Story and photos by Mike Gesler Grant 92 Newaygo 59 It’s a Friday winter night in Newaygo County. The wind is blowing, and it is stinging cold outside. Inside the field house at Grant Middle School things are about to heat up. It doesn’t matter that neither team is playing for first in the conference. Quite honestly it doesn’t matter where either team sits in the conference rankings. Tonight is all about bragging rights between the Muckers and the River Rats, and there could be no better place on earth right now than this rivalry. Grant entered into tonight’s game with a 6-5 conference record, and 8-7 overall. They had just beaten Fremont on Tuesday night, and were aiming to take down Newaygo as well to put the icing on the rivalry cake. Newaygo came into Grant with a 3-8 conference record, and 4-12 overall. While not having the most stellar season, to beat Grant in Grant would be the high water mark they could boast of for years to come. And from the fans’ perspective, Friday nights were made for this. Newaygo was the first to draw blood, but Grant didn’t waste time before taking back the lead by two. And that is really how the first quarter went. Two teams battling on the boards. Each trying to find that proverbial chink in the other’s armor. It wasn’t great ball, but it was good rivalry ball that kept the fans of both sides engaged and excited. When the first quarter came to its end, Grant managed to stay two points ahead of Newaygo, 15-13. Within the first minute of the second quarter, Newaygo would draw that down to a one point difference. Nonetheless, that’s as close as the Lions would get to making this a game. Enter Zach Barnhart. Barnhart has been a steady, hardworking contributor to Grant’s team all season. He has been fairly solid on the boards, but not one to light it up offensively. If you watched game film, there is nothing to indicate you would need to guard him. He’s not one to post up double digits like Schuitma can do. Tonight, however, Barnhart decided to come out with a big, “welcome to my house.” The Tigers put up a combined thirty-three second quarter points with Barnhart alone owning fifteen of those points. It didn’t matter if he was inside the arc or outside, he was dropping it in the net. Couple that with Lucas Swanson owning the boards on the other side of the court, and the Tigers had the Lions by their mane. They didn’t know which way to go or who to defend. As Newaygo’s Coach, Jason Long, shared, “They shot the lights out. They played really well. The guys that had to hit shots, hit shots. Lots of them.” The second half really didn’t fare much better for Newaygo. While Grant was a little slow to get back into the swing of things, once they kicked it back into gear, it was lights out for the Lions. Barnhart continued his bombardment. Schuitema, as usual, punished his adversaries. In fact the only question left was would Coach Schuitema allow his Tigers to break one hundred, or would he mute the Tiger’s roar? For the better half of the fourth, it looked like Schuitema was going to let them play. The Tigers did slow their pace, but still took every opportunity to put more points on the board. Now with Grant up by over thirty points and Newaygo fans beginning to trek back up north, the starters were finally relieved. Grant had simply outplayed and out manned Newaygo. “I thought our kids played hard in the second half and battled. [Grant] just shot the ball really well tonight,” stated Coach Long. “I love the fact that we had so many shots go in that our players were feeling confident with all of the shots they were taking, and we haven’t seen that this year,” shared Grant’s Coach, Joe Schuitema. “So that was just so rewarding to watch, and especially in a rivalry game. A great atmosphere on a Friday night against Newaygo. Couldn’t ask for a better time for that to happen. Newaygo has good players that can do things inside and out that we, I thought, worked hard on defense to try to prevent that or at least minimize it to the level where we finished with a comfortable win.” Bryce Decker led the Lions with twenty-six followed by Josiah Long with ten. Jaden Osawabine shot for eight, and Dyllan Bazzett added six. Also helping in Newaygo’s effort was Amaree James with four, Remy Wells and Caris Nelson each with two, and Kody Bazzett with one. Newaygo will travel to Reed City on Tuesday.
It should be no surprise that Zach Barnhart led for the Tigers tonight with a game high thirty-two points. Seth Schuitema added twenty-two to his growing thousand point plus career. Lucas Swanson and Sawyer Carr each had nine. Giovanni Fallador shot seven. Gage Cronk hit for six. Chase Geers added five, and Isaac Higgins put up two. The Tigers will stay home to face conference leaders Big Rapids on Tuesday night.
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