WHITEHALL — Whitehall threw a 2-3 zone defense at Spring Lake Friday night in a highly anticipated showdown, forcing a turnover right away to spark an impressive start to the game. The Vikings never looked back and scored a 58-45 win, earning a measure of revenge for last season's Laker upset win in the districts.
The two teams often play early in the season, but as coach Christian Subdon noted, it was the first time they had played on a Friday in many years, and the atmosphere ratcheted up accordingly.
"This is always a good rivalry," Subdon said. "It's been like that since I was in school. (Lakers' coach) Bill Core always has his guys ready, and he'll have them ready in March. Him and I schedule this game on purpose."
Brock Morningstar sparked the Vikings (1-1) with three first-quarter three-pointers, all of the spot-up variety, and Whitehall also got out and ran, employing its traditional fast-paced style.
After Whitehall's quick start, Spring Lake clawed back into the game, getting as close as three points with 3:22 to go in the third quarter on a putback basket. Kal Koehler quickly answered with a two-pointer of his own, and the Vikings were never seriously threatened again.
Although it wasn't the sharpest game for the Viking offense, as they shot under 40 percent from the field, the team displayed a knack for winning hustle plays, coming up with loose balls, steals and offensive rebounds to beat the Lakers at their own scrappy game.
"It's about toughness, and it's not just toughness like I'm going to talk...'I'm a big strong guy,'" Subdon said. "Toughness is, you missed your first free throw, you make your next one. You miss a shot or you turn it over, you go get a steal or you make a shot. There's a ball on the ground. It's got to be ours. There's no such thing as a 50/50 ball."
Whitehall's Camden Thompson soars to the basket during Friday's game against Spring Lake. Thompson had 19 points in the Vikings' win.
Strong defense is likely to be a season-long storyline for Whitehall, which believes it has different things it can throw at opponents. The zone delivered good early returns for the Vikings, with Subdon shouting out Corde Anderson and Koehler as the athletic forwards needed to make it go, but they feel equally comfortable in a man-to-man set.
"I've come into practice and said, 'It's not that hard, guys. Just beat (the zone) like this,'" Subdon said. "Then you've got Cam's arms like this (spreading his arms wide) and I'm like, 'OK, maybe it's a little harder than I thought.'"
"Once you start finding your way in the zone, we're going to go to man, because we're pretty good at that too, and we're only going to get better. I'm super proud of our guys and we've got to keep it going."
Star Camden Thompson didn't have his best offensive game, going 4-of-14 from the field, though he still scored a team-best 19 points by getting to the free throw line often and grabbed 11 rebounds too. Thompson recently became the program's all-time assist leader, adding to a limitless list of accolades.
"The guys I needed to hit, they hit," Thompson said. "They trusted me and I'm trusting them. It's good that we can have each other's backs. That's huge for us, and when I'm not hitting, one of our other guys is."
Koehler also had a double-double, with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Subdon added that Finn Muller and Hunter Osborne had impressive nights too.
The win establishes Whitehall as a district favorite, and the teams may well meet again in March.
"The district's here (at home)," Subdon said. "So we wanted to send a message tonight and let them know that it goes through here."
