January 13, 2012
On Friday night the Rangers of Forest Hills Central traveled to Holland High to take on the Dutch at “The Dome” in a match-up between the two top teams in the OK Black. The Rangers were sitting atop the conference with a 4-3 record heading into the game, while the 3-4 Dutch were trying to get their once promising season back on the right track.
Dante Hawkins got the start for the Dutch and played a phenomenal game.
Holland had to figure out how to deal with key players being out of their line-up as one their star guards, Corey Willis, was in the midst of serving his second game of a seven game suspension for “disciplinary reasons”. A task that FHC was familiar with, already having to have dealt with their top scorer, Marques Mondy, being removed from the team earlier in the season. With the loss of Willis, 5’2” sophomore Dante Hawkins was given the nod as starter and he took full advantage of his opportunity. Hawkins played a very solid overall game, handling the ball well, feeding the low-post, and hitting a couple crucial shots down the stretch. Even with Hawkins impressive showing, the star of the Dutch backcourt, and the star of the night for that matter, was senior Trent Windemuller. Windemuller lead all scorers with 20 points, and grabbed 5 boards to go along with three assists. He was an outstanding floor-general and ran the offense for Holland all night, showing leadership and guts playing all but 18.5 seconds of the game.
The night started somewhat slow for both squads, as each team struggled to get into their offenses and gave the ball over too much in the first half. Holland came out of the gates with a ton of intensity, especially on the defensive side of things, leading to several long and frustrating possessions for FHC. The Rangers did however receive some nice shooting from both Austin Sharkey (8 pts) and Adam Dykema (16 pts), and they were able to take a 24-21 lead into half-time. Going into the break both teams needed to find a way to get more production from their go-to big men. For Holland this was Coreontae DeBerry, and for Forrest Hills Central this was Jonah Lakatos. One team was able to get what they needed in the second half, the other was not.
To start the third Holland went to zone D, alternating between both a 3-2 and a 2-3. The Rangers were able to handle these zones well by continuing to knock down open jumpers, provided by the likes of Dykema, Michael MCullough who finished the night with 8 points, and John Dwyer who chipped in with 9 of his own. The Rangers were up 32-28 and seemed to be on the brink of pulling away. Momentum however shifted with 2 mins. to go in the 3rd when Coreontae DeBerry threw down a nasty one handed jam, then came away with a steal on the next possession and pushed the ball up to Windemuller who was then fouled (and knocked down both free throws). Although DeBerry did start off slow on offense, he was a dominant presence in the paint all game, ripping down boards and clogging up the lane drive after drive. The kid has almost endless potential and it’s easy to see why he will be playing college ball at the University of Detroit Mercy next year. DeBerry ended the night with 14 pts, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal. Sharkey responded back for FHC with a buzzer beating three ball at the end of the quarter to give the Rangers a 38-35 lead heading into the final quarter.
The game was locked up at 42 all with 5 minutes remaining, giving every indication that it would go down to the very closing moments. A few possessions later Hawkins was able to hit a clutch three to put Holland up 45-44 with under 4 mins. to go. Then after a bucket by the Rangers, DeBerry threw down a monster two handed slam and was fouled along the way, putting Holland back up by 4 points. This play, along with some big time free throws from DeBerry, Hawkins, and Windemuller, put the Dutch over the top and sealed out an impressive 57-48 win over the Rangers.
Holland now sits comfortably atop the OK Black with a 3-0 conference record (4-4 overall), and Forest Hills Central, now 2-1 in conference play (4-4 overall), falls into a tie for second in the race with G.R. Kenowa Hills.
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