MONTAGUE — Whitehall's defense locked down Montague, holding the Wildcats without a second-half field goal, to pull away for a 67-25 win in the teams' pre-district game Monday night.
The Vikings went ahead by double digits when Evan Thomas drove to the basket for a layup in the final seconds of the first quarter, then buried the Wildcats with a 17-2 scoring run in the second.
Thomas, Pierce Westerlund and Hunter Osborne led a multi-pronged Whitehall attack early on, and the Vikings hit five first-half treys - three by Osborne - to propel themselves to a Wednesday semifinal matchup against old nemesis Spring Lake.
It was the defense, though, that took center stage Monday night, holding the Wildcats to 15% shooting and 0-for-12 from three-point distance.
"We ratcheted up the pressure a little bit," Whitehall coach Christian Subdon said. "We forced them into off-hand dribbles. If they wanted to drive right, we weren't going to let them drive right. They were going to drive left. We kind of took away what they wanted to do, and we made them do what we wanted them to do."
The 14 turnovers Whitehall forced, as well as effective first-half rebounding, helped the Vikings get out on the break, which they've long loved to do. That yielded open shots and lanes to the basket.
Montague coach Nick Thaler said Whitehall utilized its physical advantages well and lamented that the 'Cats couldn't slow down the Vikes' fast breaks.
"When you're playing a team that's got some veteran guys and has got some good physical players, you've got to put some type of pressure on them," Thaler said. "If you don't, then you're going to be looking at scores like tonight.
When they're clearing possessions and they're taking it down and we're not getting back in transition, that's a problem. They're getting that extra possession and then you have to sprint back on defense to be able to stop the ball and protect the basket, and we didn't do those things."
High-level long-distance shooting was also a big factor for Whitehall, which made 9-of-21 from beyond the arc. So locked in were Viking shooters that Alex Winczewski was able to knock down a trey from close to half court to beat the third-quarter buzzer.
Subdon knows his team needs that kind of shooting to be a successful team and mimed a prayer gesture in hopes that Winczewski, Osborne and Westerlund, who combined to go 8-of-17 from distance, can repeat that effort against Spring Lake.
"I hope they've got some more left in the tank because we're going to need it," Subdon said. "They've been focusing in on practices. (Winczewski and Westerlund) are still young, so (it's) getting them to understand that it's OK to miss. Everybody does it, so play the next play and move on. They did that tonight, and it was good."
Westerlund, who had a team-high 17 points Monday and set a school record with eight three-pointers earlier this season against Morley-Stanwood, said effective ball movement helped him and his teammates have better looks. That was another big contributor to their shooting success.
"It makes us a lot better," Westerlund said. "It's so much easier to hit open shots than to go one-on-one, and Coach has been talking about it. I didn't think we ran our offense that good today, but it's just a lot better."
Winczewski had 12 points for Whitehall, and Osborne chipped in 11. Thomas had eight points and eight rebounds.
Logan Hansen paced Montague with eight points. The defeat ended the careers of six Wildcats, including starters Hansen, Cooper Bradley and Cole Herremans.
"I just told them in the locker room that I didn't want their senior year to be their proudest achievement," Thaler said. "I want them to continue to value things and set goals for themselves."
