The Whitewater High School Girls Basketball team closed out their regular season this past week, splitting their final two games this week winning against Fort Atkinson (3-19 [0-13 conf.]) 65-54 on Tuesday and falling to conference opponent Clinton (16-6, [13-5 conf.]) 63-50 on Thursday.

In their win against Fort Atkinson, the Whippets (12-10, [11-7 conf.]) overcame a six point halftime deficit as they held Fort to only 17 points in the second half to be able come away with the win.

On Thursday night in their regular season finale, Whitewater faced six Clinton as they celebrated their 6 seniors on senior night.

The start of the game was back and forth between the two teams, but Clinton rattled off a 7-2 run to jump out to a ten point 21-11 lead halfway through the first half. Clinton’s offense was helped by their ability to get the extra pass needed to get the ball under the hoop, and by Whitewater’s reliance on the long ball in the first half, which hurt when they couldn’t cash in from deep.

The Whippet’s defense was able to rally however, forcing stops and giving the offense more chances to score, cutting Clinton’s lead down to 25-23 with 5 minutes left.

Clinton got back in rhythm late in the first half and outscored Whitewater 12-9 to go into the break with a 37-32 lead.

Clinton was able to keep the lead  into the break as they outscored the Whippets 12-9 in the final 5 minutes. Going to the locker rooms with a 37-32 lead.

Whitewater junior Kasie Carollo led her team in scoring with 11 points going into the break.

“We wanted to pick our defense up,” said Carollo on her team’s focus coming out of the break. “We were trying to improve our defense a bit, pick up some points in transition.”

In the second half, Clinton extended their lead and took control of the game. They held Whitewater to a single basket for the first 8 minutes of the half and at one point led by as many as 16.

This trend would not change for the rest of the game even with Whitewaters offense being able to put up 18 in the second half. Their defense couldn’t withstand being held scoreless for 8 minutes and Clinton’s offensive attack still had an impact as the game got later into the second half.  Clinton would close out the game with a 63-50 win.

“I think between the 12-minute mark and the 5-minute mark we went cold,” explained acting head coach Ron Sdano on what happened to Whitewater’s offense.        

“We had some nice running layups and we just missed them. It was just one of those things where we went cold for about seven minutes.”

With the loss, the Whippet’s regular season came to a close as they look towards the WIAA tournament where they will face the winner of Big Foot and East Troy in the second round. While they will have already played their opponent, the team is adamant that knowing who they will play won’t change their preparation.

“I don’t normally look at who’s on the other side,” said junior Cora Linos. “It doesn’t change how I play. It changes how we prepare looking at their offenses and stuff but it doesn’t change mentally how we prepare. And if they are in our conference it’s all the better because when we beat them they know we’re going to beat them again.”

Whitewater will have a first round bye before hosting a regional game on Feb. 28 at 7 P.M.