By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com
LUDINGTON — David Shillinger would have preferred to reach the 1,000-point career milestone in a Ludington victory, but it didn’t turn out that way.He scored 27 points, but the Orioles fell, 88-77 to Whitehall in a key West Michigan Conference Lakes game played in Ludington recently to hit the historic marker.
Considering his character, Shillinger no doubt would give back a few, if not all of those points for an Oriole win as they battle the Vikings for the conference title as the regular season drew to a close.
Shillinger is only a junior, with the rest of this season, plus the tournament and then next year to make a run at Ludington’s all-time leading scorer Mike Larson, whose record of 1,336 points has stood for 50 years.
Depending on how much he can score, Shillinger could threaten the county’s all-time mark set by Steve Griswold, who handed in his uniform after notching 1, 701 points, with Mandy Stowe’s 2,160 looming as the highest total ever for either boys or girls.
Photo courtesy of LSJ photographer Joe Washington
It’s all out there for him, and he could truly leave a lasting legacy for the Orioles.
“I’ve had a lot of great players over the years, and a number of kids that scored 1,000 points … but we haven’t had anyone who scored 1,000 points as early in his career as David has,” said Ludington coach Thad Shank. “That’s pretty cool.”
A part of it was that Shillinger had an opportunity to play on the varsity as a freshman because the Orioles desperately needed a point guard, and Shank felt he was the best option to fulfill that role.
Shank said another part of Shillinger’s ability to score as he has due to his ability on the defensive end.
“He has an ability to anticipate things, and the explosive gear that he has is key,” the Oriole coach said. “Probably his most impressive stat this year is that he’s averaging 4.5 steals per game.
“He creates so much havoc on the defensive end that he gets a lot of transition buckets, generating offense from his defense.”
Gage Jones and Kole Anthes have taken over the point guard role this year as well, allowing Shillinger to get out in transition, and set up on the wing. It’s allowed the Orioles to be a little more productive.
Shillinger is shooting the ball from the perimeter the best he has in his career, knocking down the ball from 3-point range at a 40 percent clip.
He can put the ball on the floor, penetrate and finish at the rim with his ability to create offense from his defense can be a pretty lethal combination sometimes.
“You don’t see loads and loads of kids his size reaching that 1,000th point milestone,” Shank said.
“But he’s so strong, and so explosive and he rebounds so well for his size, and finishes so well for his size is a big part of his ability to score like he has.
“He played a couple years with another 1,000-point scorer in Peyton Lacombe who got a good deal of the defense’s attention. We have a lot of good perimeter players around him this year who can stretch the defense and shoot the ball.
“Then you have a 6-10 kid in Matthew Westhouse on the inside it’s hard to just lay your focus on Dave. And, we’re playing a fast tempo game this year, and we’re generating maybe a lot more possession than we have in the past.”
Shillinger has traveled all over the United States playing AAU basketball and Shank said is constantly in the gym working on his game.
It’s that dedication to his game that has played a huge role in his success that he’s enjoyed along with the physical gifts he’s been blessed with.
Photo courtesy of LSJ photographer Joe Washington
