DAILY JOURNAL SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
A furious second-half rally by the Whiteland boys basketball team fell short against host Roncalli on Friday night.
The Rebels topped the Warriors 57-55 in overtime. Whiteland (2-2) overcame a 13-point halftime deficit by outscoring Roncalli 16-7 in the third quarter.
Junior Tom Purdie paced the Warriors’ comeback attempt with 10 of his 12 points in the second half, along with nine of his game-high
11 rebounds.
However, senior Jimmy King scored four points in overtime to lead Roncalli to its 14th straight win against Whiteland.
The Rebels (2-1) now hold a 14-3 lead in the all-time series with the Warriors. The two schools have played every season since 2004-05. Whiteland’s most recent win against Roncalli was
Feb. 27, 1996.
King scored 16 of his game-high 27 points in the opening half. While hitting 11 of his 25 field-goal attempts overall, the 6-foot-4 guard fell one point short of equaling his career-high scoring mark Friday night.
Junior Terr’e Moss gave Whiteland its first lead of the second half when he hit a pair of free throws with 2:49 remaining in regulation.
A basket by King with less than one minute
to play temporarily gave the Rebels a two-
point advantage.
But Purdie nailed two free throws with 31 seconds left on the clock to force overtime.
The Warriors built an early four-point advantage in the extra period, but a basket by King and a 3-pointer by junior Andrew Fey quickly erased that advantage.
With the game tied at 55, King sank a pair of free throws with 2.1 seconds remaining to seal the Roncalli win.
The Rebels outscored Whiteland 22-10 in the game’s second period.
Roncalli hit 14 of its 26 field-goal attempts
prior to halftime in stretching a one-point
first-quarter advantage to a 33-20 lead
at intermission.
Junior Will Higdon added 12 points for a Whiteland team that hit only 15 of its 40 shots from the field overall.
The Rebels’ only other double-digit scorer was senior Max Clifford. The 6-2 guard finished with 11 points.
The Rebels host Scecina at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Warriors host Seymour at 7:30 tonight.
