Whitehall girls basketball comes alive in second half, defeats rival Montague

MONTAGUE — On a night both White Lake rival teams spent searching for offense, the Whitehall Vikings found theirs by turning to a familiar source - junior Clare Westerlund.

The Whitehall star went for nine second-half points, part of a 20-point half for her team as the Vikings overcame an early deficit to beat rival Montague, 27-19.

Montague led 9-7 at halftime before Westerlund ignited the Viking attack with six points in the third quarter, part of a 12-4 scoring run by Whitehall. After early struggles for the Viking offense, the junior took it upon herself to get to the basket.

"I couldn't make my layups in the beginning, and I (thought), 'Well, they're going to fall eventually, so I've just got to keep shooting,'" Westerlund said. "That's what I felt like, if I could keep driving, eventually they were going to fall."

Coach Brian Milliron said Westerlund has to be aggressive on offense in order for Whitehall to put its best selves on the court.

"Clare Westerlund, she's a scorer," Milliron said. "She's our number one option...and sometimes she gets a little tunnel vision, but she makes the motor go. She does a great job on both ends, which is really cool to see."

In addition to Westerlund's performance, Milliron said the team's patience on offense improved after halftime. He cited the players doing a better job holding screens for a brief moment before making their moves to the basket.

Westerlund had 11 points for the game and also paced the Vikings in rebounds, with seven.

Montague coach Jess DeBruin was frustrated her team was unable to keep up the strong defensive effort it displayed in the first half, which she called the best defense the Wildcats had played all season.

"We came out in the second half, and we just didn't play," DeBruin said. "We didn't want it. I don't know what happened. I wish I knew. Whitehall wanted it more at the end."

Montague, like Whitehall, has had offensive struggles this year, unsurprising given the lack of experience on the team; Gentry Knop was the only Wildcat who entered the season with significant varsity experience. The 'Cats did, though, show flashes of improvement at times during the game. Molly Mulder gave Montague an early 4-2 lead with a layup, and Marguerite O'Connell displayed some smooth moves by going off the dribble and knocking down a jump shot shortly thereafter.

That success, though, wasn't common enough for Montague, which squandered its chance to build on a big WMC Lakes win over Oakridge earlier in the week.

Maybe the most frustrating play for Montague, for multiple reasons, came in the fourth quarter. Whitehall's Kayden Johnson, a transfer from Montague, grabbed a rebound and dribbled all the way from one end of the court to the other, scoring a basket while being fouled. She converted the three-point play to make it 22-15, a lead the 'Cats were unable to overcome.

"Kayden's going to do that," DeBruin said. "She knows the game of basketball, and she obviously knows us. That was a great play on her end."

Montague's Annelyse Schneider did respond to that with a three-pointer, her second of the game, to cut the lead to 22-18, but the 'Cats could get no closer.

The Vikings' defensive intensity - and their own struggles on offense - have led to a lot of fairly close games over the past couple of seasons, and Milliron said his team is so experienced in those situations that the players have grown comfortable with them.

"Usually when it's a two or three-possession game, you're kind of nervous, but a two or three-possession game, the way they've been playing, I feel pretty decent about things, which is kind of weird to say out loud," Milliron said. "Defensively, we played very well. Offensively, we're still stuttering a little bit. We missed a lot of layups, too. Montague played real well tonight defensively. They've been very difficult for us. We came through when we needed to in the second half."

The game was originally slated to take place at Whitehall before a water main break at the high school forced its move to Montague. As a result, the teams' Jan. 30 game will now be played at Whitehall instead of at Montague.