By WKTV Sports Staff
ken@wktv.org
With the local high school girls basketball regular season completed, WKTV has jumped into our prep March Madness featured game coverage this week as the state playoffs begin with girls District tournaments across the state.
WKTV’s Featured Game crew will be following the Division 2 District tournament at South Christian High School starting Wednesday, March 4, and continuing with that districts final on Friday, March 6. To read about the Monday game at South Christian featuring the Sailors, see Mike Moll’s story here.
But the best Monday, March 2, opening-round game involving area teams was the Division 1 clash with Byron Center at East Kentwood, so WKTV was there.
Byron Center entered the game at 19-1 overall and 12-0 in OK-conference Green with a title in hand. East Kentwood was 17-3, 11-1 in OK Red with a shared title with Hudsonville, and on a 10-game winning streak. The two teams met to open the season; EK won on the road 48-43.
In the Monday game between the two, the Falcons (now 18-3) won by almost the same score — this time winning 50-43 — as three East Kentwood players scored in double figures: sophomore Deyonce Thompson led with 15 points including three 3-pointers, while juniors Alexis McCully and Kabriana Hallman each added 12.
“That was one of the better high school basketball games we’ve seen in a long time,” WKTV Featured Game announcers Ron Schultz said after the game. “These teams … match up really well and the played really well. … Kentwood dropped some threes when they had to have them.”
The East Kentwood game will be available on WKTV Community Television Channel 26 (for complete schedules of programs on WKTV channels, see our Weekly On-air Schedule) and on-demand at WKTVlive.org.
WKTV also has a special video discussion on local teams playing in District tournaments with WKTV Sports Director Mike Moll and WKTV sports announcer Cory Dalton on the inaugural WKTVJournal Sports Connection program. See the YouTube video here.
As East Kentwood game will now travel to Caledonia for the District semifinals, starting March 4, the WKTV Featured Game crew will move to cover a doubleheader at South Christian.
In one game at South Christian, Wayland (13-8, 5-7 OK Gold and the winner of Monday’s game Hopkins) will play Kelloggsville (16-4, 10-2 and a shared title in OK Silver).
In the other game at South Christian, the Sailors (11-10, 7-5 OK Gold and the winner of a Monday game against Kentwood Grand River will play West Michigan Aviation (7-13, 1-6 Alliance).
Other local teams playing in District tournaments
In Division 1, Wyoming (7-14, 3-9 OK Gold) won a Monday opening round game against tournament host Caledonia and now will challenge the tournament top seed, East Grand Rapids (19-1, 12-0 and a title in OK Gold), on Wednesday.
In another Division 2 tournament involving local teams, Godwin Heights (10-11, 4-8 in OK Silver) played Monday at the Forest Hills Eastern District tournament but lost to Grand Rapids Christian (18-3, 9-3 in OK Gold) to end the Wolverines season. On the other side of the same tournament bracket, Wyoming Lee (0-19, 0-12 OK Silver) will open play on Wednesday against Catholic Central (7-14, 4-8 in OK Blue) and the winner of a Monday game with Wellsprings Prep.
In a Division 4 tournament hosted by Wyoming Tri-unity Christian, Wednesday games will have Tri-unity (6-14, 2-5 in Alliance) playing Martin (19-1, 9-1 and a title in Southwestern Athletic Conference Lakeshore), and Wyoming Potter’s House Christian (8-12, 5-2 Alliance) against Byron Center Zion Christian (9-11, 3-4 Alliance). The winners will play for the district title Friday at Tri-unity.
WKTV broadcasts on Wyoming and Kentwood cable channels. On Comcast cable, Channel 25 is the Community Channel, where sports events and other community events are shown; Channel 26 is the Government Channel, where local government meetings and events are shown. The games can also be seen on AT&T U-verse 99.
For a complete schedule of all local high school sports action each week, any changes to the WKTV feature sports schedule, and feature stories on local sports, visit wktvjournal.org/sports/.
