By Ron Rop
LocalSportsJournal.com
WHITEHALL – Once the Whitehall Vikings get things cranked up, they are a pretty tough team to stop.
Take Friday night for instance.
Photo/Michael Banka
The visiting Ludington Orioles were playing even-up with the undefeated Vikings, but a third-quarter scoring surge changed everything and ultimately led to a 71-62 Viking victory over the Orioles.
“We wanted it,” Whitehall coach Christian Subdon said. “We really defended tonight because Ludington is a special team offensively and we just sat down and defended. I’m just so proud of our guys.”
At the center of that 28-7 Viking run was none other than junior star Camden Thompson, who scored 14 of his 35 points in a span of less than seven minutes. That put the hosts up 53-32 in the final minute of the pivotal third quarter.
“He’s a superstar,” Subdon said of Thompson, who is taking an unofficial visit to the University of Michigan on Saturday to take in the Wolverines’ game against rival Michigan State. “The lights were bright and he shined. He made the right plays and I’m super proud of him and I’m super proud of our team.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys who can do it,” said Subdon, who did have to turn to his bench when Thompson was saddled with his second foul with 2:23 left in the opening quarter and his fourth with 5:26 remaining in the game. He fouled out in the game’s final minute.
“Cam picked up the scoring load tonight, but we had other guys do the right thing to get him the ball, Kal Koehler picked up some big rebounds, Kyle (Stratton) battled all night guarding (David) Shillinger … just super proud of our guys.”
Photo/Michael Banka
Thompson added 22 rebounds to his point total for yet another double-double. Koehler finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. Stratton had eight points. Trannon Aylor also turned in some big minutes.
“They are great teammates to have,” Thompson said. “There’s great chemistry and we’re just getting better. We just trust each other so much and that’s what’s winning us the games this whole season.”
Shillinger, Ludington’s leading scorer, finished with 22 points. Cameron Gunsell was strong inside and finished with 17 points. Scrappy Daniel Ramirez, a senior, had 12 points, 10 of which came in the second half.
After going down big, Ludington wasn’t about to toss in the towel and continued to battle. Coach Thad Shank’s scrappy squad had a 9-0 spurt in the late third and early fourth quarters to trim the deficit to 53-41. Later, the Orioles were back to within 10. In the game’s final minute, the Viking lead was single digits and that’s the way the game ended.
“I saw fight,” Shank said of his team’s effort for the full 32 minutes. “I’ve seen a lot of games that Whitehall has played this year where they get up 16, 17, 18 and it goes up to 40 in a hurry. Our kids didn’t quit and we actually had a couple shots that could have made it a little closer and we didn’t finish.
“They are really hard to guard,” Shank said. “They are very good on the defensive end. I was proud of my kids’ performance, they are just a really good team.”
Whitehall (20-0, 10-0) is locked into the top spot in the West Michigan Conference.
“We still have some work to do,” Subdon said. “We have to win at least one more.”
Ludington dropped to 13-6, 8-2.
