will appear in next week’s issue. It was the team’s last home game for roughly two weeks, as the Jan. 10 game against Clinton and Jan. 13 game against East Troy are both on the road.