Early struggles lead to loss for Norse girls team
Whitehall’s Vaida Goplin released a jump shot during their game against Melrose-Mindoro last week. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
The Whitehall girls basketball team put in a big second half performance, but it wasn’t enough to overcome their struggles before halftime.
The Norse scored 40 points in the second half to make Thursday’s home game against Melrose-Mindoro interesting, but the 15-point first half was too much for the Norse to overcome.
The loss was Whitehall’s first of the season as they entered this week with a 2-1 record before playing at Blair-Taylor on Tuesday. They’ll host Augusta on Friday then head to Mondovi this coming Monday.
Mel-Min 65 Whitehall 55
The Norse managed just three field goals in the first half as they went into intermission in a hole.
Mel-Min’s Lilly Radcliffe had more points than Whitehall’s entire team at halftime, 17-15, as the Mustangs took a 12-point advantage.
Whitehall’s offense got going in the second half as they used balanced attack to put up 40 points. They still had no answer for Radcliffe, however as the Mustangs guard scored 16 more points and got help as they were able to answer Whitehall’s push.
Radcliffe finished with a game-high 33 points, while teammate Cooper Zeman added 14.
Whitehall senior Norah Youngbauer scored 10 of her team-high 13 points in the second half and Olivia Killian finished with 10 in the game. The Norse had a balanced offense as Avery Sonsalla added eight, Ashlyn Clatt, seven; Trinity Aasen, five; Vaida Goplin, four; Haili Sluga, three; Edie Matejko and Mia Sygulla, two and Carson Coburn, one.
