Whitewater boys start basketball season on sour note

By Kennington Smith
Whitewater Class of 2013

After a successful building year last year the Whitewater varsity boys basketball team was excited to get this season started.

With senior transfer Darius Sharpe making his return to Whitewater combined with fellow senior Junaid Olusesi and star junior Phillip Cofer many expected the Wildcats to be a sleeper team in the state title hunt. The Wildcats began their regular season against Jackson high school in the first round of the Whitewater Thanksgiving Tournament on Saturday and lost 58-56.

Much of the first half was a defensive struggle, both sides struggled to find a rhythm on offense and turnovers were frequent. Jackson was able to control the first half with solid rebounding and good team ball. Sharpe lead the Wildcats in scoring but they found themselves down at the half. At the beginning of the 2nd half Jackson began to assert their dominance. They started raining 3's all over the court and before anyone knew it the Wildcats were down 18 going into the fourth quarter, which is when Whitewater came alive.

Olusesi, modeling his game after his favorite player Kobe Bryant, had a Mamba-like 4th quarter scoring 10 points and pulling in several key rebounds. Aided by Sharpe and Phillip Cofer's big plays on offense and defense the Cats fought back and were down by only 2 points with 7 seconds to go. The game ended on a no-call by the official on an apparent foul on what was a game-tying jumper by Sharpe and the Wildcats fell to Jackson 58-56.

Sharpe lead the Wildcats with 22 points, Olusesi added 16 points and 7 rebounds, and Cofer put in 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Whitewater will be on the court again at home versus Woodland today at 2:30 p.m.