Ludington escapes with narrow victory over Spring Lake

GRAND HAVEN — David Shillinger’s shot wasn’t falling Friday night for the Ludington boys basketball team, but his putback basket put the Orioles ahead for good.

With the score tied, 59-59 with 5:07 remaining in the fourth quarter, Shillinger muscled down an offensive rebound, took it back up to the basket to vault the Orioles into a 61-59 lead.

From there, the Orioles staved off the Spring Lake Lakers for a thrilling 64-61 victory to finish 2-0 in the Lake Michigan Cup and co-champions in a game played at Grand Haven High School.

Ludington closed out the 2022 portion of its schedule with a 7-0 record. The loss was the first after three straight wins for the Lakers (3-2).

“We haven’t really played in a close game for the most part all year long,” Orioles coach Thad Shank said. “We knew coming in that Spring Lake was going to be pretty prepared to attack our pressure. Coach (Bill) Core is, if not the best, one of the best coaches in West Michigan and they were prepared to handle our pressure. We had to rely on some other things … a little bit of half-court offense, a little bit of half-court defense.”

Shillinger also made 3-of-4 free throws around a bucket by Spring Lake’s Zach Schlepp, and the Oriole defense made a couple big stops in the final minute.

The Lakers sprung out to a 16-6 lead at one point in the first quarter, but the Orioles scrambled back to cut that 10-point margin in half, 22-17, at the buzzer.

With their big man Zane Stahl scoring eight points in the second quarter, the Lakers made a run to take a 10-point lead at 39-29. A 3-pointer by Gage Jones left Ludington trailing, 39-32, at the break.

Jones buried another huge 3-pointer to spark an Orioles’ run that cut the deficit to two, 44-42, with 3:51 left in the third.

Ludington went on a 10-0 run, including a steal and basket by Daniel Ramirez, and mounted a 49-45 at the 2:15 mark. But the Lakers rallied to take a 52-51 lead into the fourth.

Spencer Holmes canned a couple 3-pointers at the beginning of the final period that helped the Orioles gain a 59-57 edge.

“We played in a game of runs, and the way we are ultra-aggressive on the defensive end, trapping and things of that nature, I think that they’re starting to feel comfortable that not very many leads are safe,” Shank said. “I was pleased with how defensively we got a few stops down the stretch. We haven’t been super solid in our half-court defense this year, instead being so reliant on forcing turnovers in the full-court and playing transition we don’t find ourselves very often in half-court, grind it out situations.

“We don’t have a lot of size other than our Westhouse kid, so to be able to get a few stops against a big, strong, physical Spring Lake team like that was good for us.”

Jones hit four 3-pointers early to carry the Orioles and finished with 15 points, all of which came in the first three quarters. Spencer Holmes tossed in 12 points and Shillinger finished with nine points.

Stahl paced the Lakers with 16 points, followed by Schlepp with 14 and Eli Morrison 12.

“It was a heck of a game,” said veteran Spring Lake coach Bill Core. “You know what, I can’t be more proud of my team. They never cease to amaze to me by some of the different things that they do. In last night’s game, we had 20 turnovers and tonight we had 15 and there was constant pressure. You’re not going through this type of game with that that kind of pressure without turning it over.

Ludington hosts Reed City in a non-conference game on Tuesday.

The Lakers plays Tuesday, Jan. 10 at Grand Rapids West Catholic.