Eagles fly past Lady Lions Photos by Alexis Mercer Story by Ken DeLaat BOYS Newaygo 38 Kent City 36 The Lion's shooting matched the weather outside at the onset of the game. Cold. While playing some rugged defense the hosts could not get the ball to go down and the Eagles had them down 10-1 when the first quarter ended with an early split at the line by Josiah Long accounting for the lone Newaygo point. After a Jaret Jaramillo hoop for KC, Caris Nelson broke the Lion drought by nailing a three pointer then after Dylan Sutton converted a pair from the line Grant Harkness fired another from distance to keep the Eagles in sight. The game began to get more physical and soon after Bryce Decker split from the stripe he was called for his third foul sending the teams top scorer to the bench. The shooting woes would continue for the Lions but the Eagles weren’t faring much better and the half ended with KC increasing their lead by one to a 22-12 margin. Despite the double digit lead the game was far from being out of reach. The Lions just needed a hot hand or two to make a run. Decker having 3 fouls was going to hurt and the Eagles knew he was going to be vulnerable and likely to be going after him in order to get him on the bench during crunch time. To get back in the game the Lions would have to make a move early. When the half began Jaramillo and Seth Vanderwest hit buckets answered only by a Harkness 2 and Newaygo was down by a dozen. That’s when the Lions began to roar. Caris Nelson scored 4 unanswered points then Decker caught fire with a basket and a dramatic triple. After yet another stop by Newaygo, Long fired a beauty of a pass to a waiting Decker who laid it in and suddenly it was a one point game entering the final frame. The momentum had clearly shifted and with a raucous crowd exhorting them on, the Lions had fire in their eyes. The quarter began with a Kyle Larson split at the line answered by a triple from Long that delivered the first Newaygo lead at 28-27. After a stop, Decker fired another from distance to push the lead to 4 but Jaramillo was fouled on a three point shot and calmly sank all 3 to pull KC within 1. Decker hit for another bucket but soon after was whistled for foul # 4. He and his counterpart Vanderwest had been battling all night and both were one foul from sitting out the rest of the game. Larson made it to the line again then added a bucket to put the Eagles up 36-35 with less than a minute and a half left on the clock and the ball in their possession. A turnover got the ball into Nelson’s hands and he delivered to put the Lions up 1. Another stop and a foul sent Nelson to the line where he split to make it a 2 point game. The Lions regained possession but missed the front end of a 1:1 giving the Eagles one last shot with 15 ticks left. Jaramillo was fouled on a drive and went to the line needing both to tie. After coming up empty on his first he needed to purposely miss in hopes of getting the ball in the hands of a teammate but Newaygo recovered the rebound and the game clock finally hit zero. giving the Hosts their second conference win. Coach Long: “The end of the third quarter we were able to knock down a few shots and get a little rhythm on offense. That gave us good energy in the fourth.” The Lions showed a lot of heart in this game. When not much was happening on offense they doubled down on the other end of the court to keep the Eagles from running away with it. Decker and Long shook off some early misses to hit some clutch triples and Nelson came through when his team really needed a boost but It was the defensive play of the whole team that impressed the most. Remy Wells, Blake Kerr and Dyllan Bazzette helped keep the Eagles in sight and Jarryn Schmitt logged some crucial minutes when Decker was sitting. This was a team win and the long bench of the Lions helped bring it home.
Newaygo was led by Bryce Decker with 13 points and 7 rebounds followed by Caris Nelson's 10 points and Grant Harkness adding 8. Jaramillo led the Eagles in scoring with a dozen and Larson finished with 10. Newaygo (2-0, 2-3) will visit Evart Monday before being off until a January 3rd home game with Ravenna. GIRLS Kent City 62 Newaygo 11 Kent City is a really good team and on Friday their serious offensive firepower sent a message to all challengers. Bring it on. Led by all state and Northwood University bound Lexie Bowers the Eagles did what they do best. Hit from distance. They rained 10 triples down on the Lions who had no answers for the offensive onslaught. Coach Thomasma: “We just got beat by a good team tonight. We are young and we struggled on offense and a team like Kent City is going to expose mistakes and we made way too many." "I got good hard working character kids in my locker room and we're going to continue to work to keep getting better." Grace Painter finished with 5 points and 7 rebounds to lead the Lions. Newaygo (1-2, 1-3) will take their game to the Cornerstone Holiday Tournament next week beginning with a Monday matchup with Forest Hills Eastern and a second game on Wednesday.
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