EGELSTON TOWNSHIP – David Shillinger and the Ludington Orioles are making themselves right at home in the West Michigan Conference Lakes Division.
It will be interesting to see how some other really good teams in the division, like Whitehall and Montague, deal with the Orioles when they get a chance to play them.
The Oakridge Eagles did not fare so well at all, at least in their first try on Thursday night.
Ludington rolled into Oakridge for its second game in its new conference and left a definite impression, plowing its way to a 94-68 victory over the Eagles.
[1]Shillinger, a junior guard and fourth-year starter, led the Oriole assault with 34 points, including six triples.
Ludington, now 4-0 overall and 2-0 in division play, looks like a team that might be a real challenge for a lot of opponents this season.
Orioles coach Thad Shank said his team is not very big this year and depends a lot on its perimeter shooting, and when the long shots are falling, things go very well.
They were definitely falling on Thursday, with the Orioles nailing 11 tries from three-point range and getting a ton of offensive rebounds and putbacks on shots that missed the mark.
[2]“We shot the ball very well tonight from the perimeter,” Shank said. “We haven’t consistently made the perimeter shot, and that will be a factor of where we end up. We try to play a fast, chaotic tempo, and it’s great when we make the shots.
“I’ve been proud of when the shots go up, our guys are not sitting around the three-point arc waiting and watching, they are getting in there and rebounding.”
Shank said his team is not real familiar with most of their new opponents in the Lakes Division and are learning one game at a time.
“It’s totally new to us,” he said. “These aren’t teams we traditionally played very often in the past, so we are learning scouting report by scouting report. We have Montague on Tuesday, they’re also off to a pretty good start, so we will probably know more about where we stand after that.”
Whatever is in store for Ludington, Shank is glad Shillinger will be around to lead the attack.
[3]“His explosiveness and ability to get to the rim and his ability to change things on the defensive end are phenomenal, then when you add in the fact that’s he’s shooting better than he’s ever shot, he becomes a really difficult kid to handle,” Shank said.
Oakridge might have had a chance to compete with the Orioles if more of its shots had fallen, particularly in the first half.
The Eagles missed their first 10 shots from the floor and didn’t get on the scoreboard until just past the halfway mark of the first quarter.
Despite that, Oakridge only trailed by eight points after one quarter and nine at halftime, before the Orioles pulled away with a 29-12 advantage in the third quarter.
Eagles Coach Tracy Ruel, whose team is now 2-2 overall and 1-1 in league play, had a lot of praise for Ludington after the game.
“I’ve been watching them on tape, they are so deep, so fast, they will give you a head fake or a ball fake and attack the basket or find the open shooter and knock the shots down,” Ruel said.
“We missed 12 layups, at least, which is not normal for us. But we’re a young team and we don’t have a lot of guys with a ton of basketball experience. We’ve got to limit our turnovers and weather the storms, and not allow teams to make 12-point runs.
[4]“I felt like if we had made a few shots right after halftime we might have had ourselves a game, but instead they went on a big run and put it away.”
Ludington led 17-9 after one quarter and extended its advantage to 31-15 with 2:50 left in the second.
The Eagles hit a hot streak then, outscoring the Orioles 15-7 over the rest of the half and cutting their deficit to 40-31 at the break.
Sophomore guard Peyton Ruel led the uprising with three triples in the final 1:38 of the first half.
Any thoughts of a close second half disappeared right away in the third quarter, however, when Ludington opened with an 18-4 run and sat on a 69-43 lead headed into the fourth. Shillinger had 14 points in the third, including three triples.
The Orioles kept pouring it on in the fourth quarter with 25 more points, which put them over the 90-point mark.
Levi Laman and Aiden Gilchrist each finished with nine points for Ludington.
Peyton Ruel led Oakridge with 21 points, including four triples. Matt Danicek, Ethan Josza and Jullian Primmer each added 10 points for the Eagles.
[5]