Highlight Reel: Class C Semifinals

March 26, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director 

Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian and Flint Beecher advanced to the MHSAA Class C Boys Basketball Final with Semifinal wins Thursday at the Breslin Center. 

Click below for highlights from all four teams that took the court.

Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian 48, Boyne City 45

Huckaby Leads NorthPointe - Preston Huckaby of Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian led all scorers in a Class C Semifinal against Boyne City with 26 points - two of them on this layup off a steal. 

Ramblers Roar Back - Boyne City went on a 10-0 fourth-quarter run and pulled to within a point on a layup by Tanner Kruzel. 

Watch the entire game and order DVDs by Clicking Here.

Flint Beecher 71, Hanover-Horton 43 

Beecher Buc Bomber - Samuel Toins hit 6 of 8 from 3-point land for Flint Beecher in the Class C Semifinal against Hanover-Horton. Here's one his treys from the first quarter.

Double-Double For Laketa - Preston Laketa led Hanover-Horton with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Here he scores on a putback. 

Watch the entire game and order DVDs by Clicking Here.

PHOTO: Hanover-Horton’s Bryce Walker (12) works to get past Beecher defenders Samuel Toins (20) and Jordan Roland.

#TBT: Coldwater Names Gym for Eby

February 19, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director

Friday night, Coldwater High School will once again honor its 1949 Class B boys basketball champions and their coach, Floyd Eby, as it dedicates its gymnasium during a girls-boys doubleheader against Battle Creek Harper Creek.

It was Eby and his Cardinals squad that introduced what was called “racehorse basketball” to the high school ranks in that championship season, forever changing the way the game was played, and launching one of the most storied coaches and teams – Lofton Greene’s River Rouge Panthers – to its place in basketball lore in Michigan.

Coldwater won that game at Jenison Field House in East Lansing, 49-42, and Greene told Eby, who also directed Williamston to a Class C crown in 1941, that his teams would play that style of basketball from that day forward.

That was the first time Eby and Greene crossed paths on the basketball court, and when that 1949 Coldwater team was honored in 1999 at the MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals, the two got a chance to meet again. Greene was watching his old school in the Finals that day, and Coldwater had just been eliminated in the Semifinals the night before.

You can watch a feature FOX Sports Detroit produced on the 1949 Cardinals below, and to read more about that season, click here.