South Christian rallies in the final minute to top Caledonia.

Having seen both South Christian and Caledonia a few times to this point of the season it was clear that we were in for a great game. The teams didn’t disappoint Tuesday night at South Christian High School as the Sailors overcame Caledonia’s stranglehold on the game to find a way to win. The Sailors have struggled of late and much of that has been due to illness of senior point guard Drew Stegehuis who has had Mononucleosis for the last few weeks.

Photo Provided by Dudley Campfiled of ADC Graphics. adcgraphics@charter.net

Stegehuis returned tonight and saw limited action but his presence was felt from mid second quarter on as the senior knocked down a pair of long jumpers and found easy buckets for teammates. The Fighting Scots led 34-28 at the half due much in part to senior Jonathan Meerman down low and junior Stephen Spencer outside as both had 10 points as we headed to the break. Stegehuis paced the Sailors with 7 at the half.

South Christian head coach Ken Hiskes preached to his team to cut the lead down in the 3^rd quarter and that plan looked bleak early on as senior forward Paul TenHarmsel opened the quarter with a pair of breakaway dunks for the Scots (his 2^nd and 3^rd dunks of the night). TenHarmsel found himself in foul trouble for much of the game however so it was up to the bench of Caledonia to protect the lead. South was only able to cut into the lead by one point headed to the final quarter.

In as exciting of a finish as we have seen all year, the Sailors would battle to within a bucket just to see the lead slip back away to a 5 to 6 point lead for Caledonia. We pick up the action with 1:26 left in the game. Senior center Anthony Cooley is fouled and heads to the line for the Scots with a 59-55 lead, he misses both. Cooley is fouled on the next possession at 1:05 with the same score and makes both this time. Those would be the last points tallied for Caledonia. South’s Mitch Huisman put in a pair of free throws followed by a quick forced turnover and a Dan Miedema lay-in to cut the lead to 61-59 with 38.4 remaining.

At the 30.5 mark senior forward Jake Rempe who earlier made what, appeared to be a dagger three-ball is fouled and heads to the line for 2 shots. He missed both and Christian grabbed the rebound on the second. Miedema found his way inside and flipped up a left handed shot while being held on the right arm and banked it in to tie the game with a trip to the line forthcoming. The senior knocked it down as the Sailors took their first lead since the first half. Spencer was unable to hit a runner in the lane for the Scots and South Christian won the scramble for the ball and was fouled with 6.2 left. Junior Jordan Mulder calmly flipped in both shots and gave his team a 64-61 lead. The final attempt by Caledonia wasn’t close and the Sailors slipped away with a big Ok Gold victory.

Huisman finished with 18 points for South while Miedema had 15 and Stegehuis chipped in with 11. Jonathan Meerman finished with 19, Spencer with 15 and TenHarmsel with 11. South Christian is now 9-4 overall and 6-3 in the Gold. Caledonia falls to 6-8 overall and 6-3 in the league.