MUSKEGON — It's never been news to the area that Whitehall senior forward Kal Koehler can shoot the ball. However, Tuesday night saw Koehler aggressively hunt his shot in a way he rarely does, and the results were remarkable in a 66-43 Vikings' victory over Reeths-Puffer.
Koehler led all players with 24 points, shooting a remarkable 10-of-12 from the field and 4-of-5 from three-point distance.
"Once he gets
going like that, it's dangerous," Whitehall coach Christian Subdon said. "He's a phenomenal player. He can go get it from anywhere. He can move inside in the
post. You saw a great spin move for the finish. He
stepped outside, they cut him off and then he pulled up for two. He can really do it all."
Koehler started early, scoring 10 first-quarter points and making a pair of treys. That outburst effectively stalemated an outstanding opening quarter from R-P's Marvin Moore, who poured in 11 points in the first eight minutes - the last two on a buzzer-beating jumper - to almost single-handedly keep the Rockets in the game. Whitehall led 20-16 at that point.
Neither Koehler nor Moore scored in the second quarter as both defenses performed better, but Koehler picked up where he left off in the second half, with seven points in each of the final two frames. His shots were flawless, rarely even touching the rim.
Koehler said Subdon challenged him to exploit a mismatch the Viking coaches thought they had against the R-P defense, which was all the motivation he needed to be aggressive on offense.
"I just really looked for (that mismatch), and I was
just looking for my shot really aggressively," Koehler said. "I wanted to help
our team out and come out with a W tonight."
The Viking defense locked down R-P in the second quarter, allowing only five points to extend their lead to 12 at halftime, 33-21. The Rockets made a brief push back in the third quarter, taking advantage of a couple of uncharacteristic giveaways and Camden Thompson's brief absence from the game due to foul trouble, but Whitehall quickly answered and put the game away early in the fourth quarter.
"That pressure they were giving us, they were giving it to us all game,
and we just folded in that third quarter," Koehler said. "(Coach) told us to step it up and
that's what we did."
R-P coach J.R. Wallace said his team got away from its offensive game plan after a strong early start, letting the Whitehall 3-2 zone fluster it into poor decisions.
"I know that Cam Thompson is a big fellow up top and that is
intimidating, but we got away from our game plan as far as pass-making
and shot-faking
on the arc and making them move with pass fakes," Wallace said.
Thompson did his usual stat-stuffing, with 19 points, 16 rebounds and six assists. He and Corde Anderson (who had 11 points and seven boards himself) also combined for five blocked shots, keeping R-P away from the hoop.
Whitehall's Camden Thompson blocks a shot by Reeths-Puffer's Drew Brooks during Tuesday's game at R-P. Thompson had 19 points and 16 rebounds in the Vikings' 66-43 win.
Subdon said the Vikings refocused their defensive efforts on Moore, who ended the night with 18 points, after his terrific opening quarter. Relentless double-teams helped limit the junior star the rest of the way, and Wallace said he thought fatigue from fighting through that defense also was a factor in Moore being unable to keep up his blistering first-quarter pace.
Wallace said the Whitehall game was deliberately scheduled for this week with another area battle, against Mona Shores, on deck. He's hopeful his team learned to bring the energy the Vikings brought to R-P when the Rockets go on the road for that rivalry battle.
"There were a lot of
50/50 balls that we didn't get," Wallace said. "There were a lot of box-outs that we didn't make. Watching the film, learning from
it, and then knowing that and sharing that, 'Now you're on the road, and
now we've got to bring the energy that Whitehall did to us. We've got to take that across town.'"
Subdon said scheduling the Rockets fit with his program's ethos of challenging itself and noted R-P's rapid improvement from early in the season.
"Those guys would finish in the top half of our league, I believe," Subdon said.
"They're a good team. They've been improving every second and continuing
to be
better every week."
