Horky's Scoring Helps Manchester Take Flight
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
January 31, 2019
MANCHESTER – The night before the highest scoring game of Tyler Horky’s life, one of his closest friends was involved in a car wreck.
“It was bad,” Horky said. “He was hit right on the driver’s side door. It was a pretty bad accident. It was life-threatening.”
When Manchester went on the road the next night to play at Vandercook Lake, the 6-foot-1 junior wrote “RH” on his wrist tape in honor of his friend, Michigan Center standout Roger Hayward, the teenager in the crash. Hayward reportedly required multiple surgeries in the days after the wreck.
“We played AAU basketball together,” Horky said. “I was really motivated that night. I thought about the accident a lot that night.”
Once he hit the basketball floor, though, there was little stopping Horky. Manchester fell behind, but Horky led a valiant comeback to push the game into overtime. Although Manchester lost, Horky finished with 47 points and showed he was going to be a force in the Cascades Conference this season.
“Believe it or not, it was a quiet 47,” said Manchester head coach Mike Ahrens. “He also contributed three assists, had six steals and only turned the ball over once. It was a unique, fast-paced game.”
Horky has showed the 47-point outburst wasn’t a mirage. Through 13 games, he’s averaging 26 points a game, and has had nights of 36, 31, 31, 27, 25, 25 and 24 points. Even coach Ahrens was a little surprised at how well Horky is scoring this season.
“I envisioned this kind of game could happen next season,” he said.
Horky has always had the talent. As a freshman, however, he broke his arm and missed the entire season. As a sophomore, coming off the injury, he lacked confidence but still averaged 12 points a game.
“I put in a lot of work in the offseason,” Horky said. “I worked a lot with the team, my travel team and my dad. It’s been a climb. This year it has really opened up for me.”
Horky’s scoring spree began with the season opener when he scored 25 against Clinton.
“Since then, I’ve been facing double and triple teams almost every game,” he said. “Some teams start denying me the ball as soon as I cross halfcourt. My teammates have taken a lot of the pressure off me, both by scoring inside and with ball-handling.
“Our coach does a great job of just letting us play, run the pick-and-roll with our bigs and coming off screens.”
Ahrens said while Horky is a great scorer, that’s not his only strength.
“He gives 110 percent effort in all of our drills,” Ahrens said. “He takes pride on defense and leads by example. He listens really well, which is an underrated skill.”
Ahrens, in his first year coaching at his alma mater, picks a defensive player of the game for all of the Dutchmen contests. Horky has earned that honor four times.
“I sincerely believe he is getting better and better at every practice and every game,” Ahrens said.
This past summer Horky, who plays travel basketball with the Ann Arbor Basketball Academy, attended camps at Grand Valley State University and Central Michigan University.
Horky said his AAU experience – particularly the speed of the game and frequent fast breaks and man-to-man defense – helped prepare him for the Cascades Conference this season.
The league is rugged with state-ranked Hanover-Horton (12-1), Michigan Center (11-2) and Vandercook Lake (10-4). Horky’s Dutchmen check in fourth at 7-6 overall with games against Michigan Center (Feb. 5) and Hanover-Horton (Feb. 8) coming up.
Horky is a three-sport athlete at Manchester and carries a 3.9 grade-point average as a member of the National Honor Society. He is the quarterback on the Dutchmen football team.
“Basketball is probably my favorite but when it’s football season, then it’s only football on my mind,” he said. “Football is special.”
Horky is the son of Corey and Abbie Horky. His father is in the Blissfield High School Athletic Hall of Fame and his mother was a high jumper at the University of Michigan following a multiple-sport career at Onsted High School. He has two younger brothers, ages 9 and 12.
He wants to play college basketball. “My ultimate goal is to try to play basketball at the highest level I can,” he said, noting U-M is his dream hoops destination.
Horky still has to finish out this season and has his senior season ahead of him to continue his scoring and filling out as an all-around basketball player. Ahrens, who has coached at various levels for nearly 40 years, said Horky has what it takes to get to the next level.
“He not only pushes himself, but will push teammates as well,” he said. “He truly understands there is more to the game than just scoring.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTO: Manchester junior Tyler Horky brings the ball upcourt. (Photo by Doug Donnelly.)
Beecher Earns Opportunity to 'Complete the Task' with Semifinal Win
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 23, 2023
EAST LANSING — Flint Beecher and Ecorse entered their Division 3 Semifinal on Thursday with at least one common thread of motivation.
Both lost in last year’s Semifinals, so both the Buccaneers and Raiders were looking to leave Breslin Center with some vindication.
Ultimately, Beecher was the team that did so, earning a 64-54 win over Ecorse and advancing to its seventh championship game since 2012.
Senior guard Robert Lee and senior forward Kevin Tiggs both scored 17 points to lead the way for Beecher (23-4).
“We’re not satisfied with this,” Beecher head coach Marquise Gray said. “This is just one part of completing the task.”
The difference in the game turned out to be that Beecher simply had more depth, which eventually wore down Ecorse.
Beecher featured an eight-player rotation, while Ecorse, with the exception of one substitution late in the third quarter, played its starters throughout until the game got away late.
“We figured we would wear them down,” Gray said. “Looking at their bench, we saw that they didn’t have a deep bench. But the focus, energy and effort was on us, and us executing defensively and offensively.”
A big reason why Ecorse was short-handed was because one of its best players, senior Kenneth Morrast, was out after suffering a broken wrist in a Regional Final.
Ecorse head coach Gerrod Abram said he believes his team would have won this weekend’s championship if his squad was at full strength, but also heaped praise on Beecher and its playmakers.
Abram said before Morrast’s injury, his squad didn’t play any zone all year. But after he was injured, Abram said his team had to adjust on the fly and start playing a zone defense that he didn’t want to employ, but had to in order to keep players out of foul trouble.
Senior Malik Olafioye scored 22 points, and sophomore point guard Darrien Reddick scored 14 to lead Ecorse (20-5).
“Extremely proud of the effort we put out,” Abram said. “We knew it was going to be a big task with the way they play. We gave everything that we had. We just ran out of gas at the end.”
Beecher took a 40-34 lead into the fourth quarter, but Ecorse scored the first five points of the fourth to cut Beecher’s lead to one with 6:10 remaining in the game.
The Buccaneers answered, going on a 9-0 run to grab a 49-39 lead with 4:30 left.
Ecorse closed to within seven at 51-44 with 3:37 remaining following a 3-pointer by Reddick, but Beecher responded with four straight points to take a 55-44 lead with 2:42 remaining.
Beecher ultimately punctuated the win on a flying dunk by Lee with 1:09 remaining. Lee was also fouled on the dunk, and he made the free throw for a three-point play to give Beecher a 60-48 lead.
“What I really focused on was just trying to get my teammates involved,” Lee said. “Not try to force shots. Just let the game come to me.”
Now, Beecher will turn its focus to reclaiming its status as the best in the state.
“That’s something we have talked about, remembering the feeling that we had last year when we didn’t complete the job,” Gray said. “Guys have been taking it to heart. It’s not a rite. You have to earn your way here. It’s not a given.”
PHOTOS (Top) Flint Beecher’s Robert Lee Jr. (22) sends a pass into the post during Thursday’s Semifinal win over Ecorse. (Middle) The Bucs’ Kevin Tiggs Jr. (1) pulls in a rebound while Ecorse’s Deontae Jude (11) also grabs for the ball.