With confidence from its crazy fourth-quarter comeback Friday at Montague, Fremont’s boys basketball team proved ready to push unbeaten Whitehall in the first half on the Packers’ senior night Tuesday.
Fremont was within three points at halftime, but Camden Thompson, Kal Koehler, and their Whitehall teammates had too much firepower in the second half.
Whitehall pulled away from Fremont in the second half en route to a 65-43 victory that moved the Vikings’ record to 21-0 and clinched the outright West Michigan Conference Lakes Division title (11-0). It’s the fourth-straight conference title for the Whitehall boys basketball program.
Division 2 second-ranked Whitehall will go for the perfect regular season Thursday at Oakridge (15-6, 7-4 WMC Lakes).
On Tuesday, Fremont (8-13, 4-7) trailed Whitehall 26-23 at halftime before the Vikings used a 21-8 third-quarter scoring advantage to create some breathing room. The effort was a major improvement from Fremont’s 80-31 loss at Whitehall on Jan. 16.
“I thought we played hard and battled against a great team. We only trailed by three points at halftime after playing one of our best halves of the year,” Fremont coach Adam Bowen said.
“I thought in the second half we were impatient offensively at times, and forced some bad shots. That led to them getting out into transition which is what the do really well. Overall, we did a lot of good things, and we are playing much better the last couple of weeks.”
Friday at Montague, Fremont trailed by 10 through three quarters before rallying furiously with a 19-2 scoring blitz en route to a 49-42 victory.
Against Whitehall, Chaz Miller led Fremont with 14 points, five steals, and four rebounds. Ben Mellema added 13 points and three steals for the Packers, who wrap up the regular season Thursday at Orchard View and host a Division 2 district next week.
Whitehall’s Camden Thompson led all players with 29 points and 18 rebounds to go with four assists and five steals. Kal Koehler finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, and two assists for the Vikings, while Cy Black had eight points.
DJ Jamison and Ca’Mar Ready scored five points apiece for Whitehall. Jamison also had four rebounds, three assists, and two steals, while Ready added three assists and two rebounds.
Photos by Shayla Hardy for CatchMark
