Preview of Tuesday Basketball Contests

Mystery ref contnues to work games at a somewhat advanced age

By Ken De Laat

​High School Basketball will wrap up the early part of the season this week though all of our coverage teams except for Grant will play in some of the holiday games including the tourneys at Holton and Reed City.
Been an interesting season already.  Here’s a preview of the upcoming  Tuesday games.

Boys

Grant at Newaygo
Interesting early season matchup.
The Lions are 5-2 going 5-0 against teams with a losing record and 0-2 against teams with a winning record. Grant has a winning record (4-2) but again, have yet to beat a team with a winning mark. 
The Tigers 4 game winning streak got decidedly halted by the visiting Coyotes who have routed each of their foes after a season opening loss to McBain, a team likely to sit high in the D3 rankings once they’re released.
Nelson and Long are varsity veterans who know how to win and Klomp’s moves are ripe for highlight reels. Coach Long has depth and he uses it extensively, a strategy that has kept his team fresh down the stretch.
Obenauf and Swanson are among the key players for the Tigers particularly on the offensive end. Rider, Hatch, DeLong and others give Coach Schuitema  some nice options and a lot of weapons. Before getting beat by the Yotes they were averaging 70 a game.
Other than an explosive offensive showing against the Hornets the Lions average about 60.
Two teams wanting this one for the rivalry bragging rights to be sure, but Newaygo stays tied for the top with a win and Grant needs the win to stay close to the front runners.
Game is at Newaygo which would be an advantage if this wasn’t Newaygo/Grant.

Big Rapids at White Cloud
Coach Jones’ team is a bit of an enigma. They handed Baldwin their only loss then the next game gave Shelby their only win. Since then they’ve won 3 in a row but none from  that trio of opponents are likely to be contenders for any conference title. Can the Cloud compete in the blended CSAA conference? Maybe. But how they do in this one will give us a good idea if they can run with the league's best. The Cards aren't the team of the last few years but they’re pretty good. The Robinsons will need to fill it up with Strait and Watson at the ready should the Cards look to stifle Noah and Jayden.
The Cards rained down 16 triples on Hart and while Haist is their primary sharpshooter they have a few who  can it from outside.
White Cloud is on their home court  and they need to have a really good game if they hope to send BR home unhappy.

Oakridge at Fremont.
The Packers haven’t been blown out but they haven’t won since an opening victory over Shelby who are resting on the bottom of the WMC at this early juncture of the season. Miller, DeKuyper and DeBlake are just a few of the players who can get hot and the Packers  are going to need some players to heat up if they are to clip the Eagles.

Girls

Grant at Newaygo
Coach Delamater has some varsity veterans led by Ashbaugh and Pleune and transfer (from Newaygo) Welch is a key addition to this talented team while  Rodriguez and Gragg add depth. This will be a week that should shed some light on how good the Tigers might be. After their Tuesday game in Newaygo they face Spring Lake the next day and Cedar Springs on Friday. Three road games in a week with 2 against undefeated teams from strong OK divisions.
Newaygo has lost 2 in a row and if they start as cold as they have in those two losses the Tigers will run away from them.. The Lions struggle with getting the ball to fall. Westbrook and Schillman can heat up as they showed in the comeback over the Hornets, Lathrup has a good eye from distance and Holmes has shown flashes of becoming a very good player.
Still, Grant has more shooters, more varsity experience and whoever draws Pleune as a defender is in for a long night. The Lions would need to put forward  their best game to keep this one close.

Big Rapids at White Cloud
The Cardinals have struggled out of the gate finally posting a win over a less than stellar  Comstock Park squad after 3 losses. However, they hung in with a very good Cedar team and finally got some consistent offense  against Park.
White Cloud needs to score with more consistency. They fell short against a good Shelby team but in their last game, a loss to the Hornets, they fell out of contention early due to anemic shooting. Gomez, Ringler, Holmes, Klammer,... someone needs to get hot early in this one and help the team stick with the Cards long enough to have a shot at the end.

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