The Whiteland Warriors will be home for the holidays to greet the Guerin Catholic Golden Eagles at 10:00 a.m. on Friday. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Winning is just a little bit easier when your three-point shooting is a whole 33% better than the opposition, a fact Whiteland proved on Thursday. They blew past Beech Grove 46-21. For those curious, yes, that was the biggest victory Whiteland has managed all season.
Whiteland's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Gwen Higdon led the charge by scoring 19 points along with eight rebounds. That makes it three consecutive games in which Higdon has scored at least 25% of Whiteland's points. Another player making a difference was Sukhman Bains, who scored ten points along with seven rebounds and five assists.
Meanwhile, Guerin Catholic was fully in charge on Wednesday, breezing past Perry Meridian 59-22 on the road. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Guerin Catholic.
Ava Bills continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 12 points along with six assists and six rebounds. The matchup was her third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Annie Murphy, who scored 13 points.
Whiteland's win ended a five-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 5-8. As for Guerin Catholic, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a massive bump to their 6-6 record this season.
Keep an eye on the arc in Friday's contest: Whiteland have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 5.5 threes per game. However, it's not like Guerin Catholic struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 4.3 threes per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Whiteland beat Guerin Catholic 55-42 when the teams last played back in December of 2015. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Guerin Catholic's Annemarie Augustinovicz, who scored 14 points along with nine rebounds and three steals. Now that she won't be playing on Friday, will it be that much easier for Whiteland to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
