By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
As expected, the 19-1 overall Whitewater High School girls basketball team was seeded No. 1 of all Division 3 teams in the upcoming WIAA Tournament, according to Wissports.net.
The seeds were announced this past weekend. The playoffs are set to begin on Feb. 21, but because of the Whippets’ success during the regular season, the No. 1 seed the team earned also earned them a first round bye. The team will face the winner of No. 8 East Troy-No. 9 Brodhead.
Whitewater’s second round game will start at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24 and will be played at Whitewater High School. The Whippets have faced both East Troy and Brodhead earlier this season and in the lone game against Brodhead, the No. 1-ranked team won, 74-46.
In the game against East Troy, Whitewater also won convincingly, 61-30. The Whippets had two games on its schedule coming into this week and now that those are completed, the team has just one regular season game left, starting at 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 16 against East Troy at home for what could be a preview to a first round matchup.
Whippets face Jefferson
In the first of two games last week, Whitewater faced Jefferson on the road and won by its most narrow margin that the team has since Nov. 18 – seven – 42-35. The game on Nov. 18 was also a seven-point differential, and it was the Whippets’ first victory of the season, sparking its current 20-game winning streak.
In the seven-point win over Jefferson on Feb. 10, Whippet head coach Judy Harms talked about how the tighter, low-scoring contest played out.
“It wasn’t a crowd pleaser, but we needed to take the air out of the ball tonight,” she said. “I was proud of the girls working clock, and our goal was just to get out of there with the win. Whippets were missing three players, including a key starting post player, Miranda Reynolds, as well as their back-up post Jaden Henneman.
“Several players were also sick earlier this week. We became depleted falling into some foul trouble on top of it, and the best thing to do was just finish the game by using up the clock, making free throws and closing out the game.”
Whippet senior forward Myriama Smith-Traore led all scorers with 17 in the game and no other Whippet scored more than eight (Rebekah Schumacher). Whitewater held a four-point lead at halftime and won the second half by three to ensure its victory. The 19th win also clinched the Whippets’ fourth consecutive Rock Valley North Conference title. The win pushed the team’s overall record to 19-1.
