LocalSportsJournal.com

WHITEHALL — Fremont’s girls basketball team made the road trip to Whitehall and came back with a heartbreaking 56-54 non-conference defeat in overtime Tuesday night for its third straight loss.

But, for the Vikings the victory stretched their winning streak to three in a row, and lifted their record one game closer to .500 at 7-8 on the season.

“We’ve been talking all year about needing better effort, and we got that tonight,” Packers head coach Wes Zerlaut said. “I was very proud of the girls tonight, despite coming up short on the scoreboard.

“It was a very physical game. We got into foul trouble early, and faced a lot of adversity throughout the night. We definitely had our chances, and things looked pretty good when we built a 44-34 lead in the fourth quarter.

“Credit to Whitehall for battling back from that deficit. The foul trouble ended up catching up with us, with three players fouling out in regulation and getting outscored by seven points at the free throw line.”

Fremont also had 29 turnovers, which is always difficult to overcome. The Packers picked up 25 fouls and Whitehall had 20, so there was a lot of activity at the free throw line.

The Packers held a 10-8 lead after the first quarter, and then the Vikings made 16 free throws alone in the second period as they took a 31-26 lead at the half.

Fremont opened the second half with a strong third quarter, outscoring the Vikings, 14-3 to pull ahead, 40-34 going into the fourth quarter.

But, the Vikings stormed back with a 16-10 fourth period to knot the score at 50-all and force overtime, with the Vikings prevailing with a 6-4 edge.

Leading the way for the Packers were Haley Zerlaut with 27 points and seven rebounds. Lily VandenBerg added eight points and seven rebounds, Khaila Noordyk scored eight points and had six rebounds while Jessica Bennett chipped in with 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Charley Klint’s 22 points paced the Vikings.

It was the fourth straight win for the Vikings, who will next be in action Thursday at home against Montague in the West Michigan Conference.

Fremont fell to 2-12 on the season, and is next scheduled to play at Central Montcalm on Friday night in the Central State Activities Association Gold.