Warriorettes lose heartbreaker, finish as runners-up

After three full days of basketball in Daytona Beach, Florida, the White County Warriorettes are coming home as runners up in the Sunshine Classic championship. The Warriorettes took on the Walnut Hills (Ohio) Eagles in the title game on Tuesday afternoon, where they battled back from a double-digit deficit more than once. However, in the end, they were two points shy of bringing home the championship trophy as the Eagles came away with a 46-44 victory. 

Walnut Hills took the opening tip and got on the scoreboard first with a pair of buckets from the free throw line. The back and forth of the early minutes didn’t have things going White County’s way, and the Warriorettes found themselves trailing quickly. Things didn’t get much better in the second quarter, and White County found themselves down by 12 with just three minutes left in the half. The Warriorettes, who have been used to seeing a lot more points on the scoreboard this season, continued to push for baskets and cut the deficit to nine to go to the locker room trailing 28–19.  

The Warriorettes came back to the court understanding the hole they were in. The lid that seemed to be over the basket through the first 16 minutes of play was lifted, and, thanks to some defensive rebounds, they went on a 6–0 run to open the second half cutting the deficit to three and force the Eagles to take an early timeout.  

The timeout worked in Walnut Hills’ favor as they came out of it and dropped a three-point basket right away and then proceeded to build the lead back to eight points. White County got anxious and tried to make up some ground with repeated shots from beyond the arc, but the lid was back on the basket, and the Eagles were grabbing the ball of the boards more often than the Warriorettes would have liked. At the end of the third quarter, White County was on the wrong side of a 39-29 scoreboard. 

The Warriorettes chipped away at the Walnut Hills lead, to find themselves down by just 3 with just three minutes left on the clock. White County returned to their signature full court press to create turnovers and keep the ball in their possession for the next minute as Kyra Fox hit a deep shot to tie the score at 44. But it was the Eagles who were able to put the last shot in as the clock hit zero, leaving the Warriorettes as runners up in their second tournament finale of the winter.