Packers, Lions face off in District final
By Ken De Laat Photos by Alexis Mercer Newaygo vs. Fremont 7 pm, Fremont High School While leaving Wednesday's games I happened to bump into the esteemed Editor Wheater of our local print news source known familiarly as the T-I. We had just covered a pair of basketball stories that proved to be rife with dramatics, both featuring improbable comebacks by teams that seemed destined to be playing their final game of the season. The cat fight between Lions and Tigers had the added attraction of a pair of student sections entertaining the crowd and taunting each other while the tide of the game shifted back and forth and back again. In the battle between the Pack and Spartans there was an intensity on the court and a rising to the occasion by several wearing the Fremont colors to rally back against a strong Sparta squad. Two seriously entertaining games. Thus as we exchanged pleasantries, both wearing our tournament media passes, Editor W. considered our lanyard clipped photos (mine could easily be mistaken for a character from a movie about retired gangsters) and said “After those two games it feels like we should go back to the gate and pay for tickets.” Well said and well put as always RW. Those games were certainly worth the price of admission. Not that I offered to pay, of course, but definitely worth the entry fee. And now they face each other with a shot at a little hardware for the case as well as a bus ride to Allendale to face either the Spring Lake team that knocked previously undefeated Whitehall out Wednesday or the Cinderella team Fruitport who limped into the tourney having lost 14 of their last 15 and then won twice this week to get to Friday. But as for Friday’s final, this is truly anyone’s game. Both squads are loaded with talented players that can make the game seem easy at times. And other times…. Since they play with a bit of reckless abandon, when the Lions are hitting on all cylinders the downcourt passes, the crafty kickouts and opportunistic attacks on the basket work to give them the ability to be explosive. To score in bunches. When the 3 pointers are off target and makeable shots are rolling out they sometimes struggle to break out of their funk. The Pack have had to battle inconsistency, They played both Big Rapids and Ludington tough in early season road losses then fell at home to Fruitport. They also lost to Orchard View when the Cards came into the game having lost 12 of their last 13. The Packers need their outside shooting to come through and to spread the wealth offensively if they’re to keep teams honest. As said, this one is up for grabs big time. And from what has been witnessed this week, you’re not likely to see anyone leaving in the 4th regardless of the score. Both teams have proved that anything can happen when they get hot. See you there.
0 Comments
 WC to face Norse in title game White Cloud 53 Ravenna 50 It took awhile for them to get going but White Cloud got back on the winning track, coming back from a double digit deficit to take the game away from the Dogs. The Cloud will advance to Friday’s District final against North Muskegon who easily dispatched Shelby prior to the WC/Ravenna game. Coach Jones: “Down 10 twice in the game we just didn't panic and continued to chip away both times to come away with the victory. We showed a lot of grit tonight and we know we are never out of it. “We will have to play better on Friday night if we want our season to continue.” Noah Robinson had the hot hand for WC knocking down a team high 22 points while KJ Strait and Jared Watsoj each hit for 10. Jason Reuther put on a defensive clinic including taking a charge for a key stop. White Cloud and North Muskegon will play for the District title with the winner advancing to Regional play at Pewamo Westphalia.
 Fremont to play Newaygo for the District Title Photos by Alexis Mercer Story by Ken De Laat The Packers had already headed for the locker room to get ready for their game when Newaygo began their comeback, but not to be outdone on their home court Fremont also gave their fans a dramatic come from behind win to send them into a Friday matchup with the Lions. It was a low scoring contest from the start. Sparta put up a quick 6 points before William DeBlake got the hosts on the board. Gavin Richards and Kyler DeKuiper added to the score while Sparta’s Taeshon Wilson and Jacob Warwick connected for the Spartans. A Ben Mellema triple tied it up and DeBlake added a bucket to take the lead before a three by Jaiden Krynicki ended the first with Sparta up 1.  A lot of jostling and physical play kept scoring at a minimum in the second. John Vissia hit a 3 with Mellema, Richards and Chaz Miller adding buckets and when the teams hit intermission, the Pack held a 3 point edge. The teams came out of the break exchanging scores before Spartan Landen Reister got hot and led his team on an 11-0 run. Miller scored at the end of the quarter but the damage was done and Sparta went to the fourth with a 7 point lead. Miller hit a pair from the line to open the 4th and was answered by Wilson. DeBlake countered twice and Miller added a deuce before Grady Busen scored to give Sparta a 3 point lead with 2 ½ minutes left. It proved to be the last Spartan shot to fall through the nets. DeKuiper hit a huge bucket to pull the Pack within one. Then it was Miller time. With less than a minute remaining Miller canned a three to put Fremont on top and a subsequent stop put the game in the hands of the Packer players. With 4 fouls to give the Spartans tried to get Fremont to the line and finally sent Miller to the stripe where he split giving the hosts a 3 point lead. Sparta had one more shot at a triple with 2 seconds remaining but never got the shot off and the Pack prevailed.  Coach Bowen: “.Sparta is a very good team and always a class act. We have a lot of respect for them and their coaching staff. I am so proud of how our kids battled and fought. We stuck together as a team and got our biggest win of the season. “Chaz Miller led the way with 14 points, 8 assists and 3 steals. Kyler DeKuiper played his best game of the season finishing with 9 points, 7 rebounds and 1 steal. Chaz and Kyler both played really well on the defensive end of the floor as well. Will DeBlake finished with 8 points, Ben Mellema finished with 7 points and 5 rebounds and Gavin Richards added 6 points and 6 rebounds.” Fremont will face off with Newaygo Friday at 7pm with the winner heading to Allendale next week for the Regionals. Comeback win over Tigers sends Newaygo to District Finals. Photos by Alexis Mercer Story by Ken De Laat In a classic battle between two forever rivals The Lions pulled off yet another improbable comeback to secure a spot in Friday's District Final. Aiden Booth nailed a three and Blake Rider followed with a bucket to stake the Tigers to a 5-0 lead. Caris Nelson and Hunter Yearsovich popped in a pair from distance answered by Kyle Cook splitting at the line to make it 6 all. Then the lid seemed to go on the basket as the teams battled back and forth with the quarter coming to an end at 12-11 Newaygo. The second saw the Lions jump out to a 5 point lead early but Ethan Delong muscled one in then after a pair of misses from the stripe by the Lions he banged home a 3 to tie it up. The rest of the quarter saw a run and gun game with the teams going at each other as one would expect from these long tim e nemeses. When Oakley Obenauf scored before the buzzer it gave the Tigers a 5 point lead in a game where points were coming as a premium.  Coming out of the locker room Cook scored twice and Lucas Swanson scorched a pair of triples. When Logan Klomp scored for Newaygo it stopped a 14-0 run by Grant but Swanson zeroed in again and was fouled in the process for a 4 point play and a 17 point lead for the Tigers.Klomp and Nelson notched points but Swanson seemed unstoppable and when the dust cleared the teams entered the final frame with the Tigers up 51-34. Newaygo had brought a huge crowd to the game and while the prospects for a win looked a bit bleak, you couldn’t tell from the ongoing exhortations from the dressed in black section of Lion supporters. And when the comeback began it became deafening.  Klomp and Swanson exchanged 2’s to begin the quarter and then, as it did on Monday, it happened again. The Lions went on a tear chipping away at the Tiger lead. Ethan Reyburn Blake Kerr and Klomp scored before Josiah Long who had been ice cold from distance found his shot, buried a pair and suddenly the Tigers were clinging to a 1 point lead with under 2 minutes to play. Swanson split from the line and Nelson scored a 2 to tie the game. After a stop Long hit a bucket to give the Lions the first lead since early in the 2nd.Nelson and Swanson both split from the line and when Klomp converted twice after being fouled the comeback was complete. For the second time in three days the Lions had pulled off a wild win after being down well over double digits and now they were heading for a Friday Final against another long time in county rival, the Packers.
Swanson absolutely lit it up for the Tigers, draining 28 points while Nelson led the Lions with 19. Klomp finished with 13. Long was welcomed back into the scoring book with a dozen and Kerr hit for 9. Rider (7) and Cook (6) added to the Grant scoring and Obenauf was a demon on defense for the Tigers with his one on one matchupn with Lion ballhandler Nelson proving to be a side show in itself. Newaygo and Fremont will battle Friday at 7pm with the winner earning a trip to Allendale for Regional play.     By Ken De Laat, N3 Sports Fremont D2 Districts Grant vs, Newaygo 5:30 pm To get here the Lions pulled out a game that seemed all but lost halfway through the fourth quarter.It was an impressive comeback over a game Viking team. If they let the Tigers get that kind of a lead their chances of playing on Friday slim down considerably. Coach Schuitema’s teams tend to know how to finish games. This one should be fun. Two good teams with a forever rivalry tossed in as a side dish. Grant has shooters who will spread the court and launch missiles. They can be counted on to hover around 70 points most nights. The Lions are an enigma. If the team shows up that put together that performance late in the game Monday, they will be tough to beat, but any lengthy offensive ennui on the court is likely to get them in trouble. Both teams can be explosive and we could be in for a track meet if things get heated up. Fremont vs. Sparta 7 pm Ah yes, the teams who have taken turns ending the other’s season the past 2 years in the District Finals. Well this isn’t the finals but should be another tough one in a long postseason history between the schools. The Spartans toil in the rugged OK Silver where they finished second, behind a Godwin team that beat them twice. They both lost to Whitehall, their only common opponent but so did everyone else who played the Vikings so… The Packers looked good against a really young and raw Kent City squad. Sparta is a much much better team. Hesperia D3 District Ravenna vs. White Cloud 7 pm The Cloud has lost 4 of their last 5. After peeling off 10 wins in a row and sitting pretty with a 15-2 mark the boys from White Cloud hit a brutal stretch of schedule that began with undefeated and state ranked North Mo (a loss) and included 2 games against Grant (split) an overtime loss to Big Rapids and a narrow defeat by Reed City. Those teams have a collective record of 70-17. Now they arrive in Shelby to face Ravenna, a team they took by 15 points in the Dogs home gym. Ravenna hasn’t fared well against teams with a winning record except for an early season surprising to us win on the road at Grant. Coach Jones’ team fell short in their title game and were bounced twice in the conference tourney. After the disappointment of the past week they will be ready to get back some of the magic this very successful campaign has brought to the team and their loyal fan base. Seniors Jared Watson,Landyn McGowen, KJ Strait, Noah Robinson, Mason Cruzan and Jayson Ruether and their teammates don’t want this season to end and would love another crack at the Norse. Ravenna has some players who can dia in from distance. If the Cloud avoids any lengthy cold spells they should be able to outscore the Dogs. Shelby vs. North Muskegon 5:30 pm The Tigers are once again facing the Norsemen who have beaten Shelby twice, once earlier this season by 35 points and more recently by 22. The Tiger wins (5) include 3 over Holton (2-22) one against Morley (4-18) and a still hard to explain early season stumble by White Cloud.  Fremont 42 Ludington 38 Coach Zerfas: We were able to beat a very good and well coached Ludington team to go 12-0 in the league and win Fremont Girl's first outright conference championship since 1978. Fremont won a conference championship shared with Big Rapids in 2020. I told the girls from day 1 that the conference championship goes through Ludington. They had won 5 in a row and I have the utmost respect for Coach Stowe and the program he runs. “I thought if Ludington was able to keep the score and the pace of the game low, we would have a hard time. We like to speed the game up. Well, the pace was slow because Ludington plays great defense. They are long and athletic and do a great job limiting shots. What kept us in the game and ultimately won the game was our defense. We showed we can win a grind it out style game as well as a fast paced game. We led 8-6 after one quarter and 17-12 at halftime. We scored first in the third quarter but then Ludington made a run and by the end of the third it was Ludington 27 Fremont 26. The fourth quarter was just a battle of two proud teams that work extremely hard. We took the lead late in the 4th, maybe 2 minutes to go, and held on. We had 5 different people score in the 4th. Jessica Bennett came up big late again scoring 7 in the 4th quarter when we needed it most. In the first game at Ludington when we trailed by 8 in the 4th, Jessica hit 3 triples in the span of 2 minutes to put us ahead. Riley Chase also played great in the second half scoring 11 of her 13 in the second half. Scoring for us was Riley Chase with 13, Jessica Bennett with 10, Taylor DeKuiper with 7 points and 10 rebounds, Mia Clemence with 5 points, 4 assists and 8 rebounds, Olivia Hansen with 4 points, Eliana Vandenberg with 2 and Katie Ackerman with 1 point and 5 assists. We are now 17-4, 12-0 and we play at Fruitport to close out the regular season. Holton 57 Ravenna 46 Coach Jordan: “Last game of the season for us as well as Senior night so It was nice to send these girls out with a win, and fitting that we were led by our 2 - 4 year starters in Abby Fowler and Ryann Robins. Abbie had 14 points 8 steals and 4 assists and Ryann had a monster game to close out her career on her home court with 25 points and 13 rebounds (10 offensive). Ava Crowell , another senior, also had a season high of 7 points and 4 rebounds. “This was the first time all month we have been whole as a team and not injured or sick so it was good to get some of the cohesiveness back going into districts. Every girl got on every quarter which was also a goal tonight. “But credit to Ravenna, they were down a few key players but would not go away.. they hit 9 3 balls on the night, and felt like they shot about 50-60% from deep on the night.. which kept them in the game in the second half. “This win gets us to 13-9 on the season and now it's all about districts . We open with Hesperia next Wednesday.” Central Montcalm 40 Newaygo 37 The Lions held a 16-8 lead at the break but the Hornets stormed back in the second half and captured the first round win in the conference tournament.The Lions had a shot at a 3 pointer to tie at the buzzer but couldn’t get the ball to drop. Coach Thomasma:"Tough loss tonight. Felt like we really played well in the first half and should have been up more but we let them hang around. Give CM credit. They shot the ball really well in the third quarter and stole the momentum away from us. The FT stripe came back to haunt us again too. We shot 8-27 and it's difficult to beat a quality team like CM shooting like that." Naomi Schillman finished with a team high 11 points while Ruby Hughes pulled down 10 rebounds to go with her 7 points. Kent City 46 Grant 35 Maddie Geers scored 28 points including 17 from the charity stripe as the Eagles outlasted the Tigers to set up a rematch with Morley Stanwood for the tourney title. Coach Delamater: “The flu bug has hit us hard this week and we knew going in that was going to be a factor in the game. We toughed it out Monday at practice and I hoped girls would feel better today, but I could tell today that our energy level was not where we needed it to be going into the game. Overall, we played a great defensive game. We held KC to 11 total baskets and only 6 of those were from players other than Geers. On our side, we had 12 total baskets. Unfortunately, you can't win games when the free throw shooting is 28 to 12. Geers, herself, went to the line 24 times, doubling up our total. Ultimately, as we have seen in three of our past four games, foul trouble plagued us again tonight and we ran out of gas in the 4th quarter.” Julie Ashbaugh once again added to her alltime Grant scoring record with a team high 15 points. Natalia Rodriguez hit for 10 points and Lily Krepps canned a pair of triples to finish with 6. White Cloud 32 Chippewa Hills 22 Coach Wilk: “With tonight's win we match our win record from last year. Last year we relied heavily on Gaby Reeve (Muskegon Community College Basketball) to do a bulk of our scoring, but this year we are more balanced. Tonight was no different. Brooke Ringler had her best game of the year dropping in 13 points. Annie Feldpausch added 6, and Jaden Gomez had 5. "We had a lot of positives from tonight. We executed plays well, our defense did a pretty good job, and we were aggressive. With being aggressive, we frequently found ourselves at the charity stripe for free throws. Unfortunately, we missed 18 at the line. This is something that can't happen Thursday or next week in districts. We need every point we can get. Over the next couple of days we will prepare for Tri-County and we will look to add to our momentum for next week."  Wednesday matchup with Spartans on tap By Ken De Laat, N3 Sports Fremont 65 Kent City 43 The Eagles were playing in their first postseason basketball tournament since their recent move up to D2. It wasn’t a warm welcome. The Packers wasted no time in taking control of this one. Eagle Justin Anderson opened with a triple before buckets by William DeBlake and Gavin Richards sandwiched a Ben Mellema three and it was 7-3 Pack. A three pointer by Tanner Carlson and a Jake Perry basket gave KC an 8-7 lead, but it proved to be their last of the night. The Pack ran off the last 8 of the quarter and outscored the Eagles 18-9 in the second to reach intermission with a 16 point advantage. It was more of the same after halftime. The Packers seemed to do no wrong while the youthful Eagles struggled to make a dent in the lead. The teams entered the 4th with Fremont close to doubling KC with a 55-28 lead. Most of the 4th saw playing time for both benches. Coach Bowen:” I thought we did a good job of moving the ball against their zone. We got good shots as a result and made the most of our opportunities. It was a good team win with four players finishing in double figures.” Redick Powell came off the bench to fire in 13 points including a trio of triples, while Gavin Richards finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Chaz Miller also scored a dozen to go with his 7 assists and 4 steals, Will DeBlake hit for 11 points and Travis McDonald knocked down 7 points and added 3 assists off the bench. Fremont advances to Wednesday’s Semifinal where they will face long time postseason rival Sparta. Game time 7pm. Fremont High School.  
Photos by Sophia Hathaway Story by Ken De Laat Newaygo 66 Tri County 62 ln our preview of this game we asked which Newaygo team would turn up for this one since the Lions have at times looked like a scoring machine and other times struggled to get the ball to fall. Turns out both did. While Newaygo was cold from the floor and the charity stripe early on the final quarter was like witnessing a skilled surgeon the way the Lions operated. They seemed to have a sense for knowing what was needed and drew on each other in a comeback that was more methodical than furious. Logan Klomp got the Lions on the board canning a triple and Blake Kerr followed with a bucket to make it 5-0. Then TC's Trenton McNees put on a mini clinic firing 3 3’s in succession. The Vikings success is dependent on those distance shots and they were ringing them home in the first half. Newaygo struggled to get the ball inside resulting in turnovers and were drawing blanks from outside so by halftime the Vikes were up 11. Hunter Yearsovich shot some energy into the Newaygo crowd after intermission as he opened with a triple that began a 10-0 run and pulled the Lions within a point. TC responded with their own run, an 11-0 spurt that put their lead at a dozen. Caris Nelson fed Kerr inside, Klomp hit from distance and Nelson found Klomp inside again to cut the lead to 7 heading into the 4th. Gavin Rykse tripled to put the lead back to double figures but the Lions weren’t done A 9-0 run pulled them within a point before a Rykse bucket made it 3. That’s when Nelson blasted a triple to tie the game and send the Lion faithful to their feet. TC brought the ball down court and with just over 2 minutes Josiah Long pulled off a steal and found Klomp downcourt for a basket and the first Lion lead since that 5-0 beginning. The Vikings failed to score and Newaygo took the air out of the ball forcing TC to send the Lions to the line where they converted 3 of 4 to secure an improbable comeback victory. Coach Long: “Tri County came out and played hard from start to finish. I was proud that we never gave in and battled to the end. We willed our way to the win tonight.” In addition to being a catalyst for the late Lion surge Nelson finished with 21 points, a half dozen boards and 7 assists. Kerr hit for 18 while taking 9 off the glass, Klomp scored 17 and Long added 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Newaygo moves on to Wednesday’s Semifinal where the Tigers of Grant await them. Game time 5:30pm, Fremont High School.
By Ken De Laat, N3 Sports Boys Districts begin Monday with winners advancing to Wednesday’s semi-finals. Friday will determine District champs and an advance to Regional play. D3 Regionals are at Pewamo Westphalia and the D2 will be in Allendale. Monday D2 Fremont District Newaygo vs. Tri County 5:30 pm Which team shows up here? Is it the Lion squad who can pour in the points or the team that struggles to reach 50? They bested 2 teams with winning records and didn’t fall to any with losing records. Tri County has a losing record. Mainly due to a 9 game skid that lasted nearly 2 months. The Vikings righted the ship a bit and have gone 6-6 since including a near comeback at home when the Lions were in town.. When Newaygo is clicking in collaborative congruence they look like they could beat anyone, but they have struggled to maintain it consistently much less for the whole 32 minutes. Nelson, Long, Klomp, Kerr should combine for enough points and if the defense can keep TC from scoring in bunches like they did last time they played the Lions should advance to face Grant. Fremont vs. Kent City 7 pm In the middle of the season the Packers went 6-1. Before that streak and since they are 2-13 including dropping 7 of their last 8. They face a Kent City team who have equally struggled to score, Whether Miller, Mellema, DeKuiper or DeBlake getting a hot hand from one or more might make the difference. The game is on the Packer court and should give them the edge to advance to play Sparta. The Packers and Spartans have taken turns ending each others seasons in the last two District Finals Monday D3 at Shelby Holton vs. Shelby 5:30 pm These 2 teams have met twice and those games represent half of Shelby’s wins. The first ended with the Tigers outscoring the Devils by 32. The next time it was 35. Barring a forfeit the Tigers advance where undefeated, state ranked North Muskegon awaits. Hesperia vs. Ravenna 7 pm If you believe that in 3 days Hesperia can play 32 points better than they did when they lost by that margin to Ravenna on Friday your Panther loyalty runs deep. Bulldogs get another shot at the Cloud.
By Ken De Laat While the Boys begin the one and done season the Girls half of the CSAA tournament gets going this week. In the top tier Grant will take on Kent City on Tuesday while conference champ Morley Stanwood hosts Reed City. This is a tough group who have spent the regular season knocking off each other. Reed City was sitting at 5-7 after getting crushed by Mason County Central then turned it around going 7-1 down the stretch.The Coyotes are all about defense and can put a stranglehold on teams who struggle on offense. Morley Stanwood doesn’t. They have a bevy of shooters led by Biller, Martin and Hoisington on a senior laden squad that is hoping to make a deep run in the postseason. The first time the teams met the ‘Hawks beat RC in that vaunted Coyote gym. This time they’re at MS. Grant had a strange season. They ran off 4 straight wins then dropped 2 in a row just before Christmas. It was nearly a month before they took to the court again and it was nearly 2 months between home games. Despite this they mowed through their competition with 8 straight wins, few of them even close. Then they played Kent City who kept them from clinching a share of the title when Geers rattled home 46 points in an overtime win on the Tiger home floor, 12 of those points in the OT. The Eagles have won 11 in a row and would love a rematch with Morley who they took to 3 OT’s before falling just short. The Tigers have scoring threats in Ashbaugh, Rodriguez, Welch and Gragg and Pleune is a consummate defender. The Eagles have a youthful team. And Geers. A scoring machine and while she isn’t likely to be stopped, the Tigers can only hope to minimize the damage. Big Rapids coasted past Lakeview in their first meeting. The Wildcats have only beaten one team with a winning record, Newaygo. They are young and struggle staying with teams that score early and often, but keep it close and Wildcat sniper Baylor Syrjala will hurt you. The Cards started slow but picked up steam before back to back 6 point losses to Grant and Kent City took them out of the title race. The next game they delivered Morley’s first conference loss. They are likely the team to beat in this tier. Early in the season Newaygo mounted an impressive comeback in a win over the Hornets. Central Montcalm comes into the tourney having lost their last 5 but it was a brutal stretch of schedule and they were in most of those games including a 2 point loss to Reed City in their last game. The Lions fortunes depend on their ability to put the ball in the basket on any given night. When they score 40+ points they are 7-1. Schillman can heat it up, Lathrup and Riddering are unafraid of going inside with the ball, Schultz is a gritty presence on the court and we have only begun to see with recent promotion Ruby Hughes can do. A win gives them a rematch with the Cardinals and another tuneup before hosting Districts next week. White Cloud has won 2 games in conference. Chip Hills in a walk and Tri County in a tight matchup early in the season. Holmes, Ringler, Feldpausch, Gomez, Foondle, etc. Every game it seems one of Coach Wilk’s players steps up to provide some scoring punch, but they need more if they are to sweep these two and make some noise in the Districts where they face a rematch with host Shelby. Monday Round Robin Chippewa Hills at Tri-County Tuesday Tier 1 Reed City at Morley Stanwood Grant at Kent City Tier 2 Lakeview at Big Rapids Central Montcalm at Newaygo RR Chippewa Hills at White Cloud Thursday Winners of Tier 1 and 2 Losers of tier 1 and 2 RR Tri-County at White Cloud |
Archives
September 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed