WHITEHALL — An issue that's plagued Whitehall much of the season is that it often plays 16 really good minutes of basketball in a game, but can't extend that level of play for the full 32.
There may not have been a better example of that issue than Thursday night, when the Vikings played a very tough and hard-nosed first half against West Michigan Conference Lakes leader Ludington before fading in a 47-20 defeat.
At halftime, the Vikings (6-11, 4-6 WMC Lakes) trailed only 16-10 and were playing sparkling defense in the half-court. Only a few fast break baskets by the Orioles made the difference in the score.
Coach Brian Milliron then tweaked the team's halftime routine, hoping to spark a better second half after the Vikings played a middling second half in a win over Holton earlier in the week. The team didn't come out of the locker room until just before the second half began.
"The last two games now, what's happened in the second half is that we played a great first 16 against Holton and a good 16 against Ludington, and then the second 16 for these last two games have been atrocious," Milliron said. "We're going to try to figure that out."
The gambit didn't work, and Ludington took command of the game by outscoring the Vikings 15-3 in the third quarter.
"The girls play so hard in the half-court sets (on defense)," Milliron said. "We do a good job of rotations. They're active with their hands. Kate Beda closes out on people so well. It's really great to see, and then we just have a couple of lapses, and I feel like we deflate.
"We talk about process over outcome all the time. If we get a 10-second call, or we make a mistake, I don't care. It's got to be about the next play. I need to do a better job of getting them to understand that it's about the next play."
Whitehall was terrific the first few minutes of the night, going ahead 6-3 - including making all four of its free throw attempts, one of the team's weaknesses this season. Ludington did score the next 10 points in a run that stretched into the second quarter, but Whitehall didn't back down.
However, Ludington's press, much like Fremont's in games earlier this season, eventually wore the Vikings down, both physically and mentally. The Orioles don't allow opponents to take any time to think, and unless those opponents are near-perfect in knowing how to react instinctively, negative outcomes often result. Whitehall struggled to get the ball into the frontcourt for much of the second half.
"Ludington is quite fast," senior Kate Beda said. "They put a lot of pressure on the ball, and they're really big. I think that intimidates a lot of our team, and I think that was kind of a struggle. We relied on some people, that we have a lot of trust in, too much. There weren't enough people, myself included, taking initiative and stepping up to get what we needed to do done."
Beda scored Whitehall's only third-quarter field goal, stopping a 5-0 Oriole run to make it 21-12, but that shot didn't stop Ludington from overwhelming Whitehall with its size and athleticism.
Milliron tried to emulate the Orioles' skill by bringing over coach Brandon Rake's freshman boys team to press the Vikings in practice, and he felt the team responded well, carrying that into the early parts of Thursday's game. But game intensity often is a different animal, no matter how well it gets simulated.
Clare Westerlund scored eight points to lead the Vikings. Beda added six. Eloise Kwietnewski led all scorers with 13 points for the Orioles.
