By Daniel Schoettler
Correspondent
The Whitewater Whippets boys basketball team finished their regular season this past week with a close loss to Union Grove before falling to East Troy. The team will begin WIAA regionals this week.
On Tuesday, the Whippets fell on the road to Union Grove in a close one 61-58. Whitewater was outscored by ten in the first half before outscoring Union Grove 37-31 in the second half as the Whippets missed a shot at the buzzer that could have tied it.
“They had a trapping full court press and it went into a zone and we did a better job of handling that,” head coach Dan Gnatzig said. “We took the lead two times with one under a minute left, so we had opportunities to win the game.”
Daniel Fuller led the way for the Whippets with 14 points, while Bryce Parrish had 12 in the loss. Tyler Niemuth also contributed 11 points, while Logan Rasmussen had eight.
“Multiple people hit some big shots,” Gnatzig said. “Logan kind of got going in the second half and we were able to get him the ball and get some of their guys in foul trouble.”
On Thursday night, the Whippets closed out the regular season with a 74-59 loss on the road against East Troy. The Whippets were outscored in the first half 39-23 before outscoring East Troy 36-35 in the second half.
“They (East Troy) played well offensively,” Gnatzig said. “We played well offensively in the second half, and played pretty hard defensively.”
Senior Logan Rasmussen led the way for the Whippets with 19, while Daniel Fuller had 18. Ben Kloskey also contributed eight points, while Roberto Navejas had six.
Rasmussen and Kloskey both could have had more points, and both missed shots from the free throw line in the loss.
“We did get some good looks where we were fouled and didn’t make free throws,” Gnatzig said. “The positive was we were running good sets and getting good shots, but we weren’t finishing free throws.”
The Whippets finish the regular season 9-13. The team finished fourth in the Rock Valley North with a 7-9 finish.
They will open up the WIAA playoffs at home against Marshall, who the Whippets beat the first game of the season 57-56. The winner of that game will play against Lake Mills on Friday.
“We need balanced scoring, and I think we have excellent opportunities to score with some mismatches,” Gnatzig said. “They have two really good scorers, so to try to limit them and have them work for their points.”
