By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com
MANISTEE — It was never a contest after the first couple of minutes.
Bombing away from 3-point land right off the bat, the Whitehall Vikings blitzed the Manistee Mariners, hitting for 10 shots from beyond the arc on the night and rolled to a 77-37 win.
Photo/Greg Gielczyk
Despite making the long bus ride to Manistee in less than ideal conditions, and a cold blustery wind buffeting one and all outside, the Vikings caught fire early on the way to their fifth straight win.
The Mariners, who are off to one of their best starts in some years, had life early when they bounded out to a quick lead.
But, the Vikings asserted their dominance with a barrage of long triples and soon had the Mariners under their thumb, leading 30-10 after the first.
Not only could Manistee not recover, the Vikings made sure they didn’t, hitting the boards on both ends with a ferocity that kept the Mariners reeling.
“We did good job moving the ball, we distributed really well,” Whitehall coach Christian Subdon said. “We had 13 assists in the first half. That’s pretty good. We were playing some really unselfish basketball, and that’s what built the lead. We’ve got a lot of really talented players on the team.
“A lot of players that are about the team. We are going to be pretty successful if that continues. There’s a lot of guys on this team that can score, as you can see.”
The final statistics showed that.
Camden Thompson was the Vikings’ leader with 18 points, followed by Kal Koehler with 17, while Brock Morningstar scored 15 and Kyle Stratton had 10. Thompson also ripped down 20 rebounds to lead Whitehall’s domination of the boards. Koehler had eight rebounds and DJ Jamison six.
Photo/Greg Gielczyk
Stratton joined Thompson in distributing the ball as each finished with five assists. Thompson and Camar Ready each had four steals.
“It was tough from the start,” Manistee coach Zach Bialik said. “They have a really nice group of five or six kids. They came out strong. We were in a zone and they made shots. When they make shots and you don’t make shots, it goes south fast. We knew going in it would be a tough game.
“Whitehall has established themselves as a great program, and a great conference opponent. They were ready to play today.”
The Vikings raced out to a 55-18 lead and had a 77-27 lead by the end of three.
Whitehall (5-0, 3-0 WMC) plays in the Cornerstone University Holiday Classic, going against Hamtramck on Wednesday night and then faces East Grand Rapids on Friday.
“We’re excited to test ourselves in a way that we haven’t been tested yet,” said Subdon. “I just want to see our guys compete. If we do that, I’ll be pretty happy. Keys will be rebounding, pushing pace and doing what we do best, which is defensive intensity. I love when we’re help side doing the right stuff, playing team defense. When we can do that, we can be something special.”
Manistee (4-4, 1-2 WMC) travels to Shelby on Thursday for its final game before the holiday break.
