On a night that saw the Whiteland girls basketball team play well enough defensively to pull off a home win over sectional rival Franklin Central, the necessary shooting touch needed to finish the job just wasn’t there.
The Warriors endured a 12-minute stretch without a field goal, one that covered the entire third quarter, and the Flashes got 25 points from Rayah Kincer on the way to a 43-34 victory on Thursday.
Though disappointed with the result, first-year Whiteland coach Ashley Fouch couldn’t complain about the effort that her team put forth.
“I just told them in the locker room, I’m proud, because you’re there,” Fouch said. “When we were talking to them about grit for these last two months, whatever it is, and building that up, and that was the first game where I was just like, ‘Okay, they’re fighting.’
“The only thing that held them back was just the fact that they weren’t hitting shots — and I can live with that, personally, because we’re going to have games like that.”
Whiteland (2-1) fell into an early hole as Franklin Central scored 12 straight points over a six-minute stretch of the first half to take a 14-3 lead with 7:30 to go in the second quarter. Kincer, who missed last season with an injury, poured in 10 first-quarter points for the Flashes (2-1).
But defense helped the Warriors get back into the game in the second quarter, as they forced five straight turnovers at one point to spark a 9-0 run. A 3-pointer from senior Gracie McCullars finished off that surge and cut the deficit to 16-14 with 1:49 remaining in the half.
From that point on, though, Whiteland struggled to consistently convert its defensive effort into points at the other end. With shots not dropping from anywhere on the floor, the hosts were unable to keep pace on the scoreboard. The Flashes built their advantage back up to 31-21 by the end of the third, and the Warriors got no closer than seven the rest of the way.
“Everyone’s going to have a game like that,” McCullars said of the team’s off shooting night. “That’s sports; you’re going to have ups and downs. But it’s very frustrating.”
Braylyn Clendenen finished with 11 points and four steals to pace Whiteland in defeat, while McCullars chipped in nine points. Gracie Taylor collected a team-high 12 rebounds before fouling out late.
Fouch hopes to take the good from this defeat and use it to build momentum going into next week’s county tournament. The host Warriors, who drew a first-round bye, will face unbeaten Franklin in a semifinal game next Thursday.
“You just build on it,” she said. “You just harp the positives of everything and you replay all of the positives that happened in your head, and you just keep going with that — and shots will come.”
