By Drew Dargavell, WKTV Sports Intern
ken@wktv.org
Grand Rapids South Christian High School’s impressive season pushes on to a MHSAA Boys Basketball Playoff regional tournament this week after the Sailors won the Division 2 District 44 championship on Friday, March 1, with an impressive win over Grand River Preparatory Academy, 68-38.
South Christian (now 20-3 on the season) will play in the Regional 11 tournament at Fremont, with a quarterfinal game set for Tuesday, March 5, at 8 p.m., vs. Coopersville (12-10).
“I think you can’t be satisfied with just winning this (District tounament)” Sailors head coach Jeffrey Meengs said after the Friday win. “These guys want to keep playing and they want to keep winning and they have the opportunity to do that.”
For video interview with Coach Meengs and one of his players, follow this link.
South Christian’s run through District play
The Sailors are now in the midst of a 17-game winning streak after starting off the season 3-3, and they won the OK Conference Gold, going 11-1 in conference play and 17-3 in the regular season.
In the district tournament, which they hosted, the Sailors had to push through all three rounds of play, first taking out Wyoming Kelloggsville by a score of 77-37.
The next matchup did not come so easy however, as they took on the Wyoming Godwin Heights Wolverines, winners of the OK Conference Silver. The game was a back-and-forth defensive nail-biter which ultimately ended up a Sailors victory by a score of 47-45, thanks in part to a last seconds 3-pointer by junior Tyler Buwalda, who ended up with 15 points.
For another story on this semifinal game, follow this link.
After the semifinal game, when asked if this game felt more like a title game, Meengs said: “Godwin is obviously very good … but Grand River Prep looked really good in their game, so we’ve definitely got to be ready to play on Friday.”
And ready to play the Sailors were in their district final matchup against the Kentwood Grand River Prep Titans (11-5 going in), as it seemed like it belonged to South Christian from the get-go.
The Sailors started to take control of the game about halfway into the first quarter as they closed out the quarter on an 11-0 run, giving them a lead of 19-8. From there, the Sailors outscored the Titans 23-5 in the second quarter, making it a 34-5 run to take a 42-13 lead heading into halftime. The Sailors didn’t look back in the second half as they ended up taking the district title game by a final score of 68-38.
It was a complete effort by the South Christian Sailors as they dominated the boards and smothered Grand River Prep on defense. The effort was led by Peyton Vis who scored 18 points, including 2 breakaway dunks, while Connor Kok added 10 points, Luke Schrotenboer scored 9, and Connor Dykema had 8.
On to the Regionals, and Coopersville
South Christian, after winning their second consecutive district title, moves on to face the Coopersville Broncos.
The Broncos finished in a tie for third place in the OK Conference Blue, going 7-5 in conference play and finishing the regular season 10-10.
Coopersville had a bye in the first round of districts and then beat Comstock Park, whom they had beaten in overtime both times they played in the regular season, in a close one, winning 52-51. In the District 42 title game, the Broncos beat Newaygo pretty handily by a score of 59-37 and are now 12-10 on the season overall.
For a story on the other Wyoming and Kentwood teams in Regional play, follow this link.
