​West Michigan Roundup, Wednesday 12/8/21

West Michigan Roundup, Wednesday 12/8/21

As we get back into the normal trend of Tuesday/Friday games this season there were only a handful of games across West Michigan last night. Notable games included D4 New Buffalo knocking off D1 Sturgis on the road. Sturgis is transitioning into the post-Thomas Kurowski era as he’s averaging 7.7 PPG as a freshman at the University of Chicago. New Buffalo is a really strong Division 4 team that could make a Breslin run this season. The Bison return four all-conference players from last season.

Scores

Colon 64, Camden-Frontier 25

Eau Claire 77, St. Joe Lake Mich. Cath. 47

Harper Creek 61, St. Joseph 48

Lawrence 60, Bangor 22

New Buffalo 77, Sturgis 73

Olivet 59, Union City 32

WM Aviation 74, GR Adventist 38

Top Performers:

-JJ Stevens (Sturgis 2022): 36 points

-Justin Wickey (Colon 2023 G): 26 points

-Kaden Parmley (New Buffalo 2022 G): 24 points

Game I Attended: Harper Creek 61, St. Joseph 48

Harper Creek tipped off their season in a makeup game from Tuesday against St. Joseph. The Beavers of Harper Creek returned all five starters from last season and are a team that I am high on coming into the season ranking them #11 in the D1-D2 rankings. Senior guard Zane Bowling drained a three on the first possession of the season to give Harper Creek a 3-0 lead, but they would miss their next 11 shots from the field falling behind 8-3. A 7-0 run to end the quarter would give them a 10-8 lead. Harper Creek’s DeShawn Leslie-Tinsley made three shots in the 2nd quarter while St. Joseph only managed to make two field goals as the Beavers took a 23-16 lead into halftime. The third quarter is where Harper Creek began to pull away. Their star Ben Shafer who has been on varsity for four seasons scored 7 points in the quarter helping extend the lead to 13 points with a score of 45-32. St. Joe had cut the deficit to four points at 23-19, but a 10-0 run by Harper Creek ended any chance of a comeback. The Beavers ended up with a 61-48 win to open the season led by Ben Shafer’s 14 points and Zane Bowling’s 12 points. Bowling went 4-7 from three-point range. St. Joseph was led by seniors Michael Algyre and Conner Wright with 13 and 12 points respectively.