Girls basketball: Wheeler gets revenge, wins GSSC title

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Updated: February 23, 2012 8:24AM

GARY — A humbling loss to Whiting 15 days ago turned out to be a lesson learned for the Wheeler girls basketball team.

Coach Dustin Nelson’s Bearcats (13-4) rebounded from a 10-point league road loss to the Oilers by cruising to a 44-31 victory in the championship game of the Greater South Shore Conference Tournament on Saturday night.

Sophomore Nikole Finch scored a game-high 21 points and Paige Finch added 10 to lead the Bearcats to their second tournament title in the last 23 days.

Wheeler won Hanover Central’s Wildcat Winter Classic, Dec. 29.

“I think that loss at their place sent a message to our kids in terms of what they needed to do,’’ Nelson said.

“Winning this tournament is exciting on a number of levels. First, they humbled us at their place and were a very scrappy team. I thought tonight, our kids were a very scrappy team. We did a nice job with the matchups, but I think the key was us scrapping for those loose balls and getting those loose balls.’’

Another big key for Wheeler was its defense, which took the Oilers’ guards out of their game, prohibiting the quick starts Whiting (13-5) likes to use to ambush teams from the opening tip.

“Hats off to Wheeler and Dustin, because we didn’t get off to a good start,’’ Whiting coach Kevin Moynihan said. “They were very physical and disrupted our guards with just excellent defense. They got to every loose ball and they scrapped. They took us out of everything we wanted to do. It seemed like they were just a little bit hungrier and played a little bit harder than we did. They tried to slow us down and they were successful in doing it.’’

Citlali Lopez scored 10 points to lead Whiting.