Boys Districts Round 2 Preview

Pack, Spartans Meet Again, Tigers Duel Knights, Cloud/Panthers III

Class B District 60 at Tri County

Fremont vs. Sparta 6pm
Seven times the Packers have failed to score 50 points. They are 1-6 in those games.
When they score more than 50? They are undefeated.
One of those losses was an early season game against the Spartans when the Packer offense could not get in sync. They didn’t score and they turned it over with frightening regularity in a 14 point loss The next game was even worse as they were taken apart by Reed City and looking a bit lost.
They regrouped over the holiday break and it would be nearly 2 months before they lost another  game.
The Spartans don’t generally score a lot and they haven’t won much either since their early 3 game streak when they beat 3 of the 5 other  teams in this district (Fremont,Grant, Belding).
But they hang around and that could be dangerous for a team that can have occasional offensive dry spells.
Sparta will be trying to stop Riley Krim and Ben Schmidt from getting the ball into Logan Karnemaat where he can work some magic so the Packers will need their outside guys to hit a few to open things up and Schmidt will jump on any opportunity to drive the lane. If  Baddis comes in and cans his first one I’d let him roam the arc and feed him the ball. His sharpshooting can cool off a comeback try in a hurry.

Grant Vs. Belding.7:30pm
Outside of a season opening  loss to Montabella by 4 points and a recent (and only) win over  the Rebels of Lee the Black Knights have not come closer than 20 points in any game they have played and have been beaten by more than 50 points 9 times.
Should a virus knock out 4 of the 9 Tiger players and a 5th  foul out in the 4th quarter  I would still be surprised if they were less than 10 points ahead by games end.
I know, I know, it’s tournament basketball and anything can happen but it won’t be happening Wednesday night. Grant moves to the finals.


Class C District 86 Shelby

Hesperia vs, White Cloud 5:30pm
This is truly anyone’s District to win though the Spartans of Mason County Central are the likely favorites. They open against the host Tigers of Shelby in the 7pm game.
Before that it will be the third meeting between the Panthers and Indians. Hesperia stole one on their home court by a point  in early January and a month later the Cloud dropped a 19 point loss on them in the Indian gym.
Now they’re on neutral turf. The Panthers have only won twice since their victory over the Indians and White Cloud snapped a 12 game losing streak with 3 straight wins before dropping 4 of 5 down the stretch. Hesperia won their last game of the season defeating the hosts of this district for their 4th win and the first one against a team that didn’t start with a W. (WC, Walkerville twice). The Indians have won 4 of 5 when they score more than 50 and Hesperia has only topped that mark once.
The one point win over the Cloud.