Story and photos by Mike Gesler Grant 75 Chippewa Hills 21 The Tigers returned home tonight after losing two on the road to Reed City and Muskegon Oakridge. Grant was desperate for a win going into winter break to keep their season at .500, and to give them something positive to build upon. But needing a win was not the only monkey on the Tiger’s back. Seth Schuitema was fifteen points shy of hitting the one thousand career point milestone; an accomplishment that few players realize. The Tiger faithful had gathered in mass. The Chippewa Hills Warriors though could play the spoiler to both of Grant’s hopes. The first quarter, to be perfectly honest, was brutal. Neither the Tigers nor the Warriors could get anything going. Call it nerves. Call it jitters. Call it whatever you like. Just don’t call it good ball. It was awful. It took four minutes before Lucas Swanson found the net for Grant. For Chip Hills it would be six minutes. And Schuitema was throwing nothing but bricks. At the end of the quarter, Grant had scored six to Chippewa Hills two, and Schuitema had only two to his name. Eight long minutes of play, and the score was 6-2. Thankfully, there is more than one quarter of play in high school basketball. Coach Schuitema must have had some ammonia inhalants ready at the break and woke his team up…either that or it was Seth Schuitema’s first break-away dunk that finally got the Tigers back on track and finding their rhythm. But according to Schuitema, “Some would say the dunk definitely hyped us up.” Grant roared back to life putting up twenty-eight while holding Chippewa Hills to three. The second quarter also saw Schuitema hit his one thousand career point achievement. “I’m happy for Seth to accomplish that goal of scoring a thousand,” shared Coach Schuitema. “We kind of got that monkey off the back. Now we can move on.” And move on they did. Grant dominated at the half 34-5. The energy now flowing through the Tiger players was electrifying. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the starters were on the bench, and the bench was playing like they were the starters. The Tigers had complete dominance over the Warriors. “Really excited about getting back at home, and overcoming a really cold shooting first quarter, and playing defense, and getting steals, and sharing the ball, and having good energy,” stated Coach Schuitema. “I thought everybody that stepped in played the role that makes sense for them. That’s one of our goals; do what you do. We got to watch that for the last three quarters of the game today. Really proud of our young guys that haven’t had a lot of varsity experience that they were able to take care of business tonight in a way that was respectful to the game and the opponent.”
While Schuitema may have led with eighteen points, what’s more impressive is that each player of Grant’s team scored tonight. “We’re excited,” shared Coach Schuitema. “The guys all work hard. We’re looking at who we put in next, or who do we want to get on the floor, or maybe who needs to come off the floor. We have a lot of choices. I think everybody that stepped in made a contribution that makes sense to them in the fact that they got to score too is just extra special.” Not to be overshadowed, Lucas Swanson also had double digits with twelve. Then the list goes Austin Whitney (9), Giovanni Follador (8), Mason Woodard (7), Chase Geers (6), Zach Barnhart (5), Gage Cronk (4), and Isaac Higgens, Jaxon Gragg, and Sawyer Carr each with two. I asked Seth what his one thousand career point milestone meant to him. “I’m happy. I’m speechless to be honest. It’s such a special moment. My goal for like, all of high school.” Congratulations Seth. The Tigers enter winter break at .500 and 1-1 in the conference. They will return to play on January 4 at home against Sparta before tackling a challenging conference run.
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