<p>There were times Friday night when Whiteland’s boys basketball team played with a midseason brand of confidence and execution.</p><p>Facing one of the tallest opponents the Warriors will face this season, it wasn’t enough.</p><p>Plainfield, a team with four starters standing between 6-foot-4 and 6-7, utilized its leverage in a 51-43 victory. It was the Quakers’ fourth game of the season, while Whiteland was playing its season opener.</p><p>All things considered, second-year Warriors coach Nate Cangany was happy with his squad’s effort.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>“We told our guys we know they’re long, but we’ve got some athletic guys. Some guards that can attack, and we still want to play inside out,” Cangany said. “We want to give ourselves a chance to get to the free throw line and score around the basket. I thought we drew some contact inside tonight, and didn’t go to the free throw line enough.</p><p>“I thought defensively we came out really strong. In the second half we had some rotation issues, and we’ve got to clean that up a little bit. (Plainfield) is a really good team. Their length makes it tough when you don’t have our 6-6 in Max Sullivan, and we don’t have Dylan Gross, either. He’s one of our good knock-down shooters, so we were down two varsity guys tonight.”</p><p>Senior guard Logan Willoughby led Whiteland with 19 points, including three 3-pointers. Towering senior center Ian Scott finished with 17 points and seven rebounds for the Quakers, followed by junior forward Cael Vanderbush with 14 points.</p><p>The opening half was a contrast of quarters for the Warriors, who jumped to a 12-6 lead after one quarter, but trailed, 25-18, at the half.</p><p>Plainfield’s dominant second stanza started with a Vanderbush jumper 11 seconds in, leading to a 12-2 scoring flurry before Cangany called timeout with hopes of slowing the visitors’ momentum. Scott stretched his 6-7 frame to throw down an alley-oop dunk that put Plainfield ahead 20-14 before Whiteland junior guard Drew Higdon countered with a layup at the other end.</p><p>A triple and two free throws by guard Aidan Booher upped the count to 25-16 before sophomore Austin Willoughby made a jumper for the Warriors to pull his squad closer. Whiteland crept as close as 31-29 on junior forward Kyson Jones’ drive to the basket with 1:13 left in the third, but an 8-0 Plainfield run pushed the spread to double digits early in the fourth stanza.</p><p>The Warriors could get no closer than six points from that point.</p><p>“The key quarter for us was the second quarter,” Plainfield coach Andy Weaver said. “We were able to get some buckets right around the rim. Scott and Vanderbush for us are really good vertical leap guys. Whiteland runs good stuff. I’m really impressed with the Willoughby kid. He caused a lot of damage, and the Jones kid in the second half attacked the basket and found a way to sort of alter his shots to score against our length.”</p><p>The Warriors return to the court with two games next weekend. Whiteland is at Perry Meridian on Friday and hosts Roncalli on Saturday.</p>
