WHITEHALL — Whitehall prepared and prepared for Shelby's press, which the Vikings knew was coming in Monday's season opener. Several of the Tigers participated in a JV summer league earlier this year that Whitehall was also part of. Shelby won the league utilizing that defense, so it was no surprise when they threw it at Whitehall Monday.
Unfortunately, the Vikings struggled to counteract it, turning the ball over a lot - Shelby had 21 steals - and surrendering 21 consecutive first-half points on the way to a 53-17 defeat.
It looked like it would be a competitive game early when Clare Westerlund knocked down a three-pointer to tie the game at 5-5. However, that was the last time the Vikings scored for a long time as they were unable to get into their half-court offense due to the pressure Shelby displayed. Drew Buckner finally ended the 21-0 run with a layup, but by that time the Tigers already had all the points they would need to win.
Westerlund led the Vikings with eight points in the game, five of them in that first quarter.
"It looked like we'd never seen a press before and that we'd never
practiced one, even though we knew that's exactly what they were
going to do," Whitehall coach Brian Milliron said. "Hopefully it's just a mental part that we need to figure out and we'll be good
after that, but that was the biggest issue and the biggest
disappointment that we had, was dealing with the press and the turnovers."
Whitehall's Janie Fagan goes up for a shot against Shelby Monday night. The Tigers' Emma Stovall (left) and Jayna Burmeister look on. Shelby won, 53-17.
Although Whitehall entered the game with a lot more varsity experience than Shelby - the Tigers had three juniors and no seniors on their roster - Shelby's players have played together for some years, and successfully so, at the middle school level. Whitehall's players are not as familiar with one another on the court, with senior Sidney Shepherd having not played as a junior and a few of the Vikings' other seniors having played primarily on the JV last season. It didn't help that the team's top returning player, Lexi Daggett, did not play Monday.
Milliron also noted that while several Whitehall players are multi-sport athletes, basketball is not their primary sport in most cases, so there's also an element of needing to play their way back into the groove of the game.
"As long as we peak at the
right time, we're doing alright, but we have to get better
each day," Milliron said.
Perhaps that lack of time on the court together played a factor in Whitehall's inability to get comfortable against the Shelby defense. Milliron said his team actually did pretty well when in half-court sets, with solid ball movement, but because of the press - and Shelby's aggressive play - those moments were not nearly common enough.
"We didn't put enough shots up tonight," Milliron said. "We need to do a better job of getting into our offense...They're bigger than us, even though they're a lot younger
than us. I thought 50/50 balls were definitely not 50/50 tonight. They got a vast majority of them."
Whitehall also struggled rebounding, though that could partially be explained by the Tigers' having far superior size.
The Vikings do have a recent history of rebounding from early-season performances and having a successful season - the 2022-23 team scored seven points in a loss to Ludington but won a district championship. Whitehall will have to hope - and work to ensure - that something similar can happen this season.
"There are things that I'm going
to chalk up to early game stuff that hopefully we can fix," Milliron said. "Thursday we're back at it at WMC, so we don't
have a lot of time to get ourselves right for that."
