For the Daily Journal
Whiteland’s frantic fourth-quarter rally fell three points short, and the Warriors closed out the boys basketball regular season with a 62-59 loss to Beech Grove at home Friday.
Whiteland trailed by 15 with just over six minutes to play but outscored the Hornets 21-9 the rest of the way to nearly pull out the win. Brennan Neal’s game-tying 3-point attempt with two seconds to go glanced off the rim.
Despite the loss, Whiteland coach Matt Wadsworth was thrilled with the way his team played in the second half against a Beech Grove team that is ranked 16th in Class 3A.
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“Our response at halftime was really important,” said Wadsworth, whose team trailed by 14 at intermission. “We needed to come out of the locker room and fight and battle back. I was proud of the way we competed in the second half.”
Whiteland (10-12) trailed by only one, 10-9, after one quarter but found itself down 14 at the half after Beech Grove took control with a 20-7 second-quarter run.
It was turnovers that doomed Whiteland in the first half. The Warriors committed 10 over the game’s first 16 minutes against the Beech Grove pressure defense, and any semblance of an offense rhythm was missing.
“We need to start games with a sense of urgency and we lacked that early. We allowed their defensive pressure to get us going east and west instead of north and south,” Wadsworth said. “After talking at halftime, I feel like our guys corrected that. That helped us get to the basket more and that opened up the outside shot.”
The Warriors used the 3-pointer to devastating effect in the second half. Neal, held to just four points in the first half, hit two treys at the end of the third to help keep Whiteland in the game then added two more midway through the fourth to get the lead under 10.
Neal’s final two 3s kickstarted the Warrior run. After Gavin Hess scored for Beech Grove, Neal and Luke Helton each hit a pair of free throws and Carter Crowe drained a 3-pointer to pull the Warriors within four at 55-51.
The two teams traded baskets before Whiteland got to its closest point, 61-59, with 1:07 to go on a Riley Higdon 3-pointer.
Jalyn Curry hit a free throw on the other end to push Beech Grove’s lead to three with 34.1 seconds left.
Wadsworth called a timeout with 10 seconds left to set up a final play, and the Warriors got the look they wanted when Neal found himself open on the right elbow, but his shot hit right off the rim. Whiteland was unable to secure the loose ball before time expired.
“We got a great look at the basket on that final shot,” Wadsworth said. “They took away our first look but the guys did a great job of finding Brennan.”
Neal finished with a game-high 26 points, while Crowe added 11. Kenny Washington led three players in double figures with 17 points for Beech Grove (17-5).
Whiteland’s next game will be against Franklin Central on Tuesday in the Class 4A sectional at Greenwood.
