New Richmond – Two years ago the future of matchups between Wyoming County rivals Westside and Wyoming East was in question after a parent charged the floor during one of the games.
Tuesday’s game might put future contests between the two schools on the chopping block.
With Wyoming East leading by three points and under 15 seconds to go, East forward Tanner Whitten dove for a loose ball, forcing a jump ball. Seconds later a scuffle erupted involving several players, eventually spilling into the Westside bench, requiring administration and law enforcement to intervene.
East, leading 53-56 at that point, ultimately held on for a 58-53 win.
And it just got ugly…
Fight breaks out near the Westside bench during a scramble for a loose balls pic.twitter.com/cM8Ow4a2UK
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) January 12, 2022
Both Wyoming East coach Derek Brooks and Westside coach Shawn Jenkins declined to comment on the incident after the game, instead preferring to discuss the game itself, and for good reason.
Prior to the late-game scuffle the fierce county rivals were deadlocked in a one-possession game, reflective of the contest as a whole. Neither team led by more than six points throughout the evening.
A race to 50 points seemed unrealistic at the start.
The Renegades led 7-5 after the first quarter, holding East to 18 percent shooting from the floor. The visitors fared little better themselves, hitting at a 21 percent clip in the opening frame but made East all-stater Tanner Whitten a non-factor early.
That came to a screeching halt in the second quarter.
Connecting on just one of their seven 3-point attempts in the first quarter, the Warriors fed the ball to Whitten in the post throughout the second quarter and he responded with 11 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the field.
“He’s a hard guard,” Jenkins said. “I just didn’t feel like our big men could matchup with his speed to be honest with you. They’re just a little bit slower I think, so I was playing Hunter Lester on him. He’s a little bit faster but not as strong. He’s just a hard guard and a good player.”
The third quarter was more of the same for the 6-foot-4 forward who scored 13 of East’s 19 points out of the break, reeling off 13 of 16 for the Warriors at one point.
“Everybody knows he’s our go-to guy,” Brooks said. “That’s why they didn’t do a box-and-one, they did a triangle-and-two on our two best players tonight – Garrett (Mitchell) and Whitten. But I told Whitten early ‘You’ve just got to calm down and play through it because you’re going to get yours.’ He gets his being aggressive going off the glass, getting easy putbacks and just being active. I don’t think he did that early on. He was kind of flustered with the man-to-man and didn’t really know where to go, but he came out of that early in the second.”
Whitten’s 24 points through three quarters helped East to a 38-37 advantage.
Each time the Renegades needed a shot in the arm though, Evan Colucci was there to provide it. The senior southpaw scored on a layup to slash the East lead to three and inched his team closer later in the final frame with a 3-pointer to answer a stickback from Whitten.
A layup from Ashton Reed later in the quarter gave Westside its final lead of the game at 50-49 but Mitchell, who struggled from the field to that point, provided a jolt.
The junior reeled off six straight points to help East to a three-point lead.
“Those were two big shots he hit,” Brooks said. “He took a couple bad shots tonight because he was frustrated with the triangle-and-two as well but he hit the clutch shots when we needed it and that’s what your good players do. I think he just stepped up to the plate and took what they gave him.”
Afterwards the game spiraled for Westside.
Colucci was charged with an offensive foul on the following possession, his fifth of the game.
A free throw from Westside cut the deficit to three before chaos ensued in the closing seconds.
By the end of the game Brooks confirmed East forwards Jacob Howard and Chandler Johnson were ejected while Jenkins was also ejected with seven seconds left after a heated discussion with a referee.
Whitten led all scorers with 28 points and eight rebounds while Colucci paced the Renegades with 18 points. Tucker Cook, who went scoreless in the Warriors’ previous three games, finished with 12 points, canning four 3-pointers.
“I think he had three straight games where he hadn’t scored,” Brooks said of Cook. “Coach Herbie (Brooks) and myself talked to him today. Coach Herb made him some printouts of Steph Curry – he’s the best shooter in the world and he goes through slumps. He was in one this past week. We told Tucker he’s got to keep shooting because they’re going to fall and they did tonight.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
W: 7 19 13 16 – 53
WE: 5 14 19 20 – 58
Westside
Evan Colucci 18, Dale Bledsoe 4, Ashton Reed 6, Hunter Lester 10, Shandell Adkins 4, Ryan Anderson 5
Wyoming East
Tanner Whitten 28, Garrett Mitchell 11, Tucker Cook 12, Chandler Johnson 2, Cole Lambert 2, Jacob Howard 2
