Hudsonville outlasts Christian, will face Tri-Unity.

The Hudsonville Eagles put together a magical run last year in the State Playoffs and had high hopes for this season. After an opening night loss they were left looking for answers. Tonight they found them with a 69-60 victory over what has been billed as one of the best teams in West Michigan the Grand Rapids Christian Eagles. Cornerstone University set the stage for the nightcap of their Holiday Tournament and the gym was packed with fans from all over the area. Hudsonville found a glaring Christian weakness early and took full advantage of it, Christian had no answer for BJ Van Loo the Eagle big man and he ripped them early for 10 first quarter points. The lead swelled to 14 at the half and appeared to be safe until midway through the 4th. The Christian full court press gave Hudsonville fits and allowed the lead to shrink to 5 with just minutes to play. It never got closer than five however and finished with a 9 point Hudsonville victory.

Quick Hitters

Grand Rapids Christian

• Drake Harris shined and was the start of the show all night, the Eagle sophomore finished with 26 and hit a load of big jumpers to bring his squad back into the game. Harris supplied the highlight of the night with a thunderous dunk over Blake Hibbitts as the lane opened and he drove hard for the one handed stuff.

Harris drove the lane and slammed this one down to a HUGE ovation!

• All night long Christian struggled with the length of Hudsonville and the big men gave Christian fits all night. GRC’s big men have the length to hang with most teams but the size is lacking when you face a powerful team like Hudsonville and the likes of BJ Van Loo and Hunter Prince.

Hudsonville

• Credit Coach Eric Elliott and his staff for coming up with a great game-plan for this game and running it to perfection for the majority of the night. Knowing that Van Loo would give GRC fits was the key to this game and the skilled big man made his coach look brilliant. Van Loo finished with 22 points and was the only Eagle to make free-throws down the stretch to prevent a Christian comeback.

Van Loo dominated early and came up big late.

• Blake Hibbitts ran into some foul trouble early in the 4th and also failed to hit a single 3 pointer in the game (something quite rare, he did still finish with 13 points) and the Eagles still found a way to win. This is a great sign for Hudsonville, the fact that they can win with their best player having an off night against very stiff competition is a great indication of this teams potential.