Lenawee Christian Earns Saturday Return
March 20, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – From 1998-2001, Adrian Lenawee Christian’s boys basketball team made four MHSAA Quarterfinals and advanced to three Semifinals.
Senior guard Brad Harrah remembers and is reminded every day.
“Every time I come out to practice, I see those banners and they remind me of the last time we were here,” he said. “It just drives our team.”
It helped drive the Cougars on Thursday into an MHSAA Final for the first time.
Lenawee Christian survived a third-quarter comeback by sharp-shooting Cedarville to advance to its first boys basketball championship game with a 67-58 victory in the final Class D Semifinal at the Breslin Center.
“It just means everything to us. As one of our players said, it’s our only option. We don’t have any other option but to come out and win this game and come out and win Saturday,” Harrah said. “Just to get back to where the program was, and take it a step farther, is just incredible.”
The Cougars (21-4) will face two-time defending champion Southfield Christian at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Total, Lenawee Christian has made the season’s final week eight times over the last 17 years. Its last three Quarterfinal runs were stopped by Class D powerhouse Wyoming Tri-unity Christian – but this week the Cougars were able to break through with an overtime win Tuesday over Battle Creek St. Philip.
Lenawee Christian took a one-point lead Thursday on junior Nick Mewborn’s 3-pointer before the first-quarter horn, and pushed the advantage to 10 by halftime.
But Cedarville (24-2) just needed a few more minutes to heat up.
The Trojans made 8 of 15 shots from the floor during the third quarter, and junior forward Brad Causley scored 15 of his 22 points during the period as Cedarville pulled within 48-47. The Trojans then tied the score 49-49 on another Causley bucket 28 seconds into the fourth quarter.
“Being such an experienced team and having a great tradition, we knew they would have a run and were going to come back,” Lenawee Christian coach Scott McKelvey said. “They have so many great shooters on their team, and we had to weather their run. … I thought we did a great job keeping our composure.”
The key was getting the ball in the post to 6-7 senior forward Kingsley, who finished with 22 points and 16 rebounds. Sophomore 6-7 center Maxwell had 12 points, including the go-ahead basket to break the fourth-quarter tie and another bucket to push the lead back to six with 5:33 to play.
Senior guard Grant Hohlbein also added 15 points and seven rebounds for Lenawee Christian – with six of those points coming in the fourth quarter.
The Trojans also cooled off substantially, making only 2 of 16 shots from the floor during the final period.
“Every coach in America says when you’re making shots, you look good,” Cedarville coach Dave Duncan said. “But I’m proud of our effort – it was a pretty gutsy effort I felt like we played with in the second half.”
Junior guard Joey Duncan also had 22 points for the Trojans and grabbed nine rebounds. Senior center Dann Stenback added 12 points and five rebounds.
Cedarville made its third Quarterfinal in four seasons this week, with the Semifinal berth its first since 2009.
Click for a full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTO: (Top) Adrian Lenawee Christian’s Nick Mewborn works to find an opening in the Cedarville defense during Thursday’s Class D Semifinal. (Middle) Cedarville's Joey Duncan attempts to drive past a Lenawee Christian defender.
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Grant Hohlbein keyed an 8-0 fourth quarter run for Adrian Lenawee Christian with a pair of baskets, including this baseline drive. He ended the game with 15 points. (2) Brad Causley had 22 points and nine rebounds for Cedarville in the Class D Semifinal. Here he scores on a putback off a blocked shot.
Jergens, Howardsville Driven to Go Far
December 4, 2018
By Wes Morgan
Special for Second Half
Its entire student body can fit in a single bus with room to spare.
Yet Marcellus Howardsville Christian is now regarded as a boys basketball giant with senior scoring point guard Dylan Jergens fueling a historic run.
Last year the Eagles fought all the way to the Class D Quarterfinals, and with most of that roster still intact, they expect nothing less than earning a final-four spot at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center come March.
Finishing with a 20-6 record last winter, Howardsville Christian made history when it defeated Bellevue 58-46 for a Regional championship. Faced with a considerable size mismatch in the Quarterfinals versus Hillsdale Academy — a 66-38 defeat — the last chapter of the 2017-18 season was a letdown after a remarkable story otherwise.
Jergens and Co. are determined to prove last year’s success wasn’t just a flash in the pan.
“I’m excited for this season and the opportunities we have ahead of us,” he said. “Towards the end of the season we kind of had it going. It was an amazing feeling. Winning Districts and then winning Regionals for the first time in history was amazing. We were disappointed because we didn’t complete our goal of making it to Breslin, but we had a lot of fun.
“We came out a little overconfident (against Hillsdale Academy), thinking we were only one game away. We thought, ‘We’ve made it this far; we don’t think we can lose.’ We should have prepared more for their big guy; he really killed us on the boards and got layups. Looking back, we could have had a better game plan of how to guard him. But they were a good team, so give them credit.”
A junior-heavy class last winter soaked in everything it could in order to apply that experience to 2018-19.
“We’re definitely going to be ready for it and anything that is thrown at us,” Jergens said. “It’s going to be difficult. Last week we opened up against Mendon and really struggled. We know every team wants a piece of us after that run. They want to be able to come at us. It’s going to be more challenging because everyone wants to knock us off.”
As a junior, the 6-foot-4 Jergens averaged 32.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 3.2 steals per contest. He shot 58 percent from the field and 41 percent from 3-point land. At the free throw line, he knocked down 76 percent of his shots.
Though he certainly has been the catalyst of the Eagles’ success the last two years and a key player since joining the varsity squad as a freshman, the two-time Associated Press and Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan all-state first team selection is surrounded by an unselfish cast of players he’s shared the court with most of his life.
Fellow seniors Logan Cornwell (forward), David Cripps (guard), Colton Fair (small forward) and Reece Herschbach (center) all return, and exciting sophomores Jason Jergens (shooting guard) and Josh Parks (guard) bring long-range marksmanship to the table after seeing meaningful minutes as freshmen. Junior forwards Zach Grandlinard and Joe Nagel, and sophomore forward Ethan Johnson and sophomore guard Michael Cripps fill out a capable bench.
“The biggest strengths of our team this year are we have experience, and we have talent,” Howardsville Christian coach Tim Jergens said. “We return five starters from last year, and they have played together since elementary school. The team as a whole has great basketball I.Q., and we have players that have put the time in to be really good.”
None more than Dylan Jergens, whose effort over the years resulted in a scholarship offer from Central Michigan University, where he remains verbally committed. It’s a reminder that college programs will find talent no matter where it resides, even if it is at a school of only 32 students.
“Ever since I was little I wanted to play Division I basketball, not knowing if it would happen or not,” he said. “I just fell in love with the game and worked at it my whole life, every day. Last summer I felt like I was getting a lot better and thought good things were coming and could play at the next level.”
Though he’s certainly aware of the areas of his game he’d like to improve this year in order to have a better chance of seeing the floor sooner in Mount Pleasant next season, he’s not letting his future plans become a distraction.
“I don’t feel special,” Jergens said. “Everybody means something at our school, and everybody looks out for one another. It’s a super small classroom, and I’ve grown close to everyone in my class. None of it would be possible without my teammates and coaches and the school rallying around me. We’re hoping we can just do what we know we can do.”
Wes Morgan has reported for the Kalamazoo Gazette, ESPN and ESPNChicago.com, 247Sports and Blue & Gold Illustrated over the last 12 years and is the publisher of JoeInsider.com. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Howardsville Christian’s Dylan Jergens lines up a free throw during last season’s Quarterfinal against Hillsdale Academy. (Middle) Jergens and his teammates hold up a piece of the hardware they won during last season’s historic run. (Photos courtesy of JoeInsider.com.)