By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
Unfortunately for Whitewater High School’s girls basketball team, history repeated itself against Madison Edgewood. One week ago, the Whippets entered the WIAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed in its region and the No. 1-ranked team in the state, according to Wissports.com.
With the No. 1 seed, the team earned a first-round bye and then defeated No. 9-seeded Brodhead, 64-33. In the next round, to win regionals, the Whippets faced the only team it lost to during the regular season – Marshall – and beat them, 52-33.
Next came the sectional semi-final round on March 2. Whitewater, despite being ranked as the top-team in state, had to face No. 2-ranked Madison Edgewood. It was a rematch from a season ago, as Madison Edgewood took on Whitewater last year in the postseason and ended the Whippets’ season.
This time around, history indeed repeated itself.
“We tried different things,” Whippet head coach Judy Harms said. “We used three different defenses. But to tell you the truth, it doesn’t really matter when a team like Edgewood gets hot, they get hot. They’re hard to stop. And [Estella] Moschkau can hit three’s from NBA land. She could virtually shoot anytime she chooses to. Even if we cut it really close, I think she would’ve taken over then.
“She didn’t take as many shots as she was capable of because they’ve been trying to really balance the floor and not rely on her, which is exactly what we were trying to do with our kids, too. We needed kids to step up in terms of scoring and if you’re going to move on in a tournament, you need contributions from everybody. It’s not as though we didn’t try, we just didn’t perform up to the level we needed to in order to beat them.”
Madison Edgewood defeated Whitewater, 61-48. Moschkau, who Harms mentioned, is a senior committed to play next season at Stanford.
Moschkau ended the game with 16 points, outscoring every Whippet, but it was Madison Edgewood’s Katie Meriggioli who finished with a game-high 29. Meriggioli is committed to play at Bentley University, which competes in Division II.
For the Whippets, a pair of their own soon-to-be collegiate athletes led in scoring, as Rebekah Schumacher (committed to D-II Quincy University) had 14 and Myriama Smith Traore (committed to Marquette) ended with 12.
“Oh boy, I am so spoiled as a coach,” Harms said. “Especially when teams pressed us, Rebekah and Myriama were a dynamic duo in getting the press broken. We didn’t have to execute a lot of press breakers. I didn’t have to spend a lot of time in practice over it because we never had issues. At practice it’s nice because you can focus on other things.”
With the loss, Whitewater finished its season at 23-2 overall. The team went on a 23-game winning streak after losing its season-opener to Marshall. Madison Edgewood went onto the sectional final round and defeated Platteville, 57-31, and will play in the state semi-final round on March 9.
There was one moment from the season that stuck in Harms’ memory, she said. It was a lock-in, when the team spent a night at Washington Elementary School – where Harms teaches. Harms didn’t want to do it, but the team talked her into it.
“That was probably the best thing that happened to us this season,” she said. “It was really a phenomenal experience; the kids bonded and I would not hesitate to do that again. That’s the first team I’ve ever done that with. Seeing the end of Rebekah’s and Myriama’s careers – that was really hard to stomach. I’ll miss the fun they brought to the team.
“Usually we take a day with the program and play dodgeball or something and that’s usually at the high school. But at Washington, thanks to a lot of people, we were able to install black lights and so we took the program over there and did some glow games, which were super fun. They played a game – oh what did they call it – sardines. They played that for about two hours while I was doing stats and it was sprawled out over the building. It’s kind of like hind-and-seek and the kids just had a lot of fun.
“We had pizza, played with the parachute and we were just kind of being kids. Hearing them laugh, it was just an awesome time.”
With two athletes graduating, Harms said that they’re not leaving the cupboard bare.
Outside of Schumacher and Smith-Traore, she also mentioned Whitney Treder – a senior – as being the sparkplug off the bench who probably should’ve started, but what she brought off the bench, not every kid can do and she had a lot of fun along the journey. Harms said senior Katie Weaver didn’t get much playing time because that’s how varsity basketball sometimes goes, but she was a nice person and Harms was proud to have her as a part of the team.
“The traditions that have been built over the last few years have become very strong,” Harms said. “Being able to just have kids returning that carry those traditions is dynamic. We have a lot of juniors coming back that will be leaders, and, they already are leaders in a lot of ways. You have Ali Ketterhagen back, Allison Heckert back and Miranda Reynolds – those three alone are going to be exciting to watch next year.
“And you throw in some of the young ones that are returning – Jaden Henneman was really Myriama’s backup, she didn’t play many minutes but you’ll see a lot more of her next year. She’s a very strong leader for a young player. And then Abby Grosinske was just a freshman, but for her to be involved in a lot of the stuff that we were involved in this year, that’s what helps carry over the tradition.”
Whitewater has gone 94-8 overall while winning a state title over the last four years.
