Whiteford beats Rival for 2-0 start

By DOUG DONNELLY

PETERSBURG - Whiteford outscored Summerfield 14-2 in the third quarter to erase a halftime deficit, then held on to beat the Bulldogs 61-50.

Whiteford is 2-0 and 1-0 in the TCC.

"I'm really proud of our boys for winning a tough one on the road," Whiteford coach Jordan Bollin said. "What a great high school game and environment. The crowd was engaged and the boys on the floor played hard."

Whiteford trailed 31-29 at the half. Summerfield's leading scorer, Brody St. John had 16 points by the break.

"We were a little sloppy in the first half," Bollin said. "We had 10 turnovers and didn’t rebound well.  We also let St. John get going early." He is a great player and had 16 at half time. "

Whiteford went on a 14-2 run after intermission. Caden Schroyer scored 8 of his 12 points in the third quarter.

Cole Griffin led the Bobcats with 17 points while Keegan Thomas finished with 13. 

The game was tied 33-33 with 6:02 left in the third quarter, but Whiteford shutout Summerfield the rest of the quarter. 

Schroyer gave the Bobcats a 35-33 with a coast-to-coast layup with 4:59 left in the quarter, then put Whiteford in front 37-33 with a layup off a pass from Thomas, who was on the floor when he grabbed possession of a loose ball and found Schroyer under the basket.

In the fourth quarter, Theo Joerin sank a 3-pointer to put Whiteford up 50-37 for its biggest lead of the game with 5:54 left. 

St. John scored 24 for Summerfield. The Bulldogs made it a 4-point game at one point in the fourth quarter but couldn't get any closer.

"We knew that they were going to make a commitment to smashing the ball inside and it eventually worked," Summerfield coach Phil Schiffler said. "They hurt us on the boards. You’re not going to win a game when you are negative-17 on the glass and shoot the ball 18 percent from 3-point range."

Bollin said Drew Ruddy did a great job on the defensive end of the floor.

"He may not be a big-time scorer, but he stepped up and did what we needed him to do to win tonight," Bollin said. 

Whiteford 13 16 14 18 – 61