MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP – DayDay Williams has been putting up a lot of points over the past few weeks for the Fruitport boys basketball team.

Unfortunately a lot of those points came in losses, as the Trojans struggled through a very tough 5-17 regular season.

Luckily the points kept coming for Williams on Monday, at the start of the state tournament, when every team has a new lease on life.

The sophomore guard pumped in 28 points, including six from the free-throw line in overtime, to help the Trojans pull out a thrilling 63-58 victory over Orchard View in the opening round of the Division 2 district tournament at OV.

The Trojans now advance to play Oakridge on Wednesday in the district semifinals, with the winner going on to Friday’s championship game.

Nobody played a bigger role in the win than Williams, who scored all but eight of his 28 points in the second half, after his team lost a big early lead and had to claw for the win the rest of the way.

“It was pretty exciting,” Williams said, when asked about hitting the six free throws in overtime. “It was hard to stay calm, but you have no choice. You have to.”

The entire Trojans squad showed a lot of poise and determination in the victory, which didn’t start out as a nail-biter at all.

Fruitport jumped out to a very promising 13-3 lead after one quarter, but watched it melt away into a one-point lead at halftime and a four-point edge after three quarters.

Orchard View took the lead several times in the second half, and the real stunner for Fruitport came when OV’s Keith McAllister hit a buzzer-beating triple at the end of regulation, tying the score at 51-51 and forcing overtime.

“I was guarding the guy, too,” Williams said about the dramatic three-pointer. “I tried to put my hands around his eyes so he couldn’t see. I thought there was no way he would hit it.”

A lot of teams would have come unglued in that scenario and lost the momentum and the game, but the Trojans quickly regrouped and claimed the victory in OT.

Fruitport missed a lot of free throws over the course of the game, including nine alone in the fourth quarter, but made it up for it by going 9-for-10 at the line in the extra period.

Williams made all six of his free throws in overtime. Grade Anspach, who finished with 21 points (including five triples), was 3-for-4 from the line in OT and hit a key three-pointer.

All in all, it was a very impressive performance by a team that took more than its share of lumps during the regular season, but still showed incredible character with a game on the line in districts.

“It’s all about the response,” said Fruitport Coach Steve Erny. “We haven’t been great at that this year, but tonight our response in overtime was that we were much more composed. We hit our free throws and did what we had to do to win. I’m so proud of these guys.”

Anspach hit two triples in the first quarter as the Trojans jumped out to a 13-3 lead.

Orchard View came out ice cold from the floor, hitting only 1 of 13 shots in the first eight minutes.

The Cardinals came back to life in the second quarter, outscoring Fruitport 19-10 to pull within one point, 23-22, at halftime. Stephon Oakes led the comeback for the Cardinals by scoring 12 points in the second.

Fruitport responded by outscoring the Cardinals 13-10 in the third quarter to take a 36-32 lead into the fourth. Williams and Anspach each scored five points in the quarter while Ryan Bosch added three.

Orchard View had an 18-15 edge in the fourth quarter, which ended on McAllister’s dramatic three-pointer that forced overtime. Williams had nine points in the fourth for the Trojans, including two buckets and five free throws.

OV led off overtime with a basket and Williams answered with two free throws, leaving the score tied 53-53.

The Cardinals hit another bucket, then Anspach made one of two free throws, leaving OV on top 55-54.

Orchard View added a free throw to go up by two, then Anspach hit a triple to give Fruitport a 57-56 lead.

A Cardinal free throw tied the score at 57-57, then Fruitport ended the game with a 6-1 run. Williams had four free throws in the final minute while Anspach added two.

Williams finished with seven rebounds and six assists to go with his 28 points.

Anspach pulled down five rebounds while Bosch totaled seven points and 13 important rebounds.

“We struggled through a very tough conference season, and some people say that makes you battle-tested for the big games,” Coach Erny said. “I don’t know if that’s always true, but I know tonight our guys were not fazed by the moment when we went to overtime. They were ready to go.

“We are a very young team, and our young guys stepped up.”