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| Hart's James Freeman has the Pirates soaring into district play with two straight wins. (Photo by Andrew Skinner) |
The girls' district preview lost relevance quickly. Out of the eight teams I cover, seven lost their first game, with only Shelby still alive.
Again, in alphabetical order, team records in parentheses:
Hart (4-16)
Season recap: In what can only be described as a happy accident, Hart will enter the state tournament as the second-hottest team among our area schools, because the Pirates have won two games in a row. Hart defeated Mason Co. Eastern and Hesperia this week. Never mind the fact that the Pirates have lost 43 conference games in a row: They're red-hot! In truth, Hart isn't that bad a team — they're just very small and are lacking in top-end talent. Brandon Amstutz is the Pirates' most explosive scorer, while James Freeman is the most reliable. Travis Hall has stepped up of late as well.
District draw: Hart drew a bye. That's the good news. The bad news is they'll be facing #5-ranked Shelby in their district semifinal game.
Prediction: Shelby wallops Hart in the semis.
Hesperia (4-14)
Season recap: Hesperia's had an interesting year. For much too long, they'd played only three games, and due to the 18-game CSAA slate they faced, it wasn't until yesterday that they played a non-conference game (Hart). Still, the Panthers have been playing some great basketball. Last week, they took Reed City, the CSAA's best team, into overtime before losing, and also played tough with Big Rapids. However, it hasn't clicked into consistent success for the Panthers yet. The future looks pretty bright, though, as Traxton Gordon and Nathan McKeown, two of the team's best four players, are only sophomores.
District draw: Hesperia faces #5 Shelby in pre-district play. Panthers' coach Randy Gordon joked to me this week that he should petition for a move into a different team's district, as this is the second time in his three years that he's drawn Shelby in round one.
Prediction: Pain. (Ok, I had to say that.) Hesperia loses to Shelby.
Montague (9-10)
Season recap: Montague started the year with just two players who'd ever played a varsity minute — Luke VanBoxel and Chayce Lohman, both seniors. Although VanBoxel is one of the state's top scorers, most recently dropping 35 points on Whitehall Thursday night, it's still markedly impressive given that paucity of experience that the Wildcats managed to go .500 in a tough West Michigan Conference. Thursday showed what the team is capable of, as the 'Cats topped Whitehall, who was only playing for a share of the league title. Sophomore Jacob Buchberger has emerged as a legitimate second scoring threat, not to mention as the 1950s edition of the All-American boy (QB of the football team, point guard of the hoops team and second baseman on the baseball team). Ben Rupert, unfortunately, hurt his shoulder the weekend after his best career game and is out for the season.
District draw: Montague got a relatively cushy draw, facing Holton in round one and then White Cloud in the semifinals. Neither team is good, so the 'Cats should be in line for a battle with Shelby in the finals, gunning for revenge for the Tigers' upset of them in last year's semifinals.
Prediction: Montague and Shelby should play a pretty good game, but the Tigers have too much firepower.
Pentwater (13-7)
Season recap: For a team replacing a 1,000-1,000 guy in Erik Wallstrom, Pentwater's done pretty well this year. The Falcons have 10 conference wins behind the Wagner brothers, Alex and Sam, as well as Chance Helms, each of whom average at least 11 points per game. They have a strong team that won't be an easy out for anybody. Their biggest flaw is probably size, an understandable issue for a team that had Wallstrom gobbling up every basketball in sight a year ago. However, they can shoot the lights out at times, particularly Alex Wagner.
District draw: Pentwater is on the opposite side of Baldwin in this bracket, which is probably the most important thing. They face MCE first, then Brethren with a win.
Prediction: Falcons beat MCE, but Brethren's hosting the district, and home-court advantage will carry them past Pentwater.
Reeths-Puffer (3-15)
Season recap: This is exhibit A of why Montague's season has been so impressive. R-P entered the year with ONE player who'd ever played a relevant varsity minute, DeAndre Oaks-Owens. And it has shown. The Rockets have been out of most of their games by halftime. However, they've picked it up recently, even beating Zeeland East to avoid a winless O-K Black season Saturday.
District draw: The problem is, the Rockets are facing unbeaten, top-ranked Muskegon in their first district game.
Prediction: RP bounced by Muskegon.
Shelby (18-2)
Season recap: You really have to hand it to Shelby. Last year, they replaced their entire starting lineup from a state-semifinal team and still came within a buzzer-beating tip-in basket of winning a regional title and playing in the quarterfinals. This year, they didn't have to replace as much, but still quite a bit, and the Tigers rolled to a WMC title and until Thursday hadn't lost a game with a full roster (Jason Beckman's absence contributed to Shelby's loss to Whitehall). They enter postseason play ranked fifth and, with no ranked teams in front of them for a while in the bracket, poised to make a deep run. They have great shooters in Beckman, Devin Mussell, Caleb Anderson and Spencer Landis and they have inside power in Andrew Beckman (Jason's cousin) and Jeff Beckman (Andrew's brother). Coach Rick Zoulek loves running out a deep bench, and it's paid off this year.
District draw: The Tigers have a dream draw. There isn't so much as another team with a .500 record in their district (Montague is closest), and there's no other ranked team in their way in the regionals (Pewamo-Westphalia, who would be a regional-final opponent, is closest, having gotten a pair of votes in the most recent AP poll). There's not even a ranked team awaiting them in the quarterfinals, although a few teams receiving votes are there.
Prediction: Shelby just lost to Mason Co. Central, which is probably the best thing that could've happened to them. That final bit of edge will get Shelby to the semifinals. There, we'll call a Tigers' loss, probably to third-ranked Boyne City, who would meet them in the semis. But I wouldn't be at all shocked if the Tigers manage to squeeze their way to the title game.
Walkerville (0-18)
Season recap: We're at 103 losses and counting for Walkerville in a row. A recent Deadspin.com post linked to an article claiming that 88 is the national record for a high-school basketball losing streak. If that's true, then the record resides in West Michigan. Sam Sweet, despite this, will surpass 1,000 career points, most likely Saturday against Bear Lake.
District draw: Walkerville won't even have the luxury of a potential upset victim in the district tournament, because after a bye, they'll get Baldwin, who's 14-0 in West Michigan D League play.
Prediction: Loss #105 against Baldwin.
Whitehall (14-4)
Season recap: Whitehall lost one of the program's best ever in Isaac Love, but not a lot else from last year, so the Vikings have been able to ride captains Matt Rohen and Matt Russell to a really nice season and a second-place finish in the WMC. Besides Rohen and Russell, Dylan Medendorp and Noah Trombley have been key cogs. Keenan Aylor is done for the year with an ankle injury, but the Vikings boast a nice array of size on the interior.
District draw: Whitehall draws Spring Lake in exhibit A for the pro-'tournament seeding' argument. The two teams were two of the hottest in the state before losing their finales Thursday, with only one loss each in the year 2014 (Whitehall to Class C #5 Shelby and Spring Lake to Class B #1 Godwin Heights). Their pre-district game is probably a de facto championship for the district. The winner probably gets #10 Comstock Park in regional play.
Prediction: I'd like to predict Whitehall will win the district, but I'll take Spring Lake to repeat last year's district title game win over Whitehall.
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