A Tourney Preview
By Ken DeLaat D2 At Sparta Monday March 7 Sparta (8-12) v. Comstock Park (6-14) 7pm Wednesday March 9 Sparta/Park winner v. Grant (11-9) 5:30pm Fremont (13-7) v. Newaygo (7-13) 7pm Sparta and Park split their games this season. The Spartans opened the seon 5-1 including a pair of wins over Fremont and Grant. Since then however they are 3-11 and lost 5 of 6 as the regular season wound down. The lone win these past few weeks was over the Panthers. Park hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record. Sparta has a bit of a better record and are playing at home, but the Panthers live right next door. On Wednesday the winner plays Grant, the top seed and a team that can be puzzling at times. Puzzling and yet with the potential of being explosive. Newaygo faces Fremont for the third time and despite the discrepancy in records this one could be closer than many might think. The Packers finished their season getting crushed by Reed City, a team they handled easily earlier in the season. Still, with McDonald, Nelson, Miller, etc. they have more offense than the Lions though Osawabine in the lineup has added a spark to the contributions by Decker and Long. The Packers are seeded second and are the likely pick to advance but despite a season sweep this is a dangerous game for them and if the Lions get on one of their scoring spurts late it could go either way. D3 Monday March 7 White Cloud (8-12) v. Morley Stanwood (11-8) 530pm Kent City (14-6) v. Lakeview (3-17) 7pm Wednesday March 9 WC/Morley winner v. Montabella (17-3) KC/Lakeview winner v. Ravenna (13-6) Friday March 11 Finals 7pm At White Cloud The Cloud nearly beat Morley on the road but in their next meeting MS stomped them winning by 20. While WC’s offense has started to percolate the defense yielded 142 points in their last two outings. Since a season opener win over MCE just one of WC’s victories have been against teams with more than 3 wins. It's a home game for WC and they would love to move to the semis courtesy of a win over their old rivals but it will be a tough climb and the defense will definitely need to step up to allow a somewhat less than prolific offense to keep pace. Coach Jones needs big games from Bode, Watson and Strait and hope the turnovers can be minimal because the “Hawks feast on them. Kent City should have no trouble with Lakeview. The Wildcats rarely score 40 and give up a ton of points. Montabella are co champs of the MSAC but they have lost 2 in a row going into the post after winning 16 0f their first 17 games. Ravenna had a good year in the WMC finishing second to Whitehall. What's puzzling is their loss to Mason County Central the league's cellar dweller. At WMC Monday March 7 WMC (7-13) v. N Muskegon (12-8) 530pm Hart (6-14) v. Hesperia (1-18) 7pm Wednesday March 9 WMC/NM winner v. Shelby (12-8) 530pm Hart/Hespo winner v. Holton (14-6) 7pm Friday March 11 Finals 7pm The Warriors have only one win over a team with more than 6 wins. The Norse competed in a tough conference and have wins over WMC as well as top seeded Shelby. Toss up. I like the Red Devil team. They’ve played well all season and have the weapons on offense and defensively they are stingy. Just 2 teams scored more than 50 on them all season. Whether Hart or Hesperia becomes their opponent the RD’s will more than likely be playing on Friday for the title.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2024
Categories |