Today in the MHSAA: 3/8/16

March 8, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

The upsets were few, but the late-game heroics aplenty Monday during the first night of the MHSAA Boys Basketball Tournament.

Boys Basketball

After falling twice to its rival during the regular season, Traverse City West opened a 13-1 lead and downed Traverse City Central 55-52 in Class A – Traverse City Record-Eagle

South Lyon’s 3-pointer with fewer than two seconds to play gave it a 40-37 win over Brighton in Class A – Livingston Daily

Also in Class A, Bloomfield Hills took over in double overtime to get past Auburn Hills Avondale 65-56 – Oakland Press

Warren Woods-Tower emerged from a close matchup with St. Clair Shores Lake shore, 46-42, dropping Lakeshore’s final record to 17-4 – Macomb Daily

Noah Ingram made 10-pointers and scored 44 points total as Mount Pleasant downed Midland Dow 81-70 in Class A – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

In arguably the biggest matchup of opening night, reigning Class B champion Wyoming Godwin Heights downed Wayland 65-62 in a matchup of teams with a combined record of 34-5 – Grand Rapids Press

Freeland won a crossover of top Class B teams in the Tri-Valley Conference, 45-42 over Bridgeport – Saginaw News

Also in Class B, Marshall survived a last-second basket that forced overtime to get past Battle Creek Pennfield – 89-81 – Battle Creek Enquirer

Trey Newsham made 4 of 4 free-throw attempts during the final 14 seconds and went over 1,000 points for his career in Essexville Garber’s 60-59 Class B win over Bay City John Glenn – Bay City Times

Flint Beecher eliminated rival Flint Hamady in Class C for the 10th straight season, 68-62, in a matchup of teams that were a combined 34-4 – Flint Journal

In a Class C matchup of teams with a combined 32-10 record, Traverse City St. Francis got past Johannesburg-Lewiston 79-65 – Traverse City Record-Eagle

Also in Class C, Hartford’s 3-pointer with 11 seconds left pushed the team past Kalamazoo Christian 46-45 in an upset of the formerly 17-2 Comets – Kalamazoo Gazette

Good Read

Last summer, the Kronemeyer family of Holland was forced to mourn the death of 18-year-old daughter Marissa, who had died in a car crash. But community and eventually Holland Calvary basketball have assisted as the family continues to cope – Holland Sentinel

Today in the MHSAA: 12/1/16

December 1, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

As fans of competition, we can give thanks for early-season matchups of top-ranked teams like we saw in hockey Wednesday. But check out our “Good Reads” today for a wider perspective of why else we should be grateful.

Each weekday during the school year, we’ll gather and post media links covering the most significant and intriguing high school events from all over the state.

Girls Basketball

Michigan Center survived a Jonesville comeback to win its season opener 43-40 in overtime – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Class D power Athens got off to the right start with a 32-20 win over Battle Creek St. Philip – Battle Creek Enquirer

Mackinaw City pulled out an overtime win over rival Pellston, 36-33 – Petoskey News Review

From Tuesday, Canton downed Bloomfield Hills Marian 43-40 in an early-season meeting of regular contenders in Class A – Observer & Eccentric

Hockey

Hartland – ranked No. 1 in Division 2 – came back from a two-goal deficit to beat Division 1 top-ranked Brighton 3-2 in overtime – Livingston Daily Press & Argus

Cadillac led 4-0 but had to hold on for a 5-4 win over Cheboygan – Cadillac News

On his team’s 56th shot of the night, Mario Steffin netted the game-winner as Wyandotte Roosevelt downed Southgate Anderson 4-3 in overtime – Southgate News Herald

Good Reads

We missed this one a few days ago, but the Port Huron Times Herald provided some awesome perspective by printing what many of its most notable local sports figures – coaches, high school stars and champions past – were thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend – Port Huron Times Herald

We’ve been following the story of longtime northern Michigan and current Traverse City St. Francis basketball coach Keith Haske (Second Half, 3/3/16), who has been fighting cancer but finished up a round of chemotherapy this week – Traverse City Record-Eagle