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Class D Final - WMC 62 Cedarville 61 Western Michigan Christian was definitely winning eyeball test during warm-ups.Cedarville looked small while WMC had

Class D Final - WMC 62 Cedarville 61

Western Michigan Christian was definitely winning eyeball test during warm-ups.Cedarville looked small while WMC had multiple big men.The crowd was fairly large, considering that Cedarville is in the UP and they seemed to have more fans…at least louder fans.Coincidently, both WMC and Cville have school colors of green and white.You could tell that the nerves were making both teams play a little sloppy at the very beginning.WMC’s defense was tenacious and Cville had a hard time getting the ball inside the three point line.Through half of the first quarter, all Cedarville did was throw up three point bombs and take poor care of the ball.Neither offense got into much of a rhythm until there was two and a half minutes remaining in the quarter and even then, it wasn’t a ton of points.At the end of the first quarter, Cedarville led Western Michigan Christian 11-10.It seemed like one team would take the momentum and get a little lead, and then the other team would tie it up quick.Then, the Warriors of WMC picked it up and got their game going as the Trojans kept firing threes.The place erupted when senior James Mitchell hit a shot late in the second quarter; he looks like an offensive lineman and played center at 5’10”.Like it happened throughout the first half, the team that was down (in this case, Cedarville) battled their way back and took the lead on a pair of free throws to take a 30-29 lead at the half.

Some of the shots that Cedarville took were VERY long, like five foot behind the three point line.Cedarville’s CJ Paquin did his best to drive to the hoop and get some points.They were getting a lot of second and third chances by getting a lot of offensive rebounds.One second they would play brilliantly, then the next turn the ball over or give up long passes for easy points.Western Michigan Christian fouled a lot and that got them into trouble in the first half, but they settled down in the second half.The star power of WMC’s London Burris was nullified as he only had four points on the game.Luke Murray hit a three pointer a minute into the fourth to give Cville a one point lead which was followed by another three, this time by Paquin.Then WMC made it close again.With half of the fourth quarter already gone, the lead was retaken by WMC 54-53 on a bucket by Tyler Ray (their 6’7” center), who went down the floor, and promptly fouled out.It was close through the end of the fourth quarter and Cedarville’s big man Scott McGreevy fouled out as well.WMC took a four point advantage with 25 seconds remaining but a three pointer by Cville made it interesting.After a missed foul shot, Cedarville got the ball back with 11.6 seconds left and one last chance to take the lead.CJ Paquin took the ball down the floor, went to the free throw line and put up a shot, but missed and the Warriors of Muskegon Western Michigan Christian won the Class D title.

Paquin finished with 25 points and 18 rebounds to lead all in scoring and rebounding.For the State Champion WMC, Evan Bruinsma had 18 points and 11 rebounds.Cedarville went nine of 39 from three point land and 28% shooting overall while Muskegon Western Michigan Christian hit 39% of their shots.