Breslin Bound: Boys Report Week 8
February 3, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A number of MHSAA boys basketball teams finished the first half of their league schedules last week.
A number of games set up which teams will chase over this final month of the regular season, as well as which will be chased with little to no room for error.
See some of those teams below that stuck out for how they stayed in or joined league races over the final week in January.
CLASS A
Battle Creek Central (7-6) – Opponents can’t sleep on the Bearcats despite their middling record; Battle Creek Central started 0-5 but has won five straight including two by five or fewer points last week. Central trails Kalamazoo Central by a win in the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference East and faces the Maroon Giants on Friday.
Dearborn Fordson (9-3) – A brief downturn of three losses in four games in mid-January is over thanks to wins over rivals Robichaud and Dearborn last weekend. The Tractors’ next games are against the teams ahead of them in the Western Wayne Athletic Conference Blue standings – co-leaders Belleville and Romulus.
Novi (10-2) – Barring something unexpected, only Salem can still challenge Novi in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association Central. The Wildcats finished fifth in the league last season; a 77-65 win over Salem on Jan. 20 separates the two at this point.
Saginaw Arthur Hill (11-2) – Playing potentially its last season (the school reportedly may merge with Saginaw High), the Lumberjacks are taking advantage and haven’t lost in 2015. They own a one-game lead in the Saginaw Valley Association North thanks to an 88-66 win last week over second-place Saginaw.
CLASS B
Alma (9-2) – The Panthers took a tough Tri-Valley Conference crossover loss to West leader Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary on Friday, but opened last week by beating East co-leader Millington by 15 and then extended their Central advantage to two games with a win Saturday over Hemlock.
Dowagiac (10-1) – The Chieftains retained their grip on a share of first place in the Wolverine Conference West with a 68-66 win over third-place Edwardsburg last week. Dowagiac has won seven straight and gets its rematch Friday with Paw Paw, the other first-place team and the only one to beat Dowagiac this winter.
Haslett (10-1) – The Vikings have quietly set the pace in the Capital Area Activities Conference Red behind standout junior point guard Brandon Allen, and he’s gotten plenty of help during a six-game winning streak that last week included an overtime win over Class A Holt. The only loss was to second-place DeWitt, up again Feb. 13.
Marysville (9-2) – Marysville missed a league title by a win last season but has two more than the field in the Macomb Area Conference Silver after rolling through the first half of the league schedule undefeated. The Vikings needed three overtimes to beat Clawson 51-46 last week.
CLASS C
Carson City-Crystal (8-2) – The Eagles extended their recent winning streak to five with a 62-55 win over Vestaburg on Friday that pushed both teams and Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart into a tie for first place in the Mid-State Activities Conference. The second half of the league schedule starts this weekend.
Fennville (11-1) – A halfcourt shot make was the most memorable play of Friday’s 67-61 overtime win over Saugatuck that kept Fennville in first place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference North. The big shot sent it to the extra period as Fennville went on to win the “Never Forgotten” game played in honor of former standout Wes Leonard, who died on the court in 2011.
Manton (8-3) – The Rangers won 10 games last season and can equal that total in 2014-15 with two victories this week. Manton lost big to Highland Conference leader McBain three weeks ago, but maintains second place and gets McBain again Feb. 20.
Maple City Glen Lake (7-4) – The Lakers opened 3-4 but haven’t lost since to hold on to a share of first place in the Northwest Conference. Glen Lake owns that piece of the top spot after beating Frankfort – also tied for first – 45-44 on Jan. 13.
CLASS D
Alanson (8-2) – The Vikings have won six straight and sit alone in second in the Northern Lakes League after defeating third-place Mackinaw City 45-42 on Friday. Alanson fell to the Comets by 21 points on Jan. 6 and won nine games a year ago.
Felch North Dickinson (7-5) – The Nordics started 1-5 but are making their way back up the Skyline Central Conference East standings. North Dickinson sits in third but beat second-place Crystal Falls Forest Park 57-53 last week.
Lawrence (10-1) – The Tigers’ 8-player football MHSAA title kicked off a strong year for the school’s boys teams; the basketball team leads the Southwestern Athletic Conference South and has won seven straight.
Rudyard (10-3) – The Bulldogs are second to Class A Sault Ste. Marie in the Straits Area Conference and have won four straight including 75-65 over third-place St. Ignace on Friday. Rudyard gets its second shot at Sault Ste. Marie on Feb. 24 after losing by 10 in their first meeting Jan. 16.
PHOTO: Alma defeated Millington in a crossover matchup of Tri-Valley Conference leaders last week. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).
P-W Earns Chance at 1st Championship
March 14, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Pewamo-Westphalia always seems to be in the mix. The Pirates haven’t had a losing record since 1998-99, the last season before coach Luke Pohl returned to the program after two years away and led 19 straight winners.
Maybe last year’s seniors, coming off an 18-6 finish, wanted to provide their replacements with a little bit of additional motivation.
“Our seniors last year, pretty much all of our starters, were saying we’re not going to be good this year,” P-W senior Andre Smith said. “That we were actually going to be worse. That motivated us to all put in work over the offseason and get better.
“We were putting in a lot of work. But (to get) this far? I didn’t really think that much. But we’re here and we put in that much work, and it’s paid off.”
For the third time in its history, P-W has earned an opportunity to play for its first championship. The Pirates advanced to Saturday with a 60-45 Division 3 Semifinal win over Erie-Mason on Thursday at the Breslin Center.
P-W (27-0) will meet also-unbeaten Iron Mountain in the 4:30 p.m. championship game. It will be the program’s third appearance in the Final – the Pirates finished Class C runners-up in 1993 and 2014.
After another long football season – P-W finished 11-1 and made the Division 7 Regional Finals – a mostly new crew of basketball contributors worked to get up to speed before an opening night that also was a week earlier than usual this season.
To be honest, P-W may not have been even the favorite in the Central Michigan Athletic Conference – which produced three District champions this winter. But the Pirates downed favorite Dansville by 18 in their second game of the season, and Smith and his teammates knew then they might be on to something special – even if Pohl as well didn’t really expect to still be playing on the season’s last day.
“You just don’t know. You only have two starters back, but we’ve just jelled,” Pohl said. “We’ve done a lot of things well defensively, made it hard for offensive teams. We have great length, and a lot of guys have put in extra time. Andre took a huge jump, every guy took a huge jump. (So) I never dreamed that.”
It’s also likely no one expected the Pirates to jump out to a 15-0 start Thursday. But that wasn’t enough to count out Erie-Mason and particularly junior guard Joe Liedel.
The Eagles pulled all the way back to within a point at 23-22 with 2:20 to go in the first half as Liedel – who averaged 28.6 points per game this season – scored 14 of his game-high 31 during the comeback.
Another Liedel basket with 1:27 to play in the third quarter kept Erie-Mason only three points behind. But Smith pushed the margin back to nine with the first basket of the fourth, and the Eagles made only 3-of-16 shots from the floor over the final period as P-W pulled away.
“A lot of times, those (big early leads) come back to bite you,” Pohl said. “I’ve seen it happen too many times; a team lets up little bit, starts to feel the pressure as the other team is coming back. … The guys persevered. They battled through this all year long, and I couldn’t be more proud of the way we ended up finishing.”
Junior forward Aaron Bearss finished with a team-high 16 points, nine rebounds and four blocks for P-W, and Smith had 14 points and nine rebounds. Senior forward Nathan Wirth grabbed nine rebounds as well as the Pirates won the boards 46-32.
Liedel had six rebounds and three assists to go with his 31 points, and senior center John Sweeney grabbed eight rebounds for Erie-Mason.
“My biggest thing is to keep getting better this offseason. I just want to keep taking everything we’ve done this year and be back here next year and be even better,” Liedel said.
Erie-Mason (23-3) made it to this final week by winning its first Regional title since 1973, one of many achievements as eighth-year coach Kevin Skaggs has built the program.
Two of his first three teams finished with sub-.500 records, but his last five all have been winners, with this one also earning the first league title of his tenure.
P-W was model of consistency that Skaggs, who came from the college ranks, used as something of a “benchmark” for the Erie-Mason program.
“When we got to Mason eight years ago, they had had only eight or nine winning seasons in 50 years of basketball,” Skaggs said. “I think this has been a continuous building project to get to this stage. It was not unexpected to get here. But what you can’t reproduce is the experiences that Pewamo has enjoyed. Those kids have watched the guys, when they were in elementary school, perform on this stage or at least get to the Regional Finals.
“Our guys are still in the process of they’ve created history. … They are creating the same things that the early teams that Luke coached during the late 90s and early 2000s (created).”
PHOTOS: (Top) Pewamo-Westphalia’s Hunter Hengesbach (10) sets up the offense as Erie-Mason’s Joe Liedel defends. (Middle) Liedel gets a shot up over the Pirates’ Collin Trierweiler.