For opponents of the Whiteland girls basketball team, containing Mackenzie Blazek is usually the top priority.
Placing too much emphasis on defending the 6-foot-2 junior center, though, can be risky.
More and more, Warrior perimeter players — particularly senior wings Sidney Crowe and Jessyca Napier — have been making opposing teams pay dearly for focusing too heavily on Blazek in the paint.
“That’s what we were hoping for at the beginning of the year,” Whiteland coach Kyle Shipp said. “We knew Mackenzie was going to be able to do what Mackenzie normally does … but it was going to come down to, could our guards consistently hit shots?
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“To Sidney and Jessyca’s credit, they’ve done a nice job the last couple of weeks of knocking down shots and really taking advantage of those opportunities.”
Since enduring a cold shooting night in an upset loss to Franklin during the Johnson County tournament, the Warrior wings have been lighting it up from outside, providing a nice supplement to the work Blazek has been doing down low.
Over the past four games, Whiteland has hit 25 of 54 3-point shots (46.3 percent) — a stark contrast from the team’s first three games, when it connected on just 9 of 35.
Not coincidentally, the Warriors have won three of four after an 0-3 start, with the lone defeat in that stretch a 55-52 setback against Mid-State Conference rival Plainfield, the No. 10 team in the state.
In a 46-45 comeback win over No. 20 Roncalli last week, Whiteland made 7 of 13 from long range. Crowe hit three in the first half and Napier added three after halftime, including the game-winner with 15 seconds to go.
With each make and each win, confidence grows.
“I definitely think it’s starting to flow better,” Napier said of the team’s recent inside-out success. “When they collapse on Mackenzie, we all get open looks, and then when they come out and close out on us that allows Mackenzie to be open and be able to work.”
Blazek has continued to do her part despite increased attention, posting team highs of 16.9 points, 13.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots per game.
Her 18 assists also tie her with sophomore point guard Libby Baker for second on the team, just two behind Crowe.
“Mackenzie has a really high basketball IQ, and her passing ability for a post is really, really good,” Shipp noted. “She’s able to feel defenders and where the defense is coming from, and one thing we really have gotten better at is cutting and moving off of her a little bit. She really does a good job of finding the open person when the double-team is coming.”
And her teammates are doing an increasingly good job of knocking down the open looks that result.
“It really helps having (Blazek) as such a big presence in the post,” Crowe said, “because so many teams double and collapse on her, so we’re open. We practice knocking down open shots all the time, so we need to knock them down (in games), and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
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Whiteland senior guards Sidney Crowe and Jessyca Napier have been heating up of late from long range. A look at their 3-point shooting numbers over the last four games:
Date;Opponent;Crowe;Napier
11/19;Indian Creek;2-3;3-5
11/23;Decatur Central;2-5;3-7
11/26;Plainfield;1-2;2-4
11/29;Roncalli;3-4;3-7
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