ONEKAMA — Call it hunger for redemption. Call it a shooter’s mentality. Call it ice-water running through the veins.

When Tuesday’s game was on the line, Onekama had no problem calling the number of Adrian Norman, who seemingly possessed all those above attributes as he hit the go-ahead three-pointer with a hand in his face en route to a 53-51 West Michigan D League win over Brethren.

The shot was poetic for the junior, since the last time the Portagers took the floor, his potential game-tying, buzzer-beating 3-pointer rimmed out in a loss to Mason County Eastern on Friday.

“Made it this time,” Norman said with a smile, citing that he embraced last week’s valiant, but empty attempt. “Last week I thought I’d hit it too. This time, I told myself I just had to." After exchanging leads the entire game with the Bobcats who beat Onekama handily in a 60-41 win on January. 21, the Portagers snatched a defensive rebound off a bonus free throw with 33 seconds to go in regulation while staring down a 49-48 deficit.

Norman, who scored 23 points up to this point, took control of the play.

"The two timeouts we took previously, we had talked about this sort of scenario,” Onekama coach Jim Hunter said. "We had a couple options and he was option number one."

After 25 seconds ticked away, Norman made his move — a couple dribbles from his right to the top of the arc — needing only a two for a one-point lead, he found adequate space to hoist from long range.

“They fell off him a little bit,” Hunter said. “He saw the opportunity, took the shot, and stuck it.”

With the 51-49 advantage, the Portagers regained possession for a pair of bonus free throws from Norman, before Brethren put in an uncontested layup at the buzzer that didn’t much matter.

“It’s a big win tonight,” Hunter said, as the Portagers will conclude their regular season Thursday at home in a re-make game against Walkerville. “We’ve been coming closer to good teams which was good, but we needed a win like this. And we got it.”

The win serves as Onekama’s (5-12, 5-10 WMD) fourth in its past seven games, while Brethren ended its regular season on a sour note.

Norman led his team with a game-high 28 points to go along with six rebounds, five assists and seven steals. Onekama’s Matt Monroe scored 17 with 13 boards while teammates Ryan Pienta chipped in four, Kyle Acker scored two with eight rebounds and Rease Heiler scored a pair.

“Right from the start, we weren’t fulfilling our responsibilities,” said Brethren coach Travis Walker, whose team trailed 17-10 after the first quarter. “We had guys in the wrong place, we were not boxing out, we weren’t doing the things we’ve been prepared to do all season long.

“Like I told the guys, Onekama’s playing great basketball right now, and especially when preparing for districts, you’ve got to come out prepared to do the little things against teams that win basketball games and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Brethren’s Roddy MacNeil scored a team-high 15 while Eddie Lodin chipped in 11 but fell victim to early foul trouble. Also for the Bobcats, Nathan Hobart scored eight, Nate Costello six, David Conrad four, Jack Pickett three, and John Cullar and Dylan Richardson each scored two.