Packers, Tigers Take an Early Bow

Panthers stun Fremont Spartans corral Grant
Photos by Alicia Jaimes

Comstock Park 67 Fremont 66 (OT)
The OK Blue is one tough conference.
Comstock Park came into the game having lost 8 of their last 9 finishing 5th in the conference.
Fremont arrived on a 17 game winning streak with a newly earned title and a deep and talented bench to go with a strong cast of starters.
What happened?
The Packers fell behind early trailing 13-8 after one then a 9-0 run by the Panthers  pushed the lead to as many as 16 before Fremont began their comeback led by Julian Echavarria who canned 7 points in the second. The teams went to break with the Packers down 27-24  but two minutes into the second half they captured the lead and held it by 7 points with 2 minutes left..
But the Panthers weren’t done. They scrapped their way back to within 3 then Chanse Crittendon ripped a triple off a turnover to send it into overtime where the Panthers would prevail at the charity stripe hitting 7 of 9 to ice the win and move on to play Coopersville.
Calvin Miller led the scoring for Fremont  with 21, Julian Echavarria finished with 12, Carter Moon notched  11 and Logan Karnemaat dropped in 9.
“It was a heartbreaking way to end the season,” said Coach Zerfas.

Sparta 67 Grant 56
In the opening game Conner Wist and Chase Wilson proved to be too much offense for the Tigers as each fired in 24 points. The Tigers fell behind 18-10nin the first quarter then came back behind a pair of threes by Connor Vanderwilt with Carter Chase and Seth Schuitema also hitting from distance and by halftime the Spartan margin was 4.
The second half saw the host team produce enough offense to hold off the Tigers and Wilson and Wist knocked down 7 of 8 at the line to seal the deal as time ran out on Grant.
Vanderwilt finished with a game high 25 points including a quintet of triples while Chase, Schuitema and Brett Long finished with 7 apiece, Diesel Rose hit for 6 and Elliot Butchart added 4.
Sparta will face Newaygo on Wednesday at 5:30pm.