Inside-out combo sparks Whiteland

For the second and third quarters of Friday evening’s girls basketball game, host Greenwood actually got the better of favored Whiteland.

Unfortunately for the Woodmen, the first quarter counts too.

Sidney Crowe and Mackenzie Blazek combined for 37 points and fueled a dominating start as the visiting Warriors led from the opening seconds and claimed a 49-31 Mid-State Conference victory.

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Crowe finished with a game-high 19 points for Whiteland (7-9, 2-2), while Blazek added 18 points and 10 rebounds in her second game back after missing the second half of December with an injured shoulder.

“I think having a game underneath my belt, this game was a lot better,” Blazek said. “Just kind of getting used to being back playing together.”

The opening period belonged almost entirely to Crowe and Blazek, who combined to score all of the Warriors’ points during a game-opening 14-2 run. Blazek then kicked out to an open Jessyca Napier with four seconds left in the first quarter for a 3-pointer that made it a 17-4 game.

Whiteland kept that momentum going into the second, opening the period with a Megan Harlow 3 and then getting a three-point play from Blazek to stretch the lead to 27-10 with 2:24 left in the half.

Greenwood scored the final five points of the quarter to cut the deficit to a dozen by the break, then carried that momentum into the third. A Bailee Taft 3-pointer and a Leah Moore bucket capped a 12-0 surge that got the Woodmen to within 27-22 with 5:18 on the clock.

The Warriors, though, scored the next six points to regain a double-digit edge, and Greenwood got no closer than nine the rest of the way. Crowe scored eight fourth-quarter points, including a 6-of-6 effort from the foul line, to seal it.

“We just didn’t come out of halftime like we should have,” Blazek said. “I don’t know if we were just expecting the rest of the game to go our way or what, but once we figured out that, ‘Hey, they’re not going to give it to us,’ we started picking the game up like we did in the first half.”

Leah Moore had 11 points and seven boards for the Woodmen (3-15, 0-5), who lost their 11th consecutive game.