THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Whitney High School Athletics

The Whitney High girls basketball team fell a couple games short of their second goal of the season, but their season is not yet over. By making it to the semifinals of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division II Playoffs, Whitney qualified for the Northern California Regional Tournament. Gatson said the team was hoping for a high enough seed to get at least one home game – and they did. Tabbed the No. 5 seed, the Wildcats were scheduled to host No. 12 Redwood Wednesday. Round II is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, should the ‘Cats advance. On the road for the section semifinals Feb. 27, the No. 3-seeded Wildcats had to knock off No. 2 Bear Creek to advance. The game was closer than the 67-54 final score indicated, as Whitney suffered some misfortune down the stretch. Tied at the four-minute mark of the final frame, senior Kailee McCarrick took a charge and hurt her knee and was unable to continue. Jada Lewis, the game’s leading scorer, fouled out about 20 seconds after McCarrick went down. McCarrick left the game with eight points, four assists and two steals. Lewis had 21 points and was a rebound shy of a double-double. “We battled; we definitely battled. We played good defense right up until the end,” said Whitney head coach Sydney Gaston. “We needed to be able to score a lot of points against this team and without our two leading scorers halfway through the fourth it just didn’t happen for us. “Our turnovers and just our inability to shoot from outside killed us.” After the departure of McCarrick and Lewis, the Bruins were able to outscore the ‘Cats 23-14 in quarter four and punch their ticket into the finals against Antelope, winners over Del Oro 55-47. Neither Whitney nor Bear Creek shot better than 17 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. The Wildcats had 11 more rebounds than the Bruins, but committed 29 turnovers to the Bruins’ 14. Bear Creek also held a six-point edge from the foul line.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Whitney High School Athletics

WILDCATS MISS GOAL, BUT HOST REDWOOD IN NORCALS WEDNESDAY

JIM LINSDAU

Placer Herald | 3/7/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Whitney High School Athletics