March 9, 2011
The Godwin Heights district was one of the most anticipated brackets in West Michigan entering this week with Godwin, Grand Rapids Christian, South Christian and Kelloggsville all having won 14 or more games this year. There were loads of quality teams involved here and now after 3 days we have just two left headed to Friday’s Final. Kelloggsville was knocked out Monday by Godwin Heights as was Wyoming Rogers at the hands of South Christian.
GR Christian has rolled through most opponents all year having only suffered one loss to GR Union all year. A 19 point victory over SC in the first game of the year had to have the Eagles rather confident coming into tonight’s contest although the Sailors are playing very good ball right now as Drew Stegehuis has come back from a pair of ailments. South Christian came into tonight’s game however down, in my opinion, their second best player in Mitch Huisman what had his right arm in a sling.
Early on the two squads went back and forth until a designed alley-oop to freshman Drake Harris sparked the Eagles who began to pull away. A 14-2 1st quarter run by GRC gave us our 16-12 score after one. A sloppy second quarter which featured a load of whistles by the refs went scoreless until Jaylin Staten drilled a triple at the 4:00 minute mark for the Eagles. They would only pick up another bucket as SC was able to outscore GRC 7-5 in the quarter and cut into the lead as we went to half at 21-19.
After a quick run by the Eagles, Stegehuis and crew were able to cut the lead to 34-30 with 2:38 left in the 3rd. Stegehuis found senior Sean Broekhuizen with a nifty pass down low for an and-one and it appeared the Sailors maybe had some fight left in them. GR Christian closed the quarter on a 6-1 run following the and-one and led by nine however heading to the final frame.
A 13-2 run to start the quarter featuring back-to-back threes by Matt Grasmeyer and Harris blew the game open and Christian was on their way to a match-up with the winner of the nightcap. Harris had his best all around game I’ve seen out of him all year with 21 pts. and 4 rebs. Staten poured in 16 with 10 in the second half. Junior Jordan Daily had 8 second half points to go with his 4 rebounds. Drew Stegehuis was limited much of the first half as he only had 3 points at the break and only finished with 10. Fellow senior Dan Miedema also had 10 for the Sailors.
In the second game of the night Wyoming Park came into Godwin Heights off of a first round bye. The Vikings entered at 8-12 on the year while Godwin Heights was 17-3 and coming off of a 53-44 victory over Kelloggsville on Monday. Most people saw Godwin Heights and Grand Rapids Christian in the finals of this district before things got kicked off but few I’m sure saw it happening like this.
Godwin committed an early foul which gave Park a 1-0 lead and :52 seconds into the game coach Chad Conklin called what may go down in Godwin history as the best 30 second timeout ever. His team was out of sync and wasn’t sure what they were doing offensively. Whatever coach said worked. The Fighting Wolverines came out of that timeout and ripped off 19 straight points on Wyoming Park. The Defense was suffocating, and the fast breaks lead to many easy looks. Senior Shaquille O’Neal had 11 first quarter points as GH led 26-6 after 8:00 of play. WOW.
The onslaught continued as the bench players shuffled in with the starters in the 2nd quarter. Sophomore’s Braima Hai and Jamal Bland started for this team and had 4 and 7 first half points respectively with Hai showing off his rebounding skills as well with 5 first half boards despite his 5’8” frame. Godwin’s third sophomore to see rather significant time was Quantrell Hastings who bounced in a triple for good measure for the sophomore class. Combine the play of the young bucks with junior Kevin Badger who had 12 pts. and 6 rebs. at half and this Godwin team is built for the future.
The Wolverines kept the fight up until the horn at the half and led 49-14 after two. That was more than enough for me as I decided to call it a night. Clearly Godwin was able to close it out 78-54. A great game with GR Christian is now on tap for Friday and this is sure to be a epic battle that will truly crown a district champion. As much as I want to say Christian should win this game it’s hard to be confident after watching that 1st half display by Godwin Heights. This one is too close to call, just be sure to get out to the game if you’re in the area.
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