A Game For The Ages

Packers prevail in a slugfest

Photos by Alexis Mercer
Story by Ken DeLaat

Fremont 57 Sparta 55

In one of the more physical games in recent history the Packers held off a relentless Spartan squad to pull out a hard fought win, capture the District championship and advance to  the Regionals for the first time since 2018.
But it did not come easy.
Early on the Spartans seemed to have no answer for the high octane Packer offense and when William DeBlake fired in a three late in the first quarter Fremont had built an 18-5 lead.
But Sparta was far from finished. Behind some spirited defense and the pinpoint shooting of Jax Wilson  and Landon Reister the Spartans fought their way back into the game pulling within 5 at intermission.

Gatlin Mosby hit a triple to begin the second half to cut the lead to 2 but Ben Mellema answered with a missile from beyond the arc and after a stop Mellema took a pass from Chaz Miller and the Pack went up 7. Sparta went on a run scoring 10 points while Fremont managed only a Jordon McDonald bucket and when Wilson hit for 2 at the end of that run the Spartan fans went wild as their team inched into their first lead of the night. Miller responded with a triple and Gavin Richards and McDonald pushed the Fremont lead to 6. The Spartans went to the stripe twice splitting both times and Richards hit a 2 and the teams headed to the last 8 minutes with the Pack up a half dozen.
The fourth quarter was an absolute war. The teams exchanged blows matching baskets for the first 4 minutes but a pair of consecutive shots by TaeShon Wisonn went down and we had a 2 point game with the Packers holding the slim lead. 

Reister tied it up and Miller hit one from somewhere in the next county to put the Pack up 3.Then McDonald who had been the go to guy all evening was called for his 5th foul and headed to the bench. Wilson hit a bucket then Fremont tried to freeze the ball with less than a minute left. Sparta needed to foul repeatedly to get the Packers to the line and it was DeBlake they sent to the stripe. With ice in his veins he dropped both to make it 56-53 Packers. Wilson drove in and scored while drawing a foul but he missed the game tying free throw and Mellema got the rebound and was immediately fouled. He split the pair to put the Pack up 2 but Sparta had one more shot at a win or a tie. After a time out the shot fell short but a scrum for the ball ended in a  jump ball call and gave Sparta yet another chance with a second left. They got the inbound pass but the attempt failed to find the target and the Packers prevailed.

Coach Bowen: “What a great game from our boys!  I thought that was one of the best games we’ve played all year against a very good team. We got great contributions from everyone. Jordon had another great game despite being in foul trouble and finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Chaz played great on both ends of the floor.  Gavin Richards had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Will DeBlake hit a big shot late in the fourth and made two huge free throws, and Ben Mellema hit some big shots as well. I thought our team defense and rebounding was really good for most of the game. When Jordon fouled out with a couple minutes left, our guys really came together and collectively picked up the slack. I couldn’t be prouder of these kids for how hard they played and how they represented our school and our program."
Fremont (13-11) will travel to Hudsonville Monday to take on Unity Christian (16-9) on the Crusaders home court.