Pull out the brooms: McIntosh sweeps Whitewater

Tue, 01/22/2008 - 10:05pm
By: Kevin Wandra

The old adage that you cannot teach size certainly applies to the McIntosh Chiefs.

McIntosh continuously exploited its size advantage to win its second straight game Tuesday, 65-57 over the Whitewater Wildcats on Senior Night in a Region 2-AAAA game in Peachtree City.

In the early game, the Lady Chiefs went wild from behind the 3-point arc, hitting nine, in a 51-20 thrashing of the Lady Wildcats.

The turning point of the boys game occurred midway through the second quarter, when McIntosh went on a 10-0 run — all but two of those points were scored in the paint — to swipe the lead from Whitewater, 24-17. The Chiefs led the rest of the way.

Three consecutive baskets, all putbacks, by imposing center Robert Chubb handed the Chiefs their largest lead of the game, 57-44, with 6 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Whitewater slashed McIntosh’s lead back to single digits twice in the final period, with its second comeback coming in the final two minutes; layups by Justin Smith, Jeremy Gunter and Kody Hastings and a pair of free throws by Tom Bohrer pulled Whitewater to within six (63-57) with 1:02 remaining.

But that’s as close as Whitewater would get.

McIntosh’s game plan was simple — pass the ball inside to its big men and let them utilize their size. Whitewater had tremendous difficulty containing McIntosh’s frontcourt of Jeremy Lampkin (20 points), Chubb (18) and Patrick Michel (10).

“Every time we got the ball inside to our big guys, they never had an answer for it,” McIntosh coach Jason Eisele said. “We had a big size advantage. That was our game plan coming in, get the ball to our big men. Chubb and Michel, especially, are in a zone right now, and we’re kind of feeding off them.”

Chubb and Michel were effective in McIntosh’s 2-3 zone defense, as well, clogging the lane and contesting every shot they could reach.

Whitewater was led by Jamal Washington (13 points), Gunter (10) and Smith (10).

The girls came was close for a quarter.

Then McIntosh’s long-range shooting took over, raining 3-pointers on the Lady Wildcats.

McIntosh outscored Whitewater 14-6 in the second quarter, with all but two of its points coming on 3-pointers, to go into halftime with a 24-12 lead. Laura Higgason had the hot hand in the quarter, hitting three of McIntosh’s four 3-pointers.

The Lady Chiefs blew the game wide open in the third quarter, in which it outscored Whitewater 20-4 to grab a commanding 44-16 lead that put the game out of Whitewater’s reach.

McIntosh started its high-scoring quarter, which was one of the best it's played all season, with a 3-pointer from Olivia Tucker and concluded it with a 3-pointer from Higgason.

“We haven’t been real strong inside this year,” McIntosh coach David Dowse said. “We pretty much have to rely on our outside shooting. We have some girls who can shoot from the outside, and tonight our shots went down.”

Higgason led all scorers with 15 points, all of which came on 3-pointers, and Erin Justice added 11 points for McIntosh.

Kait Loewecke scored four points to lead Whitewater.

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