Matt Wadsworth wasn’t about to refer to Thursday night’s road victory as his team’s finest performance this season.
With a smile, the Whiteland boys basketball coach did say the Warriors’ 72-52 conquest of Indian Creek was the best they’ve played this month.
Never once trailing against a Braves squad it defeated by only four points at the Johnson County Tournament, Whiteland used senior forward Mike Valle’s 27-points — six of which came on two-handed slam dunks — to run its record to 11-4.
The win was Whiteland’s ninth straight against Indian Creek.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallerySenior swingman Aaron Gross made good on 5 of 6 3-point tries for 15 points for the Warriors, while sophomore Brennan Neal added 12. Gross also hauled in eight rebounds to earn game-high honors in that category.
“It was a great team win,” Wadsworth said. “When you look at Mike’s 27 points, when the ball went inside, we did a good job as a team of moving and forcing (Indian Creek) to make decisions on how they wanted to guard. Aaron had a huge night, and Brennan had a great night.
“One of the keys to the game was our defensive intensity. (Elijah) Weatherspoon and (Noah) Hale did a good job on (Braves guard Jared) DeHart, which is a tough matchup. I was impressed with our bench, as well.”
Senior post Bryce Hogue led Indian Creek (10-7) with 15 points. DeHart added 12, while 6-foot-2 senior guard Tim Abel provided nine.
With the 6-foot-7 Valle hounding him defensively much of the night, Abel made only 2 of 12 field-goal attempts. As a team, the Braves were a chilly 20 of 49 (.408) compared to Whiteland making 28 of 53 (.528).
“This week in practice we’ve talked about consistent effort in order to get consistent results,” Wadsworth said. “I felt like the first three days of practice this week we got better, and it carried over. I felt like we played four quarters tonight.”
Leading 29-21 at the half, the Warriors opened up a 15-point lead at 45-30 on a Gross triple at 2:21 of the third period. DeHart sparked a 9-0 Indian Creek run to make things interesting, but the momentum ended once Gross touched only nylon on his half-court shot to end the third.
Braves coach Derek Perry said he thought his team basically failed to execute in every way possible.
“It’s just disappointing. We got rattled early and couldn’t run offense. We couldn’t guard it. We didn’t come to play,” Perry said. “We were outhustled, outrebounded, got beat on back-doors, got beat off the ball, lost guys in transition … We’re lucky it wasn’t worse than it was.
“I told them in the locker room, I just wish we could beat a quality opponent one time. Yeah, we’ve won some games this year, but when it’s come to playing a Whiteland, a Greenwood or a Martinsville, we can’t seem to get over the hump.”
Whiteland won the battle of the boards 25-22. The Warriors also committed 10 turnovers compared to Indian Creek’s 11.
The Warriors return home Saturday to face Bedford North Lawrence at 2:30 p.m., while Indian Creek is idle until Feb. 10 when the Braves host Indianapolis Herron.
