For the Daily Journal
Going scoreless in a quarter is never a great recipe for winning.
Despite doing so in the opening period Friday night, Whiteland still managed to make a game of it before taking a 46-39 loss to visiting Perry Meridian in Mid-State Conference boys basketball action.
An 11-0 first quarter was really one part of the story; the other part was the Warriors’ defense, which helped create 18 Falcon turnovers.
“Our defense was really good,” Whiteland coach Nate Cangany said. “(Jayden) Taylor is really talented and I like his game, but we knew if we dug in defensively, we were going to give ourselves a chance.”
That chance came in the second quarter, which was the exact opposite of the first. Whiteland (0-3, 0-2) outscored the Falcons, 17-10, thanks to not only the defense but an offensive spark from 6-foot-3 senior leader Chase Ferguson, who made his debut after missing the first two games with an injury.
Ferguson nearly atoned for the Warriors’ poor first quarter, hitting both his 3-point shots and both his free throws.
Additionally, he helped clog up the middle as Perry Meridian, for all its speed and patience, couldn’t penetrate inside the key and were forced to make do with their outside shooting.
Whiteland though, couldn’t close the gap. The Warriors’ timidity in shooting led to a frustrating night for Cangany.
“I felt we threw the ball around too much and not enough at the basket,” he said.
Still, the Warriors were only down by five entering the fourth quarter.
The Falcons slowly were pulling away and had a nine-point lead until Quinten Gillespie hit a 3 from the corner with 2:36 left to close the gap to 42-36.
Perry Meridian then froze the ball and was doing a great job of it until turning the ball over yet again. Trouble was, the Warriors couldn’t take advantage and turned it over themselves.
The Falcons managed to stay ahead thanks to Whiteland’s unwillingness to take the shot.
“We have to get some confidence to shoot the basketball,” Cangany said. “Even with less than a minute to go, we have guys who didn’t want to shoot.
“We have to have confidence to take the right shot and play with more purpose and stop giving the ball away.”
Whiteland was led by sophomore Max Sullivan’s 12 points.
The Butler-bound Taylor led all scorers with 20 points for Perry Meridian (3-2, 2-0). Reggie McDonald added 11.
Whiteland won’t have a lot of time to brood about this result, as it travels up the road to take on Roncalli in a nonconference game tonight. It’s the first stop on a four-game road trip that doesn’t see the Warriors return home until the new year.
