SOUTH WHITLEY – The scoring punch of Nate Walpole and River West helped Whitko to its fourth straight win Tuesday night in a 72-62 final over Southern Wells.

Whitko, which trailed by as much as six points late in the third quarter, used three big buckets from West to open the fourth and some closing power from Walpole to wrap up its eleventh win of the season. Trailing by four to open the final quarter, West scored seven quick points, Devon Adkins hit a key three, and Walpole finally got a ball to drop with the harm. That six-point deficit was quickly erased and Whitko held a 60-57 lead.

The Raiders would pull within two at 64-62, but the Wildcats closed out with an 8-0 run.

Walpole finished with 28 points, 10 coming in the fourth quarter. Walpole also had seven assists, three boards and a steal. West hit four threes in the game and closed with 21 points and four rebounds.

Spencer Sroufe began to get his footing in the second half and put up nine points, 12 rebounds, two blocks and a steal. Tanner Gaff added seven points and six rebounds.

“The whole game turned around, like within, seconds,” said Whitko head coach Roger Fleetwood. “Defensively, we got stops. We did a better job covering (Keaton Coleman). We let him get away one time in the fourth quarter, but other than that, we did a good job taking him out of the game in the fourth quarter.

“This is the kind of game I’ve been worried about,” continued Fleetwood. “These three games we had in a row, we were better than those teams and we were playing at home. We just beat Maconaquah in probably our biggest win of the year and our best game of the year. This was a tough game for us and I knew this would be the toughest of the three we played. I thought (Southern Wells) was the best of the three.”

Coleman led the charge for the Raiders with 28 points. Coleman’s and-one in the third quarter gave Southern its first lead of the second half at 41-40 and his fourth three of the night gave the Raiders its biggest lead at 51-45.

Elijah Barkell was big off the bench for the Raiders with 12 points.

The four-game win streak is the longest for the Wildcats since the 2011-12 season when Whitko rattled off five straight. Fleetwood’s bunch will have a chance to equal the mark Saturday night when the Wildcats (11-8) head to Manchester.

Southern Wells, which is outfitted to have better than a 3-15 mark, will host Woodlan Friday night.

“They are a solid team and I’m shocked they only have three wins, especially at the 1-A level,” Fleetwood said of Southern Wells. “That’s a pretty solid high school basketball team. And they were ready for us. But to be down by four going into the fourth quarter and win by ten, I feel pretty good right now.”

In the JV game, Southern got hot early and rolled to a 56-29 win over Whitko. Southern took a 31-13 lead at the half and never slowed down, getting 21 points from Dallas Creager and 10 points from Bryce Paxson. Whitko had Alex Bechtold and Cade Bechtold each score eight points.