Whatley leads Drillers to Federal Credit Shootout win
David Whatley wasn’t the biggest player to compete in the championship game of the Lloyd Williams-Kern Schools Federal Credit Union Shootout.
Far from it. However, the 6-foot-3 Bakersfield High senior certainly dominated the action inside, scoring 21 points and grabbing 16 rebounds to lead the Drillers to a 60-53 overtime victory over Lancaster-Paraclete at North High on Saturday night.
Whatley, the tournament MVP, scored only two points less than the Spirits’ two starting post players, 6-foot-11 John Anthony and 6-foot-4 Amado Coleman, combined.
“We had to come out ready to play,” Whatley said. “They told us he was 6-foot-7. You go to box out and be ready. In practice we ran through everything. We did all our drills. The fundamentals.”
Trailing 47-45, Whatley put back a missed jumper from the left elbow by Ryan McGee to tie things up with 44 seconds remaining in regulation time.
With the score still deadlocked, Coleman, who finished with a team-high 17 points and was named to the All-Tournament team, missed a pair of free throws with 18.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
The Drillers (7-2) failed to capitalize, missing a pair of potential game winning shots before time expired.
BHS dominated overtime, outscoring Paraclete 13-6. Josh Geary had five points, including a clutch three-pointer from the left corner, and Sam Ackerman and Whatley scored four points apiece during the four-minute extra period.
“I told the kids, ‘We didn’t play our best basketball, but we found a way to win,’” BHS coach Greg Burt said. “So, that’s pretty promising for us for the future.”
Whatley’s big-time performance was certainly a huge reason the Drillers handed the Spirits their first loss of the season.
However, BHS’ tenacious pressure defense and timely three-point shooting also played a major role in the Drillers coming out on top.
Paraclete, hounded all night by the Drillers’ ultra-quick perimeter players, committed 26 turnovers.
Through the midway point of the second quarter the Spirits had as many turnovers, 12, as field goal attempts.
BHS led the entire first half and went into the locker room at halftime leading 31-26.
Paraclete (9-1) handled the Drillers pressure defense better in the second half and went on 6-0 run at start of the third period to take a 32-31 lead.
The Spirits led two more times after that, but never by more than two points.
Every time Paraclete made a run, Whatley answered with a basket inside the key.
He had nine points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“He’s so quick and he’s such a
good finisher inside,” Burt said. “He’s the returning SWYL MVP so we expect him to have big games and he had one tonight when we needed it.”
Paraclete had two players other than Coleman finish in double figures in scoring. Nolan Boffman, an All-Tournament selection had 12 points and Dylan Cox chipped in 10.
“Bakersfield is a very good team,” Paraclete coach Newton Chelette said. “They play unlike anybody else we play. Constant, 32 minutes full court man-to-man pressure. Denying everything. It took us awhile to accustomed to that kind of defense because we haven’t played against that all year.
“I thought our kids played through some difficult times. We had a chance to win it with 18 seconds to go and we missed the free throws. But you can’t put it on those two free throws because we had many, many breakdowns.”
Ackerman was BHS second leading scorer, tallying 15 points, most of them coming from a trio of three-pointers. Geary, an All-Area Second Team player last season, finished with 10 points.
Ryan McGee, who played outstanding defense and had numerous assists was named to the All-Tournament Team.
After the tournament Burt had his team pose for pictures with the scoreboard in the background. He believes playing high pressure early season games will help his team down the road.
“It’s an experience that we think pays off,” Burt said. “If you can play in championship games early in the year, we feel like it translates to the playoffs. It gets our kids an advantage.”