Montague girls basketball hangs on for tough win over Whitehall

WHITEHALL — Whitehall and Montague had another hard-nosed, defensive battle against one another Friday night, but the Wildcats overcame some missed free throws down the stretch and were able to hang on to earn a rivalry win on the road, 39-35.

The contest came down to the final seconds, but Braylyn Bultema was able to break free on an inbounds pass and scored a layup as time ran out, providing the final margin.

The Wildcats (8-3, 4-2 West Michigan Conference Lakes) shot only 9-of-25 from the free throw line in the game and missed several attempts in the final minutes as Whitehall fouled to create extra possessions. However, Montague also got offensive rebounds on a few of those misses, with Amanda Cederquist and Bultema leading the way.

"I feel like our rebounding definitely helps us," Bultema said. "We work on it a lot at practice, so we get better at it. That's one of the things that me and Amanda definitely try to team up on, is those rebounds."

Rebounds were common early in the game, as neither team was able to generate quality looks at the basket. In fact, halfway through the first quarter, Montague led by a margin of just 2-1. The offense did pick up some from there, as Bultema (who had a game-high 14 points) and Cederquist each connected on a basket in the span of a minute, and Whitehall responded with a pair of free throws by Janie Fagan and a three-pointer from Lexi Daggett. It was 10-6 Wildcats after one quarter.

The start to the second half was similarly slow, with Montague extending an 18-15 halftime lead with a 5-0 scoring run that took nearly five minutes. Montague coach Jess DeBruin said it's likely both team's offensive games were affected by the three consecutive snow days that led into Friday.

"The snow days didn't help us with only having one practice in between (games), but they had the same situation," DeBruin said. "It's just better ball movement and moving around. It's the same thing with free throws. We're working on our outside shots."

Whitehall (8-5, 3-4 WMC Lakes) struggled to get much offense going in the game and turned it over too often, which has been a running theme this season. If something did work in Whitehall's favor, it was that many of the giveaways were dead-ball turnovers, so Montague was unable to get on the break the other way.

"We've cleaned up some of our turnovers, but continue to struggle to consistently take care of the ball at times," Whitehall coach Brian Milliron said. "Getting a defensive rebound in the last two minutes was also a chore tonight, but I thought overall we were much improved compared to the first time we played Montague."

The Vikings stayed within striking distance of Montague throughout the second half; the 'Cats led by as many as nine points, but couldn't pull away. After Montague kept possession of the ball by rebounding its own free throw misses in much of the final two minutes, Whitehall was finally able to gain possession and got within two points, 37-35, on a putback by Clare Westerlund with 3.8 seconds to play. That score gave Westerlund a team-best 12 points.

However, Bultema went deep on the inbounds pass, caught it in stride and cemented the win.

DeBruin said her team's experience is a big factor in the impressive late-game execution it showed on key plays late in the game.

"That's seven seniors, so that comes with experience, from knowing and seeing where the ball is and what they need to do," DeBruin said.

Montague has been getting a lot of close-game reps of late, with three of its last five games decided by single digits. That might not be helping DeBruin's blood pressure, but she thinks it will pay dividends later in the season - if the team can knock down its free throws.

"When they're closer games and they're making them and you've got to go neck and neck, then free throws are going to win games," Bultema said. "It happened to us against Hart. They beat us on free throws. It almost happened to us again tonight. I told them that we've got to really work on getting those shots up."