FREMONT — Whitehall did a decent job stemming the tide of the Fremont avalanche for much of the second and third quarters Friday night, but the Packers proved too much for the young Vikings in a 78-42 win.
Fremont has smothered all comers in the West Michigan Conference Lakes, including a 16-point win over Ludington and a 45-point win over Montague, so when the Vikings (6-4, 2-3 WMC Lakes) were down 19 points, at 45-26, in the third quarter, it seemed like a moral victory of sorts. However, that's when Fremont exploded on offense, ending the quarter on a 17-0 run to go up 62-26.
Fremont's remarkable speed, athleticism and tenacity were huge factors as the Vikings couldn't move the ball against the press. It's very difficult to simulate what the Packers do in practice, though Whitehall tried, running 5-on-6 or 5-on-7 and even enlisting assistant coach Emily MacArthur to harass ballhandlers.
Still, coach Brian Milliron said he saw some things he liked as the game progressed.
"We were a little timid at the beginning, but then we got
better against it as it went on, more confident," Milliron said. "We kept our
heads up. Sometimes we did a lousy job of getting the ball. We were looking
down and trying to kill ants as we dribbled it as opposed to keeping our
heads up, and we progressed on that. It felt better than the
(Dec. 19) Ludington game where we didn't do that.
"We're not scoreboard-watching. We're just trying to get better each week moving forward."
And in that respect, Friday was, if not exactly a step forward, at least something from which positives could be taken. Milliron said he was pleased with his team's competitiveness.
"We played all 12 girls tonight, and they competed for 32 minutes," Milliron said. "Emily and I were talking, and that's all we care about at this point. That was the best team we're going
to see in the regular season. We're going to see them again. We just
need to progress, keep positive and play hard for 32 minutes, so that when
we do play close games - and anything can happen when it comes
to high school basketball - we can progress and see what happens going forward."
Whitehall trailed early on, 15-0, with Fremont star Mia Clemence hitting consecutive three-pointers to build the edge. Lexi Daggett finally got the Vikes on the board with her own trey 4:40 into the contest.
It was 25-6 in the second quarter before Whitehall began slowing Fremont down. At halftime the score was 38-21.
Clemence terrorized Whitehall throughout the game, scoring 34 points, including five three-pointers. She was also a force on defense, deflecting the ball and coming up with steals.
"She's a matchup nightmare," Milliron said. "If you put one of
your smaller guards on her, she can bully them and go down low because she's strong. Or do you put a bigger
girl on her for that? But then she's able to get her shot
off, and she makes a lot of them."
A bright spot came in the final seconds of the game, when junior Kate Beda hit a three-pointer as the buzzer sounded. The score marked Beda's first varsity points after not previously playing basketball in high school. Beda was in Milliron's history class last year, and he talked her into playing the sport this winter.
"She works hard
at practice every day," Milliron said. "She doesn't get a lot of minutes because she's still trying to figure out the game a little bit, but we
got her some minutes tonight and she scored for the very
first time in her high school career, and the girls were so happy and
proud and cheering at the end for that. That's what it's all about."
Janie Fagan led the Vikes with nine points in the game, and Sidney Shepherd scored eight.
