ALBION – In moments of adversity, Whitko showed it is ready to play at a championship level. A true road game filled with hostility, Whitko navigated the turbulent waters Friday night to defeat Central Noble 50-37 in the Class 2-A Central Noble Girls Basketball Sectional semi-finals.

The apex of the mania may not have completely decided the game, but showed the direction the contest was headed. With 2:07 left in the third quarter and Whitko up 13, Central Noble head coach Josh Treesh had had enough. His temper, which had already boiled onto the floor on multiple occasions in the first half to anyone within his fury, finally got the best of him. Rung up for berating an official, Treesh then was ejected and the bench was also assessed a technical. Brianna Cumberland nailed all four of the bonus free throws, putting Whitko up 17.

The 16-2 run Whitko would go on in the third quarter, along with the deflating ejection, sunk the Cougars. It also showed the composure Whitko has gained.

“I thought if you watched throughout the year, we haven’t had many situations where we panicked,” Whitko head coach Brandon Bradley said. “Some of that has to do with the great deal of experience and talent we have with our upperclassmen. We talked about before the game there’s going to be highs and lows, but you have to keep an even temper. If you get too excited or too down, that’s where the other teams makes the run. We really focus and stress that.”

While the moment was glaring, and clearly changed the mood of the gym, Whitko had already established itself. And was doing so without a Reiff or Reiff doing all the work.

Cumberland hit a three to close both the second and third quarters, her bomb before the half helping calm Central’s trio of threes from Sydney Freeman. The tri-fecta at the end of the third put Whitko up 20 and completely silenced half the bulging gymnasium. Cumberland finished with a team-high 15 points.

Haley and Hanna Yohe also did what they do best. Both were in the middle of jump ball situations and diving all over the floor, and Hanna hit a couple of key buckets in the third. Hanna’s second basket of the third was the front end of Treesh’s rage after a foul was not called on a loose ball moments before. Hanna ended her night with 10 points.

Aly Reiff finished with 10 points on an off shooting night and Jen Reiff scored 13 points, 11 of which came in the first half.

“We did this without Jen being special or Aly having to step up,” Bradley said of the win. “Hanna has really improved in the past two or three weeks. She’s a scrapper. It’s hard to prepare for her because she’s not a great shooter, a great ball handler, and great post player, she’s none of those things. She’s a great scrapper. You can’t single her out, because if you leave her wide open, she might shoot 2-10 from three. But then she still ends up with 10 points. That’s hard to plan for.”

Central Noble (18-7) bows out of the tournament with Meleah Leatherman scoring 15 points and Freeman finishing with 11 points, Freeman unable to get many open looks in the second half after Whitko adjusted to her off-the-ball movement.

Whitko (19-6) moves to Saturday night’s championship game to meet Westview (20-5), a 46-38 winner over Fremont. Tip for the title game will take place at 7 p.m., the winner set to take on either Oregon-Davis or Hebron at the Class 2-A Winamac Regional.