Class D: Follow the Blue and Yellow Road
March 22, 2012
EAST LANSING – The blue and yellow brick road was paved with character and hard work.
So read T-shirts worn by Climax-Scotts basketball players making their first appearance at the MHSAA Semifinals on Thursday.
How excited is the school much better known for its nine straight football playoff appearances? The rest of those shirts sold out to the student body in less than a day.
And that yellow haze swallowed up the Panthers as they celebrated a 52-44 win over Carney-Nadeau that earned Climax-Scotts its first berth in an MHSAA hoops championship game.
“It means the world to do something nobody in the history of our school has done before. The feeling’s pretty much indescribable,” Climax-Scotts senior guard Brandon Eshuis said. “Our student body probably wanted this just as bad as we did. … We had a huge crowd and a huge support group, and it really helped us.”
The No. 5 Panthers (26-1) will face No. 7 Southfield Christian in the Final at 10 a.m. Saturday.
They advanced by taking advantage of a few big ones.
Carney-Nadeau’s tallest player was just 6-foot-1, good news for Climax-Scotts’ 6-7 junior Aaron Cook (12 points, 14 rebounds) and 6-7 all-state senior Malachi Satterlee (12 points, nine rebounds). Total, the Panthers outscored Carney-Nadeau 28-6 in the paint.
The Wolves also have relied almost solely on five players for the last two weeks and never subbed in the Semifinal. Climax-Scotts looked a little worn at the end Thursday night – but went on a 9-3 run over two minutes to turn a three-point lead into a 49-40 advantage with 1:08 to play.
What Carney-Nadeau (23-3) does best is shoot from outside, and "3-pointer" became the buzzward among the Panthers over the two days leading up to the game. Climax-Scotts’ second stringers were given green lights to shoot from NBA 3-point range at practice Wednesday in an attempt to imitate what the team would see.
“We had anticipated shooters, and they were just amazing when we got here,” Panthers coach Steve Critchlow said.
Wolves junior Wade Schetter scored 15 points, with three 3-pointers, while senior Keenan Lampinen added 12 points and senior Lucas Moreau scored 13. All three took at least 15 shots from the floor. But as a whole, the team made only 29 percent.
“This has been a long two weeks for us, with tough games night in and night out,” Carney-Nadeau coach Jason Polfus said. “Maybe the kids were worn out a little bit. But they stuck it out today. They kept fighting today, and I can’t say enough about that.”
Click for box score or to watch the game and press conferences at MHSAA.tv.
PHOTO: Climax-Scott's Aaron Cook attempts to block a shot by Carney-Nadeau's Lucas Moreau on Thursday. Cook blocked two shots in the game. (Photo courtesy of Terry McNamara Photography.)
Pirates sail into first Final since 1993
March 20, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Nick Spitzley, no doubt like the other eight seniors on Pewamo-Westphalia’s basketball team, dreamed growing up of playing for an MHSAA championship.
He needed to use his imagination, since the first and only time the Pirates did play for a Class C title was in 1993, a few years before he was born.
“Obviously we always came out on top,” Spitzley recalled. “Making a lot of shots, and I was always getting pumped up with my team.
“Since I was little, it’s always been a dream, and it’s come true. We’ve been playing together since fifth grade, maybe before that.”
P-W’s seniors are halfway through the final weekend of their high school careers and more than halfway to making that dream come true.
The No. 10-ranked Pirates advanced to Saturday’s Class C final by defeating No. 9 Muskegon Heights 54-44 in the first Semifinal on Thursday at the Breslin Center. P-W’s nine seniors will get to play in the final game of the season for the first time in school history, at 4:30 p.m. against No. 2 Detroit Consortium.
Pewamo-Westphalia will become the second straight team from the Central Michigan Athletic Conference to play for the Class C title, and third in eight seasons. Laingsburg fell in last year’s Final by a point, 40-39, to Flint Beecher. Bath won the Class C title in 2007.
Also from the CMAC, Fulton was Class D runner-up in 2011 and Fowler finished the same in 2002.
The Pirates had to come back over the final minute to beat Beecher in Tuesday’s Quarterfinal, and made it two-for-two against some of the state’s most storied programs by then eliminating Heights, which played in its 22nd Semifinal and fourth over the last five seasons.
P-W has won 81 percent of its games under coach Luke Pohl during two tenures over a combined 17 seasons. But the Pirates haven't had the chance to add the championship game chapter to their story in more than two decades.
“Knowing we had to beat a team like Flint Beecher and Muskegon Heights, with the history behind those schools, in unbelievable,” Pohl said. “If you follow our league, you’ve seen how many times the league has been here the last 10 years. It’s rock ‘em, sock ‘em basketball in the wintertime, and we’ve got great coaches there – those kind of guys sharpen my skills as a coach. But you’ve gotta have players to win, and we’ve got really good players.”
Spitzley is a four-year starter, one of the top scorers in school history, and did his part Thursday with 22 points and eight rebounds.
But the Semifinal win was truly a full senior effort, as all six players who saw time were 12th graders and a pair added big plays to Spitzley’s game-high scoring surge.
The first came 1 minute, 14 seconds into the second half with the Pirates trailing by a point. Guard Evan Fedewa scored and was fouled on his way to the hoop, and hit the ensuing free throw to give the Pirates a 29-27 lead. They would never trail again.
But Muskegon Heights came close to taking back the lead. The Tigers (20-4) pulled within four with 4:20 to play when P-W center Lane Simon was fouled on a score and also made the following free throw to push the lead back to 46-39 and seemingly drain the last bit of momentum from Heights’ comeback run.
Simon added 17 points, 10 rebounds, and both Fedewa and Kyle Nurenberg grabbed nine rebounds for the Pirates.
Junior Antonio Jones led Muskegon Heights with 16 pints, and senior Eddrick Tornes added 12. Jones made what could be one of the shots of the tournament, a spinning pull-up jumper thrown up without a look at the basket. But overall, his team shot just 24 percent from the floor including 14 percent as P-W pulled away during the second half.
Still, the return run was an accomplishment coach Dalrecus Stewart made sure to note. The Tigers have been here plenty of times, but this one was a little different – the school closed after spring 2012 and re-opened that fall as a public school academy.
“I know (my players) are feeling hurt, but this was a little bit more than a basketball game for us with all of the things that have gone on in our city as well as our school district the last few years,” Stewart said. “The championship they won today was about bringing hope to despair. They are a shining bright spot and what they’ve done is beyond measure. They’re my champions.”
Click for a full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) P-W’s Lane Simon (1) goes to the rim during Thursday’s Semifinal win over Muskegon Heights. (Middle) P-W's Nick Spitzley works to get past Muskegon Height's Eddrick Tornes.
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Muskegon Heights’ Aaron Sydnor (3) wins the tip-up battle to score late in the first half against Pewamo-Westphalia. (2) Pewamo-Westphalia opened the second half with a 17-3 run. Lane Simon drives for two during that spurt.