WHITEHALL — For one half of Whitehall's clash with West Michigan Conference Lakes power Fremont Monday, it seemed all the Vikings' problems were solved. Whitehall was overcoming the Fremont press, playing great defense, getting to the basket and converting opportunities. Their efforts were rewarded with a two-point halftime lead.
Then the second half happened.
Fremont looked more like the team that smothered Whitehall twice last season in the last 16 minutes, taking advantage of a tired Vikings' bunch to force a slew of turnovers and turn them into easy layups, dispatching Whitehall 55-34. The Packers trailed 22-20 at the break before outscoring Whitehall 35-12 in the second half, including 14-2 in the third quarter.
Whitehall coach Brian Milliron laid the blame at his own feet, saying he should have worked harder on conditioning and building depth with the team in the offseason so they could better keep up with the fast-paced Packers.
"I didn't get (them) in good enough shape, and when you're tired, you're dumb," Milliron said ruefully. "We made such good decisions in the first half. We were ahead going into the halftime break. Then we got tired."
It's not like Whitehall (2-5, 2-1 WMC Lakes) folded; in fact, the Vikings, although they surrendered the lead in the third quarter, used hustle and clutch rebounding to get into the bonus with 3:25 still to go, ensuring any Fremont foul after that the rest of the quarter would send them to the free throw line. However, once there, the results were not good; the team was only 2-of-9 in the quarter, and 9-of-23 for the game. Free throw shooting has been an issue for Whitehall all year. It didn't help that the Vikes made zero field goals in the quarter.
"We have to be able to make our free throws when we're playing against really good teams, like Fremont has," Milliron said. "We missed a couple bunny layups when we did beat the press. We did everything right, then we'd miss a wide open layup. We can't do that. But their effort was fantastic. They bought into what we're trying to do here."
Fremont's full-court press has been its secret sauce for years as it competes for conference titles. Using very fast, tall girls with long arms, the Packers are able to fluster teams that can't match that level of athleticism, which is most of their opponents.
"They are more athletic than we are, and I don't think it takes a seasoned basketball coach to see that," Milliron said. "We have to get more athletic, and that's something you don't do in December and January. That's offseason stuff. I need to do a better job of getting kids buying into becoming more athletic so that we can compete (with them) for 32 minutes as opposed to 20-ish minutes."
However, the first half was much more fruitful for Whitehall, and likely the part of the game they'll take the most heart in reliving. Clare Westerlund scored the first four points, then answered a 9-0 Fremont run with the next four as well. In the second half, Emma Decker and Peyton Schultz pitched in for nine total points themselves as Whitehall did a commendable job against the press, finding open players and limiting giveaways.
Though Kate Beda had only three points in the game in all, she was a major factor in press break early on as well, passing out five assists and displaying remarkable poise for a second-year basketball player. Kayden Johnson helped too.
"We just made good decisions," Milliron said of the first half. "We didn't hurry. Then we got tired, and we started to hurry. I called some timeouts and was trying to get some folks in, but we've got to work on our depth a little bit, and our conditioning."
The final Whitehall stat book had 26 turnovers marked down, probably 75% of which, Milliron estimated, took place in the second half. Limiting giveaways is obviously a priority for any team and even more so against Fremont.
Westerlund had a double-double for Whitehall, with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Schultz added 10 points and six boards.
"We're going to win games and we're going to lose games, but all we ask is that we compete every single night," Milliron said. "The kids have bought into that and I'm super proud of their effort, and I think we can use that, copy and paste that first half moving forward and let the chips fall as they may."
