Thursday Tourney Preview

Lesley provided some tough play in the paint in the win over Newaygo Tuesday. Photo by Alexis Mercer

Tigers Take On Broncs: Pack & Panthers Meet Again; Devils Get Rematch With WMC

D2

Comstock Park District

Grant vs. Coopersville 5:00pm
There is a reason Coopersville is the top seed in this district despite the presence of a strong Fremont squad.
The OK Blue is one of the regions toughest D2 leagues and the  Broncos placed three players on the all conference first team including Ethan Coady (repeater), Blake Stewart and Jack Castenholz.
The Tigers are coming off an emotional win over Newaygo that saw Seth Schuitema deliver on the scoreboard and some inspired play in the paint by Cole Lesley as well as timely buckets by Orion Evans.
The one common opponent the teams have faced is Holton. The Tigers nipped the Red Devils by 4 points while 5 days later the Broncos squeaked by with a 33 point win.
Yes, that's thirty three.
The Tigers are not a dominant team by any means but since about the halfway point of the season they have played really well outside of a stumble in Newaygo and a loss to conference champ Big Rapids. In both games the other team dominated the physical play and the Tigers corrected that in Tuesday’s rematch with the Lions.
The Broncos will provide another challenge in that area as well as Coady’s wizardry at the point. The Tigers will need to find ways to get Schuitema free and find a couple of hot hands to keep pace with C-ville. Another performance in the paint from Lesley like we saw Tuesday certainly wouldn’t hurt either. 

Fremont vs. Comstock Park 7pm
Interesting matchup given their recent history and a near miss at a district final last year  courtesy of the pandemic. It was to be an attempt at atonement for the Packer players who remained from their 19-1 team  toppled by the 5-13 Panthers in the district opener the previous year.
Tonight they finally get that chance to get together again albeit with significantly different casts.
We don’t know much about Park. They fashioned a winning record in a tough conference and beat the team they lost to in the season opener to get here.
The Packers have developed a deeper bench as the season has progressed and they will likely need it if they are to make a run. Braiden McDonald can fill it up as well as draw a few fouls depending on the level of physical play being allowed in the paint. Joshua Zerfas does many things well and what he does best is provide the on court leadership a team needs when they get into trouble. It doesn’t always result in a win but it keeps everyone in until the buzzer hits.
Coach Zerfas said in our tourney preview that he felt the team was peaking at the right time.
Two tough wins stand between the Packers and a trip to South Christian for the right to compete in the Regionals 
You can be assured of one thing from the Fremont team.
They won’t be looking past game one.

D3

Holton District

Holton vs. West Michigan Christian 5:30pm
The Red Devils will look to contain Varnado and Fairfield and keep the scoring down.
Outside of the 71 points the prolific scorers from Coopersville dropped on Holton only 2 teams have scored over 50 on their defense.
But they need to score and last time out the Warrior defense held the RD’s to just 31.
Monette had  big numbers Tuesday against White Cloud in a game much closer than the 30 point win they laid on them the prior week. With the Warriors likely to give Poling more than a bit of attention Monette and  Fowler and Fialek will need to be ready to put up points.
The Devils pulled off a come from behind victory over WC but it wasn’t easy
If they do the same against  WMC and let them get the lead?
It would look to be even tougher.
This has been a great year for the Devs. They swept through the conference and have a shot at playing for a district crown on their home court.
If they can outplay their visitors this time around.

North Muskegon vs. Ravenna 7pm
The Bulldogs have only lost to only one team not named Whitehall.
Holton.

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