MUSKEGON — Kal Koehler responded to a challenge from his coach Friday night, and because of it Whitehall was able to rally for a 61-51 win over Coopersville in the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame Classic.
Vikings' coach Christian Subdon didn't think Koehler had rebounded well enough of late and told him so in practice this week. Koehler rose to the challenge in the second half, attacking the glass and scoring 12 points, including four straight to give his team the lead early in the fourth quarter. He ended the night with nine boards, including a couple of pivotal offensive rebounds, to go with 18 points.
"Kal is a
great player," Subdon said. "People overlook him all the time...He came out here
and had some tough box-outs. He had a box-out foul. I loved the
toughness out of him."
Whitehall's Kal Koehler (left) is defended by Coopersville during Friday's game at Muskegon. Koehler responded to a challenge from his coach with some clutch rebounds late in a 61-51 win.
Koehler provided the answer to Coopersville's last big push in the final quarter, following a Camden Thompson score with a putback on the next possession to put the Vikings (6-2) back up by six after the Broncos had gotten within two.
The Viking coaches then called timeout and told the team in the huddle not to make any risky jump passes. Naturally, on the first possession out of the timeout, Thompson found Brock Morningstar for an open three-pointer on a jump pass. The senior stuffed the stat sheet as usual, with 21 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists.
"We say that when he's gone we're going to have 10
years worth of reprogramming everybody else in the program to not do (those passes)
because he's so good at it," Subdon said of Thompson.
"It's nice for them to trust me on that," Thompson said with a sheepish smile. "With my height, I can see over a
few people. I'm trusting those guys to be there in those open spots...It
really worked out for us."
The first half did not unfold well for the Vikings, who struggled to get a cohesive offense going against the Broncos' aggressive 2-3 zone.
"They're a team
notorious for running (the) 2-3 (zone)," Koehler said. "Everybody knows they run the 2-3. We were expecting it, but we just couldn't
execute in the first half."
At halftime, the Whitehall staff was able to devise a way to overcome the zone, and the results were obvious as the Vikings outscored Coopersville 35-16 in the second half.
"Tonight they had to battle back, and we
haven't had to do that," Subdon said. "Now we know we can. I think
the opportunities are endless for our team as long as we continue to be
coachable. I think they're going to. They're eating it up and doing a really good job."
It wasn't just Koehler and Thompson shining for Whitehall, which got a big jump shot from Finn Muller in the final seconds of the third quarter to slice the Coopersville lead to two and set the stage for Whitehall's fourth-quarter dominance. Muller also made a terrific pass fake to free himself for a first-quarter three-pointer and keep Whitehall in the game early on.
"Nolan Napier played awesome minutes," Subdon said. "Finn Muller played awesome minutes.
Those guys will never
go noticed (enough) because of Cam and Kal, but they helped us. Hunter
Osborne. Brock Morningstar. We had some players step up in big moments."
The win capped a remarkable stretch of high-caliber opponents for Whitehall early in the season. The Vikings' tests are far from over - Rockford, Allendale and Mona Shores are a few of the big ones remaining - but going forward they will be more interspersed with their West Michigan Conference Lakes schedule.
Subdon couldn't be more pleased with his team's being able to be exposed to the sort of play it'll need to overcome to advance in the postseason.
"We're getting ready for March, win or loss," Subdon said. "I told my assistant coach at
the
start of the fourth quarter, 'I don't care what happens.' We're
down two and I just said that these guys have given me everything they
have. Now they've got to give me a little bit more, and they did that
and
then some."
The Vikings also think they have more to show, and if that's true, it's bad news for the rest of their schedule.
"The main thing is that we've just got
to play to our full potential," Thompson said. "It's shown quite a bit. In the second half
we showed where we could play. We can also play a
lot better than that."
