Published March 22, 2012 | By Mark Morrow
Guerin Catholic’s Whit Rapp is No. 1 in Indiana high school basketball in assists.
Whit Rapp is state leader in assists with 179/HC Sports Daily file photo.
And he’s only a sophomore.
Rapp had seven assists to go along with his 15 points in the Golden Eagles’ 75-56 victory over Evansville Bosse in the Class 3A South Semistate at Seymour .
The 5-foot-11 Rapp has 179 assists for a 6.4 per-game average.
Lebanon senior Trey Hendrix finished with 175 assists; Sheridan senior Eric Price ended with 161; and Pike junior Zavier Turner, who will lead the Red Devils against Carmel in Saturday’s Class 4AS state championship game, has 159 assists.
“Whit’s a throwback. His performance Saturday against Bosse was as reminiscent of Jack Moore leading his Muncie Central team back in 1978 to the state championship. Moore , now deceased, was named the nation’s best player under 6 feet tall.
When asked about that, Whit just shrugged his shoulders and smiled, “No, never heard of him.’’
That’s understandable since Moore ’s heroics came long before Whit ever touched a basketball.
“Whit has stepped in to the role of our point guard this after a good season with coach Andy Warren on the junior varsity team as a freshman,’’ Guerin varsity coach Pete Smith said. “His assist to turnover rate (179 assists to 58 turnovers) says it all about what kind of season Whit’s had and how important he is to our team.
He joins his brother Riley, a senior, on 23-5 Guerin team that will play Norwell (24-2) on Saturday’s Class 3A state championship game. It marks the first State Finals appearance for either team.
Whit Rapp, who also averages 3.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals, has followed some pretty good points guards at the private Noblesville school in Sam Titus, Bradley Yust and Wilson Denari.
“We’ll need another solid effort from Whit to be able to beat a great Norwell team this coming Saturday,’’ Smith said.