Benton Harbor Back in Breslin Spotlight
March 21, 2014
Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Benton Harbor’s players came off the court Friday night to their band playing and fans who had filled most of the horseshoe at the north end of the Breslin Center.
It’s hard to believe the Tigers hadn’t played in an MHSAA Semifinal since 1993. But Benton Harbor basketball is back in a big way – and one win from the school’s first title since 1965.
Led by coach Corey Sterling – who played on that 1993 team – the Tigers continued their longest run in more than a decade with a 69-52 win over Cadillac to earn a spot in Saturday night’s Class B Final.
“What Benton Harbor is known for is basketball,” Tigers senior guard John Robinson, Jr., said. “For us to come back in 2014 and make a run is really big for the community and for the Benton Harbor program.”
Benton Harbor will face either Milan for Detroit Douglass at 6:30 Saturday night.
Sterling is in his second season leading his alma mater, guiding it to a 17-9 record this winter after the Tigers went 17-7 a year ago. That 1993 team was the last to make a championship game as well, where it fell in a heartbreaker 67-64 to Detroit Pershing.
Benton Harbor had won two Regional titles since, the last in 2001. But the Tigers’ reputation as a basketball power has faded only a bit, getting a boost in part during the middle of last decade when Wilson Chandler starred before moving on to DePaul and now the NBA’s Denver Nuggets.
“One thing we try to do is have the guys come in who played back in the day,” Sterling said. “(These players) are aware that the last champion was in 1965. They’re aware that I played here at Breslin in ’93 and lost by three. We remind them that Benton Harbor is a basketball school with a rich tradition. And they’re just really hungry. They don’t want their season to end.”
It took only about a quarter Friday to realize it wouldn’t end until the final day.
Benton Harbor took its first double-digit lead 1:09 into the second quarter and kept it for good over the final 18 minutes. Four players scored in double figures, led by senior forward Cortez Moore with 18 points plus 11 rebounds.
Sophomore forward Jaton Gunn added 13 points and nine rebounds, Robinson had 11 points and sophomore point guard Curtis Dawson had 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Senior forward Jalen Brooks led Cadillac with 30 points despite constant attention from one or multiple defenders. But the next highest Vikings scorer totaled only five points.
Brooks was the team’s second-leading scorer last season when it fell to Detroit Country Day also in a Semifinal.
“It’s really exciting, especially for our juniors and after what we came off of from football (Cadillac finished 11-1 and won its District),” Brooks said. “That translated to the basketball court. People look at our team, and we’re not the biggest. Most people wouldn’t think we’d get where we’ve gotten. But we have a lot of heart, and I think that has a lot to do with it.”
Both teams entered the postseason unranked. Cadillac finished 19-7, with two losses by two points or fewer.
Five of Benton Harbor’s losses were by three or fewer points, which no doubt has helped as the Tigers have taken down two top-five teams over the last two weeks.
“We might’ve lost nine games this year, but we play in one of the toughest conferences in the state,” Sterling said, referring to the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference West. “All our losses built character. So when teams make a run on us, we overcome it. We know how to finish games.”
Click for a full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Benton Harbor's John Robinson, Jr., brings the ball upcourt during Friday's first Class B Semifinal. (Middle) Cadillac's Jalen Brooks dunks for two of his 30 points.
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Cadillac's Jalen Brooks led all scorers in the Class B Semifinal against Benton Harbor with 30 points. Here he drives the lane for a basket and the foul - a 3-point play! (2) Cortez Moore led Benton Harbor with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Here he scores on a putback.
Harbor Light Building on Rock-Solid Foundation in Bringing Success to New Home
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
March 1, 2024
A review of Harbor Light Christian’s boys basketball rosters over the last couple of decades would show a lot of familiar names.
That would be especially true of the coaching slots.
Or are the players now coaches?
The coaches’ names are extremely familiar, and nothing much has changed – except some of the former players are now coaches, and the head coaches have returned to assist the program.
Today, the head coach is Jason Roussin. He’s in his 12th season at the helm of the Swordsmen. Jeff Jakeway, who was the head coach during Roussin’s junior and senior seasons at Harbor Light, is back on the Swordsmen’s staff as an assistant coach. Roussin is also assisted by long-time coach William Henagan and previous head coach Clark Hewitt.
Hewitt also serves as the Harbor Light junior varsity coach. The JV squad went 19-1 this season and 18-2 the year before.
“In 38 years, really there’s been three consistent coaches and then Pat Collins who had done one year when the program started, and now we’re all back on the sidelines working together,” Roussin said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
The facilities Collins, Hewitt and Jakeway coached in are nothing like the Swordsmen have today – the newly-built Solid Rock Center in Harbor Springs. In fact, they used to play on a cement floor. A year ago, the Swordsmen played their first game in their new home.
A walk around the facility, five years in the making, provides the feeling of more like a small college program’s setup. Along with the new gym, the Solid Rock Center was equipped with a cafe and concession area, locker rooms, a film lounge and hangout area for the players, an upper-level full track around the gym, and three classrooms for art, music, science and more.
Jakeway served as project manager on the building — fully funded and debt-free through community support. He was the head coach of the Harbor Light girls basketball team when the facility opened.
Harbor Light’s boys suffered a 76-74 loss to hot-shooting Pellston in the facility’s first game Jan. 20, 2023, but haven’t been doing much losing since. The Swordsmen started this season 2-2, and after a heart-breaking loss to Traverse City Christian on Dec. 8 went on to share the Northern Lights Conference title with Alanson and have built that record to 20-4 heading into tonight’s District Final against St. Ignace.
The title game will be played at the Solid Rock Center. Another Jakeway, Jeff Jakeway’s son and freshman point guard Landon, will be getting his second chance to lead the Swordsmen to a District championship. He was the point guard as a seventh grader when Harbor Light won the District title two years ago. (Small schools like Harbor Light may request, for most sports, an MHSAA Executive Committee waiver to play eighth-grade students if the school’s enrollment is less than 125 and seventh-graders if the enrollment is less than 75. Harbor Light’s enrollment count for this school year is 61.)
Landon Jakeway is the team’s leading scorer, contributing 15 points per game. He scored 25 to lead the Swordsmen to a 67-31 win over Mackinaw City in Wednesday’s District Semifinal. That was Harbor Light’s third win this season over its league rival, allowing the Swordsmen to keep the Mack Light Ball, which goes to the winning team’s school after each victory in the rivalry. Wins over Mackinaw have been hard to come by in previous seasons.
David Chamberlin, at 13 points per game, and Corin Palus, scoring nine per contest, are the other leading scorers. Jakeway adds seven assists and four steals per game. Chamberlin kicks in seven rebounds per game, and Jackson Mesner and Kirk Rose contribute eight and five rebounds, respectively.
Chamberlin, Paulis, Mesner and Rose are all seniors.
“The team goal was really to ‘put the team before me’ mentality,” Roussin said. “We were going to work as a team, be loyal, be committed to one another and battle together.”
The Swordsmen also entered the season with their eyes on the Mack Light Ball, a conference championship and a long postseason run.
“We wanted to chase the conference and to battle for a District,” Roussin noted. “Obviously, we knew St. Ignace is in there and they are the favorite team.”
Senior leadership has been one of the keys to Harbor Light’s finishing atop the conference for the first time in more than a decade.
“We want to show up and play the best basketball you can to make your team the best they can,” Roussin said. “That’s what has been awesome with the leadership we’ve had on this team.
“Through all the guys is ‘it is not about me,’” Roussin continued. “It is about ‘what can I do to make the team better?’”
St. Ignace brings a 16-6 record into the Solid Rock Center. The Saints will have a chance to view some NBA history in addition to playing the final.
Above the main gym resides a mini court containing the Detroit Pistons floor from the Pontiac Silverdome. Before moving to The Palace of Auburn Hills, and most recently Little Caesars Arena, the Pistons played at the Silverdome from 1978-88.
Jeff Jakeway was able to get the court to Northern Michigan through connections in Novi.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Harbor Light’s Vaughn Henagan (23) gets to the basket during a 59-39 win over Kinross Maplewood Baptist on Dec. 21. (Middle) David Chamberlin (22) elevates over a Pellston defender as the Swordsmen work toward a 75-20 victory Jan. 19. (Photos by Billy Mac Photos.)