EAST LANSING — Fowler began the season Dec. 3 with an opening-night road win over reigning Division 4 champion Wyoming Tri-unity Christian.

On Saturday, the Eagles will end the season with a chance to officially dethrone the Defenders as champions. 

Fowler did its part to set up the rematch during the second Division 4 Semifinal on Thursday, earning a 59-43 win over Allen Park Inter-City Baptist. 

“We’re both completely different teams since that time, but I think we both know what we are going to get from each other,” Fowler head coach Kam Riley said of Tri-unity. “We knew there was a chance we could see them at the end of the year. We’re excited for the opportunity.”

The Eagles advanced to their first championship game since 2002 on the strength of 3-point shooting and rebounding. 

Fowler didn’t shoot great from the field overall, connecting on 21 of 58 attempts. But nearly half of those made field goals were 3-pointers.

Fowler made 8 of its first 17 shots from 3-point range to build a 19-point lead during the second quarter and finished 10 of 27 from beyond the arc for the game, as seemingly everyone associated with Fowler was making them from deep – even a Fowler student dressed in an eagle costume hit a half-court shot during a contest before the fourth quarter started. 

Seniors Asher Koenigsknecht and Aaron Simon both scored 15 points, and senior Jacob Halfmann had 14 for Fowler (25-3).

The Eagles also controlled the boards, holding a 44-32 rebounding advantage with 15 offensive rebounds. 

Senior Alex Halfmann and junior Joe Epkey both had 10 rebounds for Fowler. 

“We anticipated it could be hard to shoot in a gym like this,” Riley said. “We don’t play here a lot. We knew we had a size advantage. Just an incredible effort by our guys crashing the glass. 

Fowler held a 36-17 lead with 3:08 remaining in the first half and extended the margin to 38-22 by halftime, never letting Inter-City Baptist pull closer than 14 points the rest of the game. 

Fowler committed only one turnover in the first half and seven for the game against an Inter-City Baptist team that had an experience advantage given it played in the Semifinals at Breslin Center last year.

“We just told each other that it was another game,” Koenigsknecht said. “Don’t make the court put any more pressure on you. Just do your thing like we have all season.”

Inter-City Baptist (24-5) was led by junior Ethan Esse, who scored a game-high 25 points. The silver lining for the Chargers is that they should be well-equipped for another run next year with just one senior on the roster.

But that didn’t make a second-straight Semifinal loss hurt any less. 

“We were a team that was averaging 23 assists to nine turnovers a game,” said Inter-City Baptist head coach Mark Kraatz, whose team had nine assists Thursday. “It just wasn’t the way we’ve been playing. We didn’t share it. We didn’t get the assists that I thought. Rebounding, assists and then they shot it well. They played well.”

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PHOTOS (Top) Fowler's Asher Koenigsknecht (3) gets up a 3-point shot as Inter-City Baptist's Ethan Esse (22) attempts to get a hand on the ball Thursday. (Middle) Inter-City Baptist's Carlos Jackson (11) considers his options with Fowler's Joe Epkey defending.