Holland coach Mason Theile gets first win as Dutch top Kelloggsville
HOLLAND – Holland never trailed in its home opener Friday, taking down the Kelloggsville Rockets 49-31.
It was the first win of the season for the Dutch (1-1), and also the first win of coach Mason Theile’s career. It’s one to be happy about, but not just because it was his first, Theile said.
“It feels really good,” Theile said. “It’s hard to win a varsity basketball game, I don’t care who you are. So we’re going to celebrate the heck out of this.”
The Dutch did enough to stay ahead of the Rockets the whole night, even if Theile noticed there were things to work on after game two.
Holland led 14-8 after the first quarter, cashing in a trio of triples by Timothy Phillips, Cameron Ferguson and Adam Davelaar to take a six-point lead to the second. That was where they put the Rockets out of arm’s reach for the night.
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Kelloggsville scored 10 seconds into the frame on a layup by Labee Chrispine to cut the lead to four. The Rockets didn’t score again until a free throw 5:33 later, and by that point, Holland led by 12. The lead stayed around that mark for a lot of the game.
While it wasn’t a perfect effort, the Dutch kept the Rockets from establishing much on the offensive end that they could go back to.
“Defensively, we were good,” Theile said. “Again, our standards are really high, we preach defense every single day in practice. For the most part, I thought we looked pretty good at that end.”
Holland led 25-14 going to the half and pushed the lead out a bit in the third quarter, finishing the frame up 37-23. Kelloggsville big man Juac Ayual had eight of his game-high 12 points in the third, but it wasn’t enough to bridge the gap for the Rockets.
The Dutch had a balanced night offensively, and shot the three well enough to keep the Rockets at bay. Jacob VanHekken led the team with 11 points, Arthur Powell had eight inside against Ayual, and Davelaar and Phillips had seven points each.
Theile said the Dutch got some of their offense going through their strengths, and will look for improvement heading forward.
“We’re not a very big team across the board, we’ve got guys who play bigger than they are, but our strength is at the guard position,” Theile said. “We didn’t shoot it as well as we might have hoped to tonight, but that’s the way we’re going to play, and hopefully, starting tomorrow, shots go down at a little higher rate for us.”
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland coach Mason Theile gets first win as Dutch top Kelloggsville
