ONEKAMA — After catching a pass
on the low block, Onekama senior Paul Cunningham spun, muscled his
way through a pair of Walkerville defenders and let rip a high
arcing layup in the fourth quarter Thursday.
Then he watched. And he waited.
The ball hung on the front rim for seemingly a second, maybe even
two. And right as it looked to be rolling back towards him, it fell
the other way and in for Cunningham’s first field goal of the
season.Maybe it was
the magic of senior night. But whenever the case, the Portagers
found a lot of it in their 71-36 West Michigan D League win over
Walkerville as they closed the regular season on their home floor.
After a slow start, Onekama took control oin the game's latter half,
and cruised to victory, cashing in on 12 - 3 pointers throughout.
“This served several
purposes,” Onekama coach Jim Hunter said of sweeping the season
series with the winless Wildcats. “If you ask the kids who haven’t
gotten to play much during the year if a win like this was
beneficial, then yeah absolutely.
“It gave those kids a chance to play, and it let our seniors get
recognized,” he added. “We also got a chance to play some kids at
some different positions, which gives us a bit more flexibility
(heading into districts).”
After opening play with an unconventional starting lineup, the
Portagers finished the first quarter up 14-12. And with Onekama
senior Ryan Pienta’s buzzer-beating layup heading into halftime, his
team took a slim 28-24 margin into the locker rooms.
“I think Walkerville improved from when we saw them earlier in the
year,” Hunter said. “They showed that in the first half. It was good
that we had to come out and play hard.”
The Portagers surged with a 12-0 run to start the third and never
looked back.
Leading the charge, was junior Adrian Norman, who finished the night
with the bulk of the Portagers’ points, scoring a game-high 32
including eight 3-pointers. Norman also grabbed 10 boards to go with
a team-high five assists.
Onekama took a 47-33
advantage into the final frame, and finished the game by putting on
a shooting clinic.
