As Whiteland Community High School basketball team’s most experienced returnee, senior forward Mike Valle, showed leadership Friday night.
Valle scored 26 points to lead host Warriors to a 52-48 victory against Plainfield in the Mid-State Conference opener for both teams.
“We had a consistent effort out of Valle,” said Warriors coach Matt Wadsworth, whose team improved to 3-0. “He got 26 and 11 (rebounds), which was huge.”
Whiteland took a 11-4 lead over Plainfield (0-2) after the first quarter. The game was tied at 22-all at halftime and 35-all after three quarters.
“Plainfield played with tremendous heart (Friday night),” Wadsworth said. “They had a really nice game plan defensively, just mixing things up. It was a battle the whole way, and you get to the fourth quarter, and it’s a tie game. So essentially you are looking at eight-minute battle. The thing that most impressed me was our defensive rebounding. We did a good job of limiting them to one shot.”
Junior guard Riley Higdon put the Warriors ahead at 47-45 with a 3-pointers with 2 1/2 minutes to go. Valle scored to make it 49-45.
The Warriors gave the Quakers a shot by just hitting two of their next six free throws. With 13.2 second left, Messer hit a 3-pointer to cut Plainfield’s deficit to 51-48. Whiteland’s Aaron Gross hit one of two free throws with 8.5 seconds to go to help seal it.
“We played hard and played as a team,” Valle said. “Everybody was playing their best ball. I’m definitely happy with the 3-0 start.”
Wadsworth was pleased with Higdon’s play at the point guard spot.
“He distributed the ball throughout the game and then in the fourth quarter he hit a big 3-pointer,” Wadsworth said. “That kind of swung momentum our way.”
Wadsworth said the Warriors did a good job breaking down the zone.
“Jacob Leistner did a good job moving inside against the zone and that helped free up some baskets,” Wadsworth said.
Sophomore guard Brennan Neal added 11 points for the Warriors.
The lone negative for the Warriors was a 8-of-19 showing from the free-throw line. Valle was 4-of-9.
“I tell guys it’s only game three, but we have to make the commitment in practice to continue to get better at free throws and taking care of the ball,” Wadsworth said. “But I think we’ve challenged these guys with the schedule we’ve played here the last two weeks with two road games to start the season and a conference game. I’m happy with how we responded. I told them successful teams look forward not back at what’ve done. We have to enjoy it (Friday night and Saturday) and start to prepare for Roncalli next Friday.”
Junior Trey Davis led the Quakers with 16 points, hitting four 3-pointers.
