WALLED LAKE, Mich.- Central got the last laugh in the Walled Lake rivalry against Western Wednesday night. Walled Lake Central defeated Walled Lake Western 57-35 to advance to the district finals.
Central frustrated Western all night defensively. They held Western to 18 points in the first half and just 17 points in the second.
“We played with a lot of heart,” Walled Lake Central head coach Chuck Spolsky said. “That’s all we preach and if we do that we have a good chance to win some basketball games. Tonight they just brought it.”
Junior guard Dylan Hudspeth led the team in scoring with 17 points. He also hit three of Central’s four 3-pointers.
Junior guard Walter Kelser also had a good game for Central adding 15 points and nine steals. Kelser sealed the deal after a steal and a one-handed slam with 27.6 left in the third quarter. That put Central up 40-25 and Western could not recover.
“He’s one of the best players in the state,” coach Spolsky said of Kelser. “He is one of the smartest players I have been around. I’m glad he is on our team.”
Central junior guard Runako Ziegler finished with 11 points and senior forward Anton Lucaj added eight.
“I’m just proud of our guys, I thought our bench played well,” Spolsky added. “We watched a lot of film, we knew a lot of what they were going to do. I let them go offensively, we just have to play good defense.”
Walled Lake Western struggled to score all night. Junior guard Delano Smith was the only Warrior to reach double digits in scoring. He scored 18 of Western’s 35 points.
Junior guard Cody White finshed with seven points, senior center Donovan Williams only scored three points but added 10 rebounds. Junior guard Greg Windom was third on the team in scoring with five points.
Western finished their season with a record of 15-6 and 1-2 overall against Central this season.
Central (18-3) will advance to play Lakeland (14-7) on Friday night at 7 p.m. The game will take place at Walled Lake Central. Lakeland defeated Walled Lake Northern earlier Wednesday night 39-32 in their semi-final match-up. Central is 2-0 against Lakeland this season.
“They are well coached, they are going to be well prepared,” coach Spolsky added. “The key for us is going to be to get back that emotion that we had at the start of this game.”
