A look at this week’s District pairings and a few words from area coaches
By Ken DeLaat, N3 Sports Photos by Mike Gesler, Alexis Mercer, and Bobbie Cruzan I love this time of year when every team gets a new shot at glory in an all inclusive postseason extravaganza known as Tournament Time (aka March Madness-high school version). 710 teams will play in the tournament and of those 710 teams only 4 will not end the season with a loss. Yes, 706 teams finish the season having fallen short on the court. It’s a grueling grind getting through Districts, facing some of the best teams in the state in the Regionals and should a team make it to the Quarterfinals they are among the elite squads across the two peninsulas. A win gets you a trip to Lansing and the Big Weekend when another pair of wins gets you every bragging right in the state. N3 followed the Newaygo Girls team who battled their way to that final contest 2 years ago finally falling to a talented and red hot Portland team. It was a magical ride few teams get to experience. Here’s hoping our local teams can catch a little magic. After all, as Coach Thomasma said, “everyone is 0-0 now.” We caught up with our area coaches to get a bit of feedback on how they see the upcoming week. Montague District- D2 Monday Newaygo (6-15) vs. Fremont (8-14) 7pm Wednesday Whitehall (11-10) vs. Grant (14-7) 5:30pm Newaygo/Fremont winner vs. Montague (15-7) 7pm Friday Finals 7pm NEWAYGO LIONS Coach Thomasma: Favorites: Gotta be Grant and Montague. Grant has beat everyone in the District besides Montague (who beat them) So it has to be those two teams by far. Success: Taking care of the basketball is the #1 priority for our team. If we do that, I think we can be competitive in this District. We're not super explosive on offense so not giving teams extra possessions will be a focus point. Rebounding is the other key. We have to do a better job of consistently rebounding the basketball. Players: We don't really have a lot of postseason playing experience on our team besides Grace Painter (Riddering and Toth have a little bit) so we're going to need our new players ("old" and "young") to step up if we want to advance in this postseason. The team is looking forward to the challenge of playing a tough Fremont team on Monday and we've embraced that everyone is 0-0 now. FREMONT PACKERS Coach Zerlaut: Montague and Grant are the top two seeds for a reason. They have been the most consistent teams in our District this season. However, I think that every team in our District is capable of beating each other on a given night. Grant has had many games where they put up a lot of points, and probably has the best individual offensive player in Ashbaugh. Most of us have played each other at least once this season and the games have been close. It’s a very evenly matched District and will come down to which team plays well each night next week. I don’t think anyone will have the luxury of playing poorly and still getting by with a win. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an upset or two that result in a different finals matchup at the end of the week than most expect. GRANT TIGERS Coach Delamater: Montague has to be the favorite. They are the number one seed for a reason. They have impressive wins over quality teams and have played teams like Hart closely. From there, it's anyone's game. We obviously have beat the remaining teams, but our inexperience in big games has hurt us this season. We need a good game to get through Whitehall and then will have to play extremely well to beat Montague. Julie Ashbaugh will need to continue to play at a high level and when Jayci Hance scores over 10 points, I like our chances. We have several others in our rotation that can get hot, and if we do, we are hard to beat. Hart District- D3 Monday Hesperia (1-21) vs. Shelby (9-13) 6pm Wednesday White Cloud (8-12) vs. Mason County Central (18-4) 5:30pm Hesperia/Shelby winner vs. Hart (19-3) Friday Finals 7pm WHITE CLOUD INDIANS Coach Wilk: We have played all the teams in this district, and Hart and Mason County Central are the teams to beat. They are 1st and 2nd in West Michigan Conference-Rivers. Hart is 18-3 with their three losses coming to some of the best teams in the area. Mason County Central is 17-3 and two of those losses have come to Hart. We are matched up against Mason County Central on Wednesday. They have Wren Nelson who is a huge post presence for them, and then around her they have very capable shooters to knock down the outside shot. Hart is a shorter team, but they are very physical with great on ball defenders. Their Sophomore Addi Hovey is a very athletic basketball player. She can guard anyone on the court, and has one of the fastest first steps I have seen. For us to take down this district we will have to play back to back great games. Currently we have four or five girls nursing various injuries, so we need to get healthy for starters. We will also need our defense to hold these teams to around 40 points or less which will be a challenge in itself because Hart averages 59 ppg, and MCC averages 47 ppg. We have had our moments this season where we show that we can hang tough with these types of teams for a few quarters, but we haven’t been able to do it for a full game. We need to show it for a full game to have a shot. We know what Jaden Gomez and Gaby Reeve bring most nights offensively, and we will need a few of our other girls to step up and score a few points to win. Lakeview District-D3 Monday Lakeview (7-15) vs. Holton (11-11) 7pm Wednesday Ravenna (9-13) vs. Morley Stanwood (14-5) 5:30pm Lakeview/Holton winner vs. Kent City 7pm Friday Finals 7pm HOLTON RED DEVILS Coach Jordan: Obviously the favorite as it is most years would be Kent City. We have Lakeview first and the winner gets Kent City. I don’t look past any opponent and Lakeview has put together a few wins in the last few weeks and probably have more confidence then they have had in several years. We need to be ready for them. If we are lucky enough to get the win,then we would play Kent City. If I'm being honest a lot would have to go our way, mixed in with some foul trouble from Bowers and Geers. Taking care of the ball would be the key for us to have a chance, something we have struggled with. We have been up and down all year as we are sitting at 11-11 this year. Kent City is an uphill battle that most teams in this area haven’t been able to climb in the past years. But if we can take care of the ball, shoot the best percentage on the year with a little foul trouble help, we might be able to make a game of it. Not totally out of the equation but we would definitely be the heavy, heavy underdog. We just would like to keep it as close as we can and be within some sort of reasonable range when the 4th starts to have a chance.
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