A promising trip to Marcellus Monday fell apart in the third quarter for White Pigeon’s boys basketball team, which lost 59-51.
With a 31-29 lead at halftime, the Chiefs were outscored 15-6 in the third stanza and couldn’t make up the ground to drop to 1-6 overall this year.
White Pigeon spread the scoring out evenly, with Mitchell Moore leading the way with 16 points. Riley Olsen was good for 15 points, Dylan Hochstetler posted 11, Mike Crowl added eight and Blake Groves chipped in a point.
Moore registered a game-high 15 rebounds, grabbed five steals and had six assists.
Matt Garcia led Marcellus (3-3) with 18 points.
Even with what seemed to be a fairly complete team effort, White Pigeon coach Tony Cholometes harped on needing more of that approach after the loss.
“We read about and see printed in newspapers individuals’ performances relative to that particular game, when in essence these stats don’t determine the win or loss relative to that game. Instead, that team’s success or failure lies more in that team’s ability to play as a team and to buy into what it does best than it does any stat line or individual performance. We need to understand that concept, that fact, if we are to get better and be more successful as a team.”