Grant Escapes With Win

Story and photos by Mike Gesler

Grant 38   Holton 36
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I have my theories about tonight’s game, but they are based solely on superstition. You know the credulous believe that there are good omens and bad omens, and some people bring good juju while others bring bad…that kind of superstition. Even though sports are riddled with superstitions, they honestly have no effect on the game. At least I don’t think they do. Although who am I to say? Stranger things have happened, and tonight saw those stranger things.

In an era near forgotten, Grant and Holton used to be rivals. And based on the amount of cars in the Grant Middle School parking lot tonight, I’m guessing that some rivalries die hard. I’ve seen less cars for a Grant Fremont or Grant Newago game. At first I honestly thought that there must be another event at the school. There wasn’t. The Grant faithful and the Holton faithful attended in mass to witness this final game in regular season play. The Red Devils stepped onto the Tiger’s court with an 8-2 (14-5) CSAA Silver Conference record. Their two conference losses coming at the hands of Kent City; a team that Grant beat to start the season. So the signs at least pointed to this game being one that should play well; a competitive clash with Grant having the edge.

Because this was Grant’s final home game of the regular season, it was Senior Night. Before the game, the Tigers took a moment to honor their four seniors; Sawyer Carr, Giovanni Fallador, Isaac Higgins, and Seth Schuitema. The seniors also started the game which was a different lineup than the Grant fans have been accustomed to seeing. Overall though, Carr has been solid on the boards and recently putting up good numbers. Fallador can light up the points. Higgins is as steady as they come. And give Schuitema the opening, and he’ll burn you. Add Barnhart as the fifth starter, and this line up should do serious damage. But tonight with the stars all out of alignment or a tiki idol disturbed, this was not the case.

Let’s just say that there is good basketball and there is bad basketball. If this had been a junior high game, it probably would have been good basketball. But this was a high school varsity game, and it was far from good basketball. This game was painful to watch. The seniors managed to put up one point in the five plus minutes they had the floor in the first quarter. And the normal starters? Well they added two more points before the quarter ended. Holton though was not tearing it up either as they shot ten in the first quarter. The Tiger’s only saving grace was they dominated on the boards. By the end of the half the Tigers trailed by three, 13-16. Yes, that is correct.

Maybe someone should have burnt some sage or performed some sort of incantation, because the second half didn’t get any better. Grant started out by hitting a three to tie the game, but then play returned to the same level of underperformance the fans witnessed in the first half. So by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, neither team had broken thirty, and Holton still led by three.

The Tigers finally got some things working for them in the fourth, and now a battle ensued. The teams would swap leads right up to the final seconds. With less than thirty seconds remaining, the Tigers took the lead and managed to stave off the Red Devils to narrowly escape with the victory. All without breaking the forty point mark. Strange things indeed.

​“Final score is the one statistic that we talk about as the only one we really care about, and tonight we found a way to win a very low scoring game against a very deliberate, patient, competitive Holton team,” shared Grant’s Coach, Joe Schuitema. “The next thing that we talk about is do we want to play a brand of basketball that we’re proud of, and unfortunately we can’t say that for tonight. We didn’t do that. And we know that. And we need to gear it up here over the weekend and early next week to get ready for whoever we play Wednesday in Districts because Comstock Park and Sparta are going to be very hungry to beat us.”

Seth Schuitema was the Tiger’s point leader tonight with fifteen. Austin Whitney and Zach Barnhart each shot six. Sawyer Carr and Chase Geers put up four apiece. Giovanni Fallador hit for two, and Isaac Higgins added one.
Kevin Erickson paced the Devils with 16 points and Carter Brant hit for 10.
The Tigers next game will be in Sparta on Wednesday evening for District play. They will play the winner of the Comstock Park v. Sparta match up.
The Red Devils head to the WMC District on Wednesday to face the winner of Hart v. Hesperia