Warriors come up short at Perry Meridian

INDIANAPOLIS

In an evenly matched defensive struggle, two of the deficiencies that plagued Whiteland all night – rebounding and free-throw shooting – finally caught up with the Warriors in Friday’s Mid-State Conference boys’ basketball matchup at Perry Meridian.

The host Falcons, who outrebounded the Warriors 26-15, grabbed a couple of key boards that led to putback baskets or trips to the free-throw line in the game’s final minutes. Perry Meridian hit 20 of 23 from the foul line, including 8 of 8 in the last two minutes, to pull away late for a 41-33 victory.

“We executed the game plan well on the defensive end,” Whiteland coach Matt Wadsworth said. “We wanted to force them to become jump shooters. But a lack of defensive rebounds made a big difference.”

Wadsworth pointed to a key sequence with about four minutes remaining and Whiteland nursing a 29-26 lead. The Falcons’ Semaj Danley, who led everyone with seven rebounds, grabbed an offensive board and a putback basket in the lane and was fouled. He hit the free throw to tie the game 29-all with 3:55 remaining.

From there, the Falcons’ Reggie McDonald stole a pass and hit a layup with 3:30 left to give Perry Meridian the lead for good. After a Whiteland miss, he drove to the basket for another layup with 2:27 to play to extend the Falcons’ lead to four. Whiteland never drew closer than two after that, and didn’t regain possession with a chance to tie or take the lead again.

“The layups and free throws we gave up at the end happened because we allowed them to get set defensively,” Wadsworth said. “It takes 32 minutes of effort. Our theme for the fourth quarter is ‘finish,’ and we didn’t do that.”

Before McDonald’s back-to-back baskets, Whiteland (1-2 overall, 0-2 Mid-State) and Perry Meridian (3-2, 1-1) played to eight ties and seven lead changes, and neither team led by more than four points until the Falcons hit six straight free throws to close out the game.

Both teams featured balanced scoring efforts. Max Sullivan led Whiteland with 10 points, but Carter Crowe added nine and Brennan Neal scored eight. For Perry Meridian, Jayden Taylor led with 11 points, while McDonald and Noah Pendleton added 10 apiece, and Danley scored eight.

While Perry Meridian hit 20 of 23 free throws, Whiteland attempted just seven free throws, hitting four. The Warriors outscored the Falcons 29-21 from the floor.

“We have the pieces as a team to be pretty good offensively,” Wadsworth said. “We’re still trying to figure out our balance between (scoring) inside and outside. If you want to be good on the offensive end, you need to get shutouts defensively, and we didn’t do that at the end of the game.”

Whiteland plays again tonight when it hosts Roncalli.