FRUITPORT — Whitehall may not have done everything right in Monday’s district opener against Oakridge, but the Vikings made the hard-nosed plays they needed to down the stretch to escape with a 36-33 victory.
On a night where Whitehall struggled mightily at the free throw line, making only 8-of-28 attempts, it was senior Kendall Osborne’s offensive rebounds on two of its misses that proved decisive. The Vikings got two big points on the second of those boards when Osborne passed over her shoulder to Clare Westerlund for a layup, the final points of the game.
“This time of year, it’s find a way, survive and advance, and that’s what the girls did,” Whitehall coach Brian Milliron said. “We get to practice (Tuesday), which is fantastic. That’s the attitude this time of year. We get to practice and we get to play.”
The biggest sequence of the game, though, may have been earlier in the fourth. With Eagles star Anna Lundquist, who had 20 points in the game, on the bench with four fouls, Whitehall’s presumed opportunity to make some hay instead saw Oakridge extend a slim lead to 30-23 before Lundquist came back in. However, the Vikings rose to the challenge and scored the next 10 points, including a big putback basket by Allie Van Antwerp after a prior shot was blocked.
Osborne said the team had a tough mindset that came from the top down.
“In the huddle, Coach Milli was telling us, it wasn’t an option...He was like, we are not losing. We will play Wednesday,” Osborne said. “Instead of encouraging, we were very (much), ‘This is going to happen. This is what we’re going to do.’”
Osborne led the Vikes with 11 points, and Westerlund and Lexi Daggett each added 10.
The teams battled back and forth throughout the game, but Whitehall delivered a clutch play at the end of the first half that loomed large in the outcome. With only three seconds to work with on an inbounds play, Taylor Ottinger caught a pass and fired it to Westerlund, who took one dribble, wound up and connected from well past the arc for a trey that put the Vikings ahead 15-14.
“It was perfect. Just like we drew it up,” Milliron smiled, though he joked, “If we’ve got to rely on half court three-pointers, we’re in bad shape.”
While almost the entire playing rotation has turned over since, the hard-fought win did evoke memories of the Vikings’ 2023 district championship team. Milliron credited assistants Emily MacArthur and David Osborne with carrying over the never-say-die mentality of the team from a season ago.
Whitehall knew, though, it would probably take more than that to take out its next opponent, Spring Lake, the only team in the bracket with a winning record and the presumed district favorite.
“Ella Andree is a fantastic basketball player,” Milliron said. “Alexa Carter is a fantastic basketball player. They have a really good team. We’re going to have to play our best game this season to be able to hang with Spring Lake.”
“We need to stick to the principles - boxing out, finishing bunnies, having a hand up, every little detail,” Osborne added. “We think that if we do every little thing,
