Consortium Proves To Be Best in Class C
March 22, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Detroit Consortium’s boys basketball team fell in a 2011 Semifinal to eventual Class C champion Schoolcraft. A year later, the Cougars’ season ended with a two-point Regional Final loss to eventual title winner Flint Beecher.
Joshua Jackson was watching – but couldn’t help. He was still in junior high.
But the now-sophomore decided then that when he was old enough, he’d play a part in the Cougars' first MHSAA title.
Consortium entered this postseason ranked No. 2 in the final Class C poll. With the 6-foot-8 Jackson leading and surrounded by a talented a cast, the Cougars eliminated No. 1 Mount Clements and No. 3 Negaunee this week and finished with a 61-44 championship game win over No. 10 Pewamo-Westphalia on Saturday at the Breslin Center.
“Playing with most of the guys last year, I always had trust in them,” Jackson said. “I just had something to prove, and they wanted to win just like I did.
“To prove so many people wrong, I know maybe one person picked us to win (over Mount Clemens). I guess they thought overall their team was better than ours. (But) I think we’ve proved people wrong all year winning big games.”
Consortium beat some of the best in finishing 25-2 this winter.
The Cougars also defeated No. 5 Detriot Allen in their Regional Final, plus ranked Class A Saginaw Arthur Hill, Romulus and Detroit Southeastern, ranked Class B Detroit Country Day and Detroit Douglass, an MHSAA semifinalist in that class.
And that’s some of what coach Tobias Tuomi reminded his players when Consortium led Pewamo-Westphalia only 27-25 in the championship game.
“We just said to cherish the moment. I told them to appreciate all the work, and it is a heck of an opportunity just to be here,” Tuomi said. “But we didn’t come here to be here. We came to win a state championship. To do that, we’d have to do all the little things we do in practice, things that won us games all season.”
P-W (23-3) was doing them to keep pace during the first half and up until taking a 34-32 lead three minutes into the third quarter. Despite trailing by 11 at the end of the first period, the Pirates drew even heading into the final minute of the first half before senior guard Rudy Smith hit a go-ahead basket to give Consortium the two-point lead at the break.
But after senior Evan Fedewa’s 3-pointer gave the Pirates that third-quarter advantage, Consortium outscored them 19-3 to take a 51-37 lead with 6:50 to play.
Consortium’s defense tightened and P-W’s shooting percentage fell – from 43 percent from the floor during the first half to 32 percent in the second. Meanwhile, the Cougars upped their offensive output, improving from 42 percent from the floor to 63 over the final two quarters. Senior guard Ronald Booth, in particular, scored 12 of his 14 points during the second half to finish as one of three Consortium players in double figures.
“We just dug down, got a little more focused,” Tuomi said. “Definitely, (P-W was) taking a lot tougher shots.”
Smith also finished with 14 points for Consortium. Jackson led with 22 points on 9 of 13 shooting – including hitting all three of his 3-point attempts, and also grabbed 13 rebounds.
“For the old guys like me, I saw Earvin Johnson play here at (Lansing) Everett, and I had season tickets when he was (at Michigan State). He’s a similar type of player to him,” P-W coach Luke Pohl said of Jackson. “Whether he’s going to become that kind of player is another story, but he’s really talented. He might be the most talented person our teams have played against. He can see the court real well, passes well … and he’s a really humble kid.”
Senior center Lane Simon scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds for P-W, and senior guard Nick Spitzley finished a four-year varsity career with 10 points and three assists.
They and nine seniors total brought the Pirates to their first championship game since 1993. Pohl – who graduated from P-W in 1976 and has coached over two tenures since 1995 – called this the best team in school history. It definitely highlighted the Pirates a little more prominently on the statewide basketball map.
“Obviously I wanted to achieve the state championship,” Simon said. “But it feels like we got a lot of respect back."
Consortium did make the Quarterfinals with Jackson last season, again falling by two to Beecher as the Buccaneers went on to repeat as champions. But that was impressive in itself – the Cougars continued on although coach Al Anderson died unexpectedly that February.
The run also set the stage for things to come.
“We wanted to sit and sob and cry about it, but at the end of the day we knew that what he wanted was for us to win a state championship more than anything,” Jackson said. “So we knew that was something that we had to do.”
Click for a full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Consortium’s Rudy Smith pushes down the floor as Pewamo-Westphalia’s Nick Spitzley gives chase during the Class C Final. (Middle) The Pirates’ Lane Simon goes strong to the basket for two of his game-high 23 points.
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Joshua Jackson follows a miss with a big dunk for Detroit Consortium in the fourth quarter of its Class C championship game against Pewamo-Westphalia. Jackson finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds in leading his team to the win. (2) Some nice passing by Pewamo-Westphalia sets up Evan Fedewa for a 3-pointer to give the Pirates a 34-32 lead in the third quarter against Detroit Consortium in the Class C title game.
Stump, Senior-Led Lineup Have Grand Haven Dreaming Big Again
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
February 9, 2022
Grand Haven senior forward Nic Stump was, well, stumped by the question.
“I know we play Rockford again coming up, but honestly, I don’t know exactly when it is – but I know it’s coming up soon,” said Stump, referring to Grand Haven’s highly-anticipated rematch with Rockford, which handed Haven its only loss of the season back on Jan. 18.
That answer was music to the ears of seventh-year Grand Haven coach Greg Immink, who knows his team still needs to get past Caledonia in order to make the Rockford rematch (which is Feb. 15 at Rockford, by the way) an opportunity to move to the top of the Ottawa-Kent Conference Red standings.
Grand Haven, which improved to 13-1 overall and 8-1 in the conference with Tuesday’s 63-42 home win over Holland West Ottawa, has the town buzzing – and the student section and pep band are having a blast just like in the glory days of Buccaneers basketball.
Haven’s rematch with Rockford is just one of the upcoming games those rabid fans are excited about – along with a chance to repeat as a Division 1 District champ next month.
The Bucs are certainly an experienced team, with four senior starters, led by the 6-foot-5 Stump, who scored a game-high 24 points in Friday’s 59-46 win over Hudsonville.
“We have been playing together for so long, and we still don’t know who is going to be the leading scorer every game,” explained Stump, an honorable mention Associated Press all-state selection last winter. “We just try to keep moving the ball and if someone gets hot, we’ll find him and go to him.”
Stump was that man Friday, posting up and scoring down low, finishing up on the break and displaying a rapidly-improving, mid-range jump shot.
While Stump doesn’t lead the Bucs in any one stat, he entered this week ranked second in five of the six major statistical categories – scoring (13.0), rebounding (5.4), shooting percentage (48.8 percent), steals (1.3) and blocked shots (1.1).
“In the last three or four games, Nic has raised his game to a higher level,” said Immink, who is assisted by Ron Peters and Lance Johnson. “I’m excited about that because when he’s playing well, it opens everything up for the rest of the team.”
Bashir Neely, an athletic 6-2 senior, uses his speed to break down defenses and is the leading scorer at 16.5 points per game. He is joined in the backcourt by 6-5 junior Harrison Sorrelle, the only non-senior starter, who averages 11.1 points and 2.6 assists. Sorrelle, like Stump, was an honorable mention all-state choice last year as a sophomore.
Joining Stump on the front line are 6-6 senior center Tucker Kooi, who averages 7.2 points and leads the team in rebounding (5.7) and blocked shots (1.7), and 6-4 senior forward Owen Worthington (7.3 points), who is an outstanding 3-point shooter and defender.
Stump said the fact that most of the team has been playing together since their elementary Bucs Youth Basketball days is a huge advantage – especially in close games. One player he has been playing with even longer than that is his younger brother Nate Stump, a 6-3 junior and one of the first players off the bench every game.
“I love having this chance to play with him,” said Nic Stump. “We are typical brothers and we fight and get on each other’s nerves and all of that, but it’s mostly just brotherly love. We help each other out all the time with shooting form and rebounding and things like that.”
Nate Stump averages 2.5 points in limited minutes but has given the team a huge boost with his rebounding, currently third on the team at 4.6 per game.
Grand Haven’s basketball tradition dates to the 1920s and legendary coach Gus Cohrs, who guided the Buccaneers to a staggering six MHSAA state championships over a nine-year period from 1927 to 1935.
That basketball passion was reignited by Al Schaffer, who guided Haven to 231 wins during his 18 years in the 1970s and 1980s. Craig Taylor then steered the Bucs to back-to-back Quarterfinal appearances in 1991 and 1992, but it would be another 18 years before they would make a run that deep again, in 2010 under Steve Hewitt.
Hewitt died tragically during the summer of 2014, and after Bob Eidson took the reins for one year, Immink has guided the Bucs the past seven.
For the first four years of Immink’s tenure, Haven’s postseasons ended at the hands of powerhouse Muskegon in the District Finals. In 2020, the two teams were again scheduled to play in a District Final, but the COVID pandemic wiped out the season the day before that game. Then last winter, Haven broke through and downed the Big Reds, 66-51, snapping Muskegon’s run of 16 straight District titles.
The two teams are on a collision course once again as Muskegon was undefeated before suffering its first loss Saturday against Ferndale.
Muskegon is known for its speed, athletic ability and lockdown defense, while Haven counters with its shooting, experience and length. Neely is the Bucs’ only starter under 6-4.
“Our guys believe in our system, and we’re excited for a lot of big games coming up,” said Immink. “The challenge for us is to play consistently at a high level and for them to go beyond what they think they can do.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Haven’t Nik Stump attempts a free throw during Tuesday’s win over Holland West Ottawa. (Middle) Stump and his teammates get a breather during a break in the 63-42 victory. (Photos by JWaltVisuals.)