Long-range shooting by Fremont too much for Montague boys basketball

MONTAGUE — Montague was left searching for answers again Friday night after taking a second lopsided defeat to Fremont, 70-30, to drop to 3-13 and 1-8 in West Michigan Conference Lakes play.

Fremont came out on fire from deep, drilling five three-pointers in the first quarter to build a 22-9 lead. The Wildcats turned the ball over before reaching half-court on their first possession, in what turned out to be an ominous sign for what was to come.

"They made a lot of shots and credit to them for doing that," Montague coach Nick Thaler said. "They have guys that can make shots if they're left open. At this level, you've got to guard guys, and we just did not come out with a sense of urgency or energy to do those things."

Montague was left frustrated, especially considering half of Fremont's four wins have come against the Wildcats. On paper, the two teams would seem to be evenly matched, yet both their games have turned into Packer runaways.

That frustration likely played a part in why Montague played exclusively reserves in the fourth quarter of the game. Only two Wildcats that were on the court in the final frame saw action in the first half.

"I told them at the beginning of the second half that if you were not going into the game to give your effort and to play hard, there was potential that you were going to come out," Thaler said.

The Wildcats had a couple of brief positive stretches where it appeared they might be able to get back into the game. However, Fremont always seemed to have an answer to get rolling once again.

Jack Degen was responsible for some of what went well for Montague in the first half, in which he scored eight points. However, the Wildcats couldn't sustain many positives.

An attention to detail, Thaler said, was missing for Montague that enabled Fremont to continue to pull away throughout the night. He estimated that the Packers won the rebounding battle by at least 15, which is always a bad sign for any team hoping to come away with a win.

"We're just not doing the little things that are going to win you a lot of basketball games," Thaler said. "We're not boxing guys out. We're not getting rebounds. We're not able to catch the ball. We're not able to make the right passes or catch the ball when getting passes to (us). If you don't do those things, it just puts you in a bind.

"That's super frustrating because it's stuff we work on every day. We just don't produce in games. We're obviously trying to figure that out still, and there's not a lot of time left in the season to figure it out. We're up against the wall."

Adding to the frustration was the obvious joy with which Fremont played throughout the game, despite its struggles this season. As the Packers continued to make good things happen, their bench got into it and each timeout was met with high-fives and smiles on their sideline.

"They're getting on the floor for those 50-50 balls and going for rebounds and defending and playing with energy and effort and having fun," Thaler said. "You look at our guys, and we're the exact opposite. We're trying to figure that out. We've got the tournament coming up, and for some of these guys it's the end of the road. We've had those discussions, and it's going to be up to them how they want to respond."

Mossen Green led Fremont with 13 points in the game, and the Packers hit 10 three-pointers in all.