Wayland overcame a sh
abby shooting performance and a pesky visiting Caledonia boys’ basketball team that was able to hang around on the scoreboard for three quarters to claim a 66-50 victory Tuesday night.
The Wildcats pushed their season record to 2-0 in a contest in which they dominated the boards and showed flashes of terrific pressure defense. If it wasn’t for the dismal shooting, they could have blown away the visitors from the O-K Green Conference.
Indeed, Caledonia was down by only four points entering the final eight minutes, 41-37, leaving fans with questions about when they were going to take control. The answer came in the first four minutes of the final quarter, when junior guard Avery Hudson and junior center Zac Nieukoop cranked up their games into high gear.
Wayland outscored the Scots with a flurry of inside shots by Nieukoop and running drives to the iron by Hudson and when senior forward Michael Kelly nailed an ugly three-point bank shot, the home team was up 57-43 with just under three minutes left on the clock.
It had been a frustrating contest up until then because the ‘Cats had plenty of shots because of rebounds, particularly by Nieukoop, Kelly and Hudson, and by a swarming defense that was able to pick up a lot of steals.
But the Wildcats failed to finish on many of their drives to the hoops on the break and it seemed they couldn’t buy a three-pointer. Hudson even missed a free throw.
Wayland started fast, thanks to the full-court press, and jumped out to a 13-4 advantage. But Caledonia was able to creep to within five, 28-23, at intermission and even took a two-point lead, 23-21, in the second period until the ‘Cats went on 7-0 run in the last 3:30 until halftime.
The Scots figured out the Wayland press and isolated some of their long-range shooters for threes to get back into the ballgame. Wayland led by two when junior forward Truman Hillis drained a three to put the visitors within 37-35. Then 6-5 freshman center Spencer Holstege scored on a breakaway layup to knot the count at 37.
But they would score only 13 points to Wayland’s 29 for the rest of the evening.
Wildcat coach Mike Hudson switched from a 2-3 zone to pressure man-to-man defense to start the fourth quarter, but it’s difficult to say that was what made the difference.
What probably made the difference was that Hudson, usually deadly with three-pointers, found other ways to score by penetrating and dishing the ball off inside to Nieuwkoop.
Hudson finished with a game high 22 points, Nieukoop had 15 and Mitchell Dykstra dropped in 12. Kelly, who also had a couple of nice passes inside to the big guy, had seven points, including that ugly three.
Caledonia, which had won its first two ballgames this season over Hastings and Byron Center, was led by Hillis and Nicholas Lauer, both of whom had 10 points and did some damage with outside shooting.
The Wildcats will try to make it 3-0 Friday night at Hamilton in yet another non-conference encounter.
PHOTOS: Avery Hudson led Wayland with 22 points.
Mitchell Dykstra came up with 12 points against Caledonia.
(Photos courtesy of Kenny Ritz)
