Whiteland girls basketball tops Edinburgh

Whiteland girls basketball used a 28-point third quarter to surge past an upset-minded Edinburgh, 72-52, on Monday in the semifinal round of the Edinburgh Holiday Classic.

The Warriors will play Jac-Cen-Del in the championship at 4 p.m. today.

Earlier in the day, the Warriors defeated Indianapolis Lutheran, 66-25, while Edinburgh took care of Knightstown in the tournament opener, 46-18.

For a while it looked like the host Lancers could pull off a semifinal stunner against the Warriors.

After falling behind 16-9 in the first quarter, Edinburgh used a nice 20-point quarter of its own in the second to take a 31-26 halftime lead.

It was the 3-point shot that was falling for the Lancers, as they hit five of eight attempts from beyond the arc, including two straight from senior Annelise Lollar.

Also helping the Lancers was better ball security. After turning the ball over 10 times in the first quarter, Edinburgh only lost it twice in the second.

Whiteland reversed that by committing only five first-quarter turnovers, but then losing it eight times in the second while only hitting two shots (both 3s) from the field in that second quarter and leaving first-year Warrior coach Ashley Fouch scratching her head.

“We didn’t come out the way I thought we would,” Fouch said. “We were slow, and slow starts have killed us so far.”

If Fouch was worried there would be a carryover into the second half, she didn’t have to fret for long. The Warriors came out smoking not only on offense, but with some excellent defensive pressure that troubled the Lancers and had them reverting back to turnovers — 13 in the third quarter.

Edinburgh also had trouble finding the basket; the Lancers only had three field goals in the third.

Meanwhile, Whiteland found its mark and hit four 3s, including two consecutive from sophomore guard Emma Piercy, who was perfect not only with all three of her shots in the quarter, but from beyond the arc as well, going 4 for 4 in the game.

“The girls were listening and doing a lot better in the second half,” Fouch said. “We were doing good things.”

Edinburgh kept Whiteland worried early in the fourth quarter, closing the gap to six, 54-48 on two Lollar free throws with 5:18 to go.

But a pair of baskets, one a clutch 3-pointer from Whiteland junior Braylyn Clendenen, increased the gap to 11 and the Lancers were pretty much finished after that.

Whiteland (4-6) won its second straight game after dropping six in a row, and looked good despite not having played in nearly three weeks.

Clendenen led all scorers with 21 points. Piercy added 17, while Gracie Taylor came off the bench to score 14 and Muskaan Ghuman added 13.

Edinburgh (4-4) was led by Lollar’s 20 points. Gracie Crawhorn added 12 and Callie Hancock chipped in with 11.

“Turnovers really hurt us,” said Edinburgh coach Amy Schilling. “Missed scoring opportunities and some defensive setbacks did too, but I thought we did some good things too, like getting more comfortable on offense.”

Edinburgh will play in the third-place game against Hauser, a team it beat last week by a dozen.