Are You Hungry Enough? It's Time for the PRESSURE COOKER!

We’ve made it through the first half of January with only some snow, a small heat wave, and some great basketball. With only a little over a month until districts start, the pressure is starting to go up. Teams need to get on a roll or get their players healthy to make a run during the postseason. Get up and go support your local high school basketball team, or better yet, go catch one of their wrestling meets because these boys (and girls sometimes) work really hard and don’t get nearly the recognition that the basketball teams do. On with the show!

Recap - They Have A Team?

Over the weekend, Mackinaw Island beat Hannahville 70-46 on Friday and 80-49 on Saturday. Leading scorers for the Lakers were Woody Beardsley with 25 and Mike Gamble with 20. The 2-8 Soaring Eagles were paced by Rodney Fry Jr. (12) and Parker Trudeau (11). Hannahville coach Seth Miller said, “Despite what the final score shows, we were right with them until the middle of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, their height and experience took over. These boys as a whole did an excellent job breaking their press.” The girls had their turn to play as well. Mackinaw Island and Hannahville split the series for the girls’ games.

Beat Some Sense into These Kids

Belleville’s game with rival Ypsilanti was move into an earlier timeslot because of the possibility of gang violence. The administration caught wind of a possible gang fight after the game or disruptions during the game and took precautions. Since it was a rivalry game, they expected a large crowd. The usual police presence was evident at the game. Ypsilanti won the game 56-53 behind Marvin Sanders’ 24 points.

Coach Cottrell’s Blowout of the Week

Carney-Nadeau 83 – Republic-Michigamme 27

This 56 point loss at the hands of C-N was helped greatly by the Republic Hawks. Three players were suspended for training rule violations and that left the team with only five players. It’s tough to win when your team leader is among those suspended.

High Score of the Week

St. Joseph Michigan Lutheran 100 – Kentwood West Michigan Lutheran 64

Ryan Ross was the top scorer for St. Joe ML, getting nearly half the total points for his team with 40. On the other side, Nick Kolenda scored 20. The big story on this game was the amount of turnovers committed by Kentwood WML. They turned the ball over 33 times.

Extra extra minutes

Since last Wednesday, there have been three games that went into two overtimes. Marquette beat Escanaba 78-69, Birmingham Seaholm beat Rochester Hills Stoney Creek 59-58, and Bloomingdale beat Gobles 81-72. There was also a game that went into a THIRD overtime period. Au Gres Sims, who I wrote about earlier this season in my “blowout” section, beat Twining Arenac Eastern 66-57.

Please call it a comeback!

Last night, Grand Blanc rallied. It wasn’t just a few points either; they had a 23 point third quarter deficit to overcome. The big shot came from William Sams in the form of two free throws with only 7.4 seconds remaining. GB was down 19-2 after the first quarter and was down 35-12 with just under seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. A 24-4 run put them down by three with the score 39-36 and just over seven minutes left in the game. It was the play of William Sams and Jacob Pilarski, two off-the-bench players, which were the difference makers in the game. Final Score was Grand Blanc 47 Flint Carman-Ainsworth 46.

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