Ludington cruises past Manistee in Thursday night boys hoops action

MANISTEE — Ludington used its superior depth and a pressure defense to speed past Manistee, 68-35, Thursday night in a West Michigan Conference-Lakes Division boys basketball game.

It puts the Orioles in a position to capture the championship in their first season in the newly realigned WMC with a victory Tuesday night at Orchard View.

And the Orioles didn’t waste any time putting the Chippewas in a deep hole, blasting out to an 11-0 start. Manistee’s poor shooting — the Chippewas were a chilly 15-of-52 from the field — stalled out any comeback hopes.

“I thought we did a pretty nice job early attacking their zone defense,” Ludington coach Thad Shank said. “When we can get scores and set up our defense, that’s where we’re very comfortable playing the full-court game. Manistee has some quick, athletic kids. But, so do we and we were able to create a little offense from our defense, and force that tempo a little bit in our favor.”

The Chippewas had a hard time contending inside with 6-foot-10 Matthew Westhouse.

While defensively they held him to 10 points, he rejected several shot attempts and dominated the boards. That prevented Manistee from gaining any second-chance opportunities.

“He changes a lot of things with our defense,” Shank said. “We can gamble and pressure a lot of times, and get away with things, and make mistakes defensively with a 6-10 guy underneath the rim. It’s hard to finish. You notice towards the end of the game they (the Chippewas) were pulling up from 12 to 13 (feet away from the basket) to avoid going in there.

“That’s just a big luxury that we have as a basketball team. He’s playing his best basketball at the right time.”

Manistee coach Zach Bialik agreed, but added that the Orioles’ depth also was a big factor.

“They just have so many weapons,” Bialik said. “(David) Shillinger is a good player, but we were talking as a coaching staff … I don’t know that you notice so much when he goes off the floor because they have so many guys they can throw in. No disrespect to Shillinger, it’s just that they have so many bodies that they can throw at you that have a lot of ability.”

Ludington set the tone immediately, forcing a turnover and then racing down to the other end where Chase Hackert struck for a long 3-pointer from out of the corner.

The Orioles were off and running.

Manistee didn’t get on the board until nearly half of the first quarter was gone.

But, the Orioles could not be stopped and pummeled the Chippewas for a 20-7 lead after one. Ludington led, 43-16, at the half and 65-26 at the end of three.

Shillinger knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and led all scorers with 17 points for the Orioles. Westhouse and Gage Jones added 10 apiece. Ludington finished with seven 3-pointers.

Manistee’s leading scorer was Ethan Edmondson, who scored six points in the third quarter and ended up with 13. Scharp contributed nine points.

Ludington (17-2, 10-1 WMC-Lakes) goes after the conference title Thursday night at Orchard View.

Manistee (5-15, 1-9) travels to Montague Tuesday night for a conference contest.