D4 Eagles Regain Championship Stride
March 16, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Southfield Christian began this winter minus two starters who left the program for other schools and with just two wins in its first seven games.
In early January, the Eagles faced a decision to guide the rest of their season.
“Our conversation repeatedly after a couple of those games was we’ve gotta choose if we’re either going to be great, of if you’re going to be OK and we’re going to be OK with being .500 and just being average,” Southfield Christian coach Josh Baker recalled Saturday. “Beat some teams, and lose to some better teams and call it a season.
“What are we going to do here? So as a team, we just collectively decided we were going to put in more work, and we were going to put in more time and … we’re just going to give extra effort. That’s the only thing we know how to do.”
Once again, Southfield Christian figured out the rest. The Eagles finished 19-1 after that opening stretch and finished Saturday as a repeat MHSAA champion with a 63-39 win over Frankfort in the Division 4 championship game at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
The title was Southfield Christian’s fifth this decade. In addition to last season’s, the Eagles also won Class D in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The team’s only loss since Jan. 5 came to River Rouge, an eventual Division 2 finalist.
“This is very sweet. I’m not going to lie to you,” Eagles junior guard Da’Jion Humphrey said. “We worked hard – me, Jon (Sanders), everyone on the team, we put in countless hours. And as you can see, it pays off. Southfield Christian basketball is still here, and we’re still thriving.”
Humphrey and Sanders, a senior guard, were returning starters from last season’s team. They took on bigger roles as Harlond Beverly – the leading scorer in last year’s Class D Final – left for a prep school, and Caleb Hunter transferred to Detroit U-D Jesuit.
On Saturday, Humphrey led with 20 points, five assists and five rebounds, and Sanders had 19 points. Junior guard Noah Rheker added 10 points.
The Eagles jumped out to a 13-2 lead over the first 3½ minutes, and pushed the advantage to 24-12 by the end of the first quarter despite Frankfort making 63 percent of its shots from the floor during the period. The Panthers’ problem was they struggled to get many off, with eight of their 16 turnovers also coming over the first eight minutes.
Rheker scored Southfield Christian’s final basket of the first quarter and five more points during the first six minutes of the second as the Eagles extended their lead to 21.
“I was really trying to bring a spark, because I knew our biggest emphasis was to try to pressure the ball and really get after it,” Rheker said. “So I just really tried to set the tone and let these guys pick it up after me.”
Senior guard Will Newbold led Frankfort with 17 points and seven rebounds. With the game decided in the fourth quarter, the coaches emptied their benches. Panthers’ freshman Blake Miller quickly became a fan favorite during his hustle-filled four minutes – he ended up the team’s second-leading scorer with seven points to go with a pair of steals.
“The moment can kinda get you, but I thought our guys did a good job,” Frankfort first-year head coach Dan Loney said. “They didn’t back down. They played to the end. And as a coach, you couldn’t be happier.
“Look at the crowd out there. You see the kind of community we come from. We’re down 30 and they’re cheering like we’re up. As a coach, I really can’t explain the feeling when you see that. … The future is going to be bright in Frankfort, and we plan on being back here.”
Loney’s team finished 21-6, and the trip to the championship game was made more impressive by the fact the Panthers had graduated all of their starters and a top sub from last season’s 20-3 run.
“The fans and the crowd, it was so much different than back home,” Frankfort senior forward Jack Reznich said. “To be able to see all our fans, come out and see the (U-D) Jesuit school, all of them cheering for us. Just having everybody here, see all the lights and noise, it was a crazy feeling. It was life-changing.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Southfield Christian’s Jon Sanders (10) gets a shot up over Frankfort’s Conner Smith during Saturday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) Will Newbold works to drive past the Eagles’ Rahmon Scruggs.
Jergens, Howardsville Driven to Go Far
December 4, 2018
By Wes Morgan
Special for Second Half
Its entire student body can fit in a single bus with room to spare.
Yet Marcellus Howardsville Christian is now regarded as a boys basketball giant with senior scoring point guard Dylan Jergens fueling a historic run.
Last year the Eagles fought all the way to the Class D Quarterfinals, and with most of that roster still intact, they expect nothing less than earning a final-four spot at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center come March.
Finishing with a 20-6 record last winter, Howardsville Christian made history when it defeated Bellevue 58-46 for a Regional championship. Faced with a considerable size mismatch in the Quarterfinals versus Hillsdale Academy — a 66-38 defeat — the last chapter of the 2017-18 season was a letdown after a remarkable story otherwise.
Jergens and Co. are determined to prove last year’s success wasn’t just a flash in the pan.
“I’m excited for this season and the opportunities we have ahead of us,” he said. “Towards the end of the season we kind of had it going. It was an amazing feeling. Winning Districts and then winning Regionals for the first time in history was amazing. We were disappointed because we didn’t complete our goal of making it to Breslin, but we had a lot of fun.
“We came out a little overconfident (against Hillsdale Academy), thinking we were only one game away. We thought, ‘We’ve made it this far; we don’t think we can lose.’ We should have prepared more for their big guy; he really killed us on the boards and got layups. Looking back, we could have had a better game plan of how to guard him. But they were a good team, so give them credit.”
A junior-heavy class last winter soaked in everything it could in order to apply that experience to 2018-19.
“We’re definitely going to be ready for it and anything that is thrown at us,” Jergens said. “It’s going to be difficult. Last week we opened up against Mendon and really struggled. We know every team wants a piece of us after that run. They want to be able to come at us. It’s going to be more challenging because everyone wants to knock us off.”
As a junior, the 6-foot-4 Jergens averaged 32.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 3.2 steals per contest. He shot 58 percent from the field and 41 percent from 3-point land. At the free throw line, he knocked down 76 percent of his shots.
Though he certainly has been the catalyst of the Eagles’ success the last two years and a key player since joining the varsity squad as a freshman, the two-time Associated Press and Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan all-state first team selection is surrounded by an unselfish cast of players he’s shared the court with most of his life.
Fellow seniors Logan Cornwell (forward), David Cripps (guard), Colton Fair (small forward) and Reece Herschbach (center) all return, and exciting sophomores Jason Jergens (shooting guard) and Josh Parks (guard) bring long-range marksmanship to the table after seeing meaningful minutes as freshmen. Junior forwards Zach Grandlinard and Joe Nagel, and sophomore forward Ethan Johnson and sophomore guard Michael Cripps fill out a capable bench.
“The biggest strengths of our team this year are we have experience, and we have talent,” Howardsville Christian coach Tim Jergens said. “We return five starters from last year, and they have played together since elementary school. The team as a whole has great basketball I.Q., and we have players that have put the time in to be really good.”
None more than Dylan Jergens, whose effort over the years resulted in a scholarship offer from Central Michigan University, where he remains verbally committed. It’s a reminder that college programs will find talent no matter where it resides, even if it is at a school of only 32 students.
“Ever since I was little I wanted to play Division I basketball, not knowing if it would happen or not,” he said. “I just fell in love with the game and worked at it my whole life, every day. Last summer I felt like I was getting a lot better and thought good things were coming and could play at the next level.”
Though he’s certainly aware of the areas of his game he’d like to improve this year in order to have a better chance of seeing the floor sooner in Mount Pleasant next season, he’s not letting his future plans become a distraction.
“I don’t feel special,” Jergens said. “Everybody means something at our school, and everybody looks out for one another. It’s a super small classroom, and I’ve grown close to everyone in my class. None of it would be possible without my teammates and coaches and the school rallying around me. We’re hoping we can just do what we know we can do.”
Wes Morgan has reported for the Kalamazoo Gazette, ESPN and ESPNChicago.com, 247Sports and Blue & Gold Illustrated over the last 12 years and is the publisher of JoeInsider.com. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Howardsville Christian’s Dylan Jergens lines up a free throw during last season’s Quarterfinal against Hillsdale Academy. (Middle) Jergens and his teammates hold up a piece of the hardware they won during last season’s historic run. (Photos courtesy of JoeInsider.com.)