GLADWIN — Blaise LaPrad had a successful debut as Whittemore-Prescott boys basketball coach as the Cardinals opened the season with a convincing 74-45 non-conference victory over Gladwin on the road Tuesday, Nov. 27.
The Cardinals (1-0) torched the Flying G’s from the outside, knocking down 15 field goal attempts from beyond the 3-point line and shooting well in general from the field. Their perimeter game destroyed Gladwin’s zone defense.
“I was a little surprised to see that,” LaPrad said. “Up to this point in practice I didn’t really know we’d be a shooting a team. But I think once a few guys saw the ball going in it kind of got contagious.
“Everybody just wanted to make shots.”
Whittemore-Prescott started their scoring barrage early, doubling up on the Flying G’s in the first period for a 16-8 lead after the first eight minutes. The Cardinals outscored Gladwin, 20-13 in the second quarter and went into the half with a 15-point lead, 36-21.
Scoring was considerably closer in the third quarter as the Flying G’s nearly matched the Cardinals point for point, but W-P just nosed ahead of Gladwin at the buzzer for a 14-13 edge and entered the fourth period with a 50-34 lead.
Four players scored in double figures for the Cardinals. They were led by senior Michael Blust who had 16 points. Dana Thorson contributed 14 points and Tanner Harrsion finished with 12.
Also chipping in for the Cardinals were freshman Alex Kendra with five points, followed by junior Logan Ludwig with four, senior Tyler Hostetler and junior Dominick Hensley each with three and sophomore Aaron Mervyn with two.
The Cardinals didn’t forget the defense despite all the offensive fireworks.
“Sometimes when you’re working really hard on the offensive end and scoring points, you get a little lax on the defensive end,” LaPrad said. “But, that wasn’t really the case. When you hold a Division 2 opponent to less than 50 points in a game, you’re doing something right defensively.
“We definitely still have a lot of things we need to clean up and work on to be competitive with the better teams on our schedule. This was a team that played zone last year, and now they’re playing man-to-man this year.
“They’re learning a lot of things on the fly, and today it was good. We pressured the ball well, we forced a lot of turnovers and it was really kind of a fun atmosphere.”
Ogemaw Heights were off until Thursday when the Cardinals were scheduled to host Fairview in another non-league game.
