West Michigan Roundup, Saturday 2/27/21

West Michigan Roundup, Saturday 2/27/21

Yesterday featured a jam-packed schedule across West Michigan with many marquee matchups. The OK Red all got up early and played at 10 AM, no upsets occurred as Grand Haven, West Ottawa, Rockford, and Caledonia all won. Zeeland East and Muskegon battled it out for the lead in the OK Green. It took some late-game heroics but Catholic Central got past South Christian again in a one-possession game. Schoolcraft traveled up to Covenant Christian for a D3 battle and was able to keep their undefeated streak alive winning 60-55. Lastly, FHN stayed hot defeating Northview 65-49. Down in Southwest Michigan, a couple of scores caught my eye. Colon defeated Howardsville Christian 64-61 in overtime, this Colon team is solid this season. Bridgman topped undefeated New Buffalo 64-52 in a highly anticipated BCS game.

Best Win: Zeeland East over Muskegon 58-52

The biggest game in the OK Green conference race took place yesterday at Zeeland East. ZE came in 7-0 while Muskegon came in 6-2, but undefeated in conference. The Chix held a sizable early lead but Muskegon clawed back making it closer. In the end ZE pulled out a huge victory led by Trip Riemersma and Nate Claerbaut.

Next Best: Fennville over Paw Paw 64-46

Fennville had a huge chance to boost their resume on Saturday against the larger 5-3 Paw Paw team. After losing on Wednesday to Watervliet, Fennville relished a chance to put that game behind them. Beating this Paw Paw team by 18 points is a very strong win. Fennville isn’t a team to sleep on just because they lost to Watervliet. I believe they will run the table in the SAC-Lakeshore and win the league.

Top Performers:

FH Central’s Conner Milton (2022 F): 22 points, 12 rebounds

FH Northern’s Ethan Erickson (2021 G): 28 points

Hopkins’ Trevor Smith (2021 G): 31 points

Zeeland East’s Trip Riemersma (2021 G): 19 points, 14 rebounds, 3 steals

Honorable Mention:

Grandville’s Tommy Gregwer (2021 G): 22 points

Howardsville Chr. Josh Parks (2021 G): 27 points

Northview’s Kyler Vanderjagt (2022 SG): 21 points

Reeths-Puffer’s Kendall Smith (2021 F): 22 points

Schoolcraft’s Tyler DeGroote (2022 SF): 20 points

Best Upset: Eaton Rapids over BC Pennfield 53-45

Pennfield came into the game 8-0 coming off of a big win against Coldwater. Eaton Rapids is not a bad team by any means, but coming into Pennfield and knocking off the Panthers this season is an incredible feat.

Game I Attended: Orchard View 72, Gull Lake 64

Orchard View made the 1.5 hour trip down to Gull Lake for this non-conference showdown today. Led by seniors Ke'ontae Barnes and Darius Williams they got off to a quick 6-0 start while Gull Lake began 0-7 from the field. Following that start, Gull Lake went on a 15-4 run to close the quarter. At the beginning of the second quarter Gull Lake started slow going 1-7 from the field while Orchard View jumped back on top 19-17. Gull Lake was ice cold and Orchard View’s Ke’ontae Barnes took advantage of that, scoring 8 points in the quarter to extend the OV lead to 30-23. Coming out of the half Gull Lake continued their shooting woes only making two shots from the field the entire third quarter. Free throws kept them from being completely blown out as they trailed 47-35 after three quarters. The fourth quarter consisted of Gull Lake trying to obtain momentum and every time they would gain a bucket or two Orchard View would answer right away. The closest the game got was 66-60 Orchard View with 1:14 remaining. Orchard View was nearly perfect from the free throw line in the final quarter (12-16), which sealed the deal for the Cardinals. Ke'ontae Barnes led them with 24 points, while Darius Williams had 17 points, and JayJay Tunstull chipped in 15 points. Gull Lake’s top scorers included Caleb Taylor (18), Tyler Corstange (15), Zach Collard (11), and Nathan Louden (11). It has been a tough week for Gull Lake with a loss to K-Central, a buzzer beater loss to Benton Harbor, and now a defeat by Orchard View. Gull Lake will need to shoot the ball better, especially from three as they went 6-28 from behind the arc. It just seemed like Orchard View came out with more intensity and Gull Lake spent the whole game trying to reach that same level of intensity. This is still a strong Gull Lake team, but they will need to improve if they want to make some noise in the playoffs.