West Michigan Roundup, Wednesday 2/10/21

Best Performance: Northview’s Kyler Vanderjagt (2022 G): 27 pts, 8 reb, 7 ast

One of the top juniors in the state started his season with a huge performance. Unfortunately, his team wasn’t able to pull out the victory losing to FH Central.

Next Best: Coloma’s Drew Goodline (2021 G): 33 pts, 8 three-pointers

Drew is the younger brother of Zach Goodline who plays for Huntington down in Indiana. Last night was a big start to Drew’s senior season on an underrated Coloma team.

Best Win: FH Central over Northview 61-56

Most people in the area had Northview ranked top five in the area going into the season with very high expectations. Despite losing their dynamic duo of Mitch Wilkinson and Jimmy Scholler to graduation FHC was able to pull off the opening game upset.

Best Shot: Jack Karasinski’s buzzer-beater

In the biggest game of the night, Catholic Central came back from 14 points down to defeat South Christian. On the final play of the game trailing 56-55 with 1.2 remaining Karasinski caught a long pass and hit a turnaround Laettner-Esque three for the win.

Best Debut: Catholic Central’s Durral Brooks (2024): 13 pts, 6 stl, 5 reb

One of the best freshmen on the west side proved why he is a top 2024 prospect in the state last night.

Game I Attended: Otsego 63, Sturgis 45

Otsego was one of the best teams in all of West Michigan last season going 21-1. The losses of Charles Woodhams, Jaxsen Callaway, and Owen Watson are definitely going to hurt the Bulldogs this season. Junior guard Ashton Atwater and senior guard Jakson Dentler will have to step up this season to continue their winning streak in the Wolverine Conference. Ashton Atwater got off to a hot start with 10 first-quarter points on 4-5 FG giving the Bulldogs a 21-12 lead. Otsego was flat out the better team tonight and didn’t show any signs of regression from last season. I was very impressed with sophomore forward Cooper Smalldon who went 4-5 FG for 9 points before exiting with an ankle injury in the second quarter. Ashton Atwater finished the game with 20 points and Jakson Dentler added 11 points playing much better in the second half. On the Sturgis side Thomas Kurowski put up 26 points but his team really struggled with turning the ball over. He will no doubt be a first-team all-Wolverine conference player this season, but I’m not sure he has enough help to compete for a conference title at all.