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SU N DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 2 , 2 0 17
T H E G R A N D R A P I D S P R ES S
SCORES
WRESTLING TEAM DISTRICTS
Boys Basketball THURSDAY Grand River Preparatory 77, Fruitport Calvary Christian 27 FRIDAY Hartford 67, Saugatuck 64 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central 66, Grand Rapids Northview 53 Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills 85, Cedar Springs 62 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern 56, Greenville 51 Tri-unity Christian 53, Hopkins 48 Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian 34, Belding 27 Muskegon 63, Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills 24 Grand Rapids Union 47, Muskegon Reeths-Puffer 43 Wyoming 71, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern 57 Caledonia 67, East Kentwood 63 Zeeland East 79, Holland 62 Hudsonville Unity Christian 45, Byron Center 42 Wyoming Godwin Heights 86, Wyoming Kelloggsville 71 Grand Rapids Catholic Central 58, Comstock Park 44 East Grand Rapids 60, Middleville Thornapple Kellogg 40 Lowell 54, Zeeland West 52 Hamilton 45, Holland Christian 33 Coopersville 81, Grand Rapids West Catholic 66 Holland West Ottawa 65, Rockford 40 Hudsonville 57, Grandville 53 Spring Lake 66, Sparta 64 Grand Rapids Covenant Christian 67, Wyoming Potter’s House Christian 61 Grandville Calvin Christian 77, Wyoming Lee 44 Grand Rapids Christian 70, Grand Rapids South Christian 49 Wayland Union 63, Jenison 46
Girls Basketball THURSDAY Fruitport Calvary Christian 74, Grand River Preparatory 17 FRIDAY Wyoming West Michigan Lutheran 43, Grand Rapids Thunder 15 Grand Rapids Christian 46, Grand Rapids South Christian 43 Jenison 55, Wayland Union 28 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern 47, Greenville 29 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central 47, Grand Rapids Northview 35 Cedar Springs 51, Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills 47 Grand Rapids Covenant Christian 56, Saranac 27 Rockford 59, Holland West Ottawa 52 Sparta 59, Spring Lake 46 Belding 67, Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian 47 Muskegon 31, Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills 25 Muskegon Reeths-Puffer 85, Grand Rapids Union 19 Wyoming 53, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern 45 East Kentwood 55, Caledonia 51 Zeeland East 58, Holland 47 Muskegon Mona Shores 61, Fruitport 36 Wyoming Tri-unity Christian 48, Hopkins 35 Wyoming Godwin Heights 57, Wyoming Kelloggsville 33 Byron Center 41, Hudsonville Unity Christian 22 Grand Rapids Catholic Central 64, Comstock Park 39 East Grand Rapids 56, Middleville Thornapple Kellogg 37 Hamilton 45, Holland Christian 43 Lowell 45, Zeeland West 31 Grand Rapids West Catholic 42, Coopersville 29 Hudsonville 45, Grandville 29
SCHEDULE Boys Basketball MONDAY Walkerville West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science at Wyoming West Michigan Lutheran, 7 p.m. Holland Calvary at Grand Rapids Ellington Academy of Arts & Technology, 7 p.m. Mason County Eastern at White Cloud, 7 p.m. TUESDAY West Ottawa at Grand Haven, 6 p.m. Kenowa Hills at Fruitport, 7 p.m. Bridgman at Fennville, 7 p.m. Lowell at Northview, 7 p.m. Sparta at Comstock Park, 7 p.m. Holland at Hamilton, 7 p.m. Grand Rapids Union at Muskegon, 7 p.m. Greenville at Forest Hills Central, 7 p.m. Caledonia at Covenant Christian, 7 p.m. Forest Hills Northern at Cedar Springs, 7 p.m. Jenison at Muskegon Reeths-Puffer, 7 p.m. Zion Christian at Fruitport Calvary Christian, 7 p.m. Unity Christian at Holland Christian, 7 p.m. Coopersville at Muskegon Mona Shores, 7 p.m. Calvin Christian at NorthPointe Christian, 7 p.m. Zeeland West at Zeeland East, 7 p.m. South Christian at Wyoming, 7 p.m. Thornapple Kellogg at Wayland Union, 7 p.m. Kelloggsville at Wyoming Lee, 7 p.m. West Catholic at Catholic Central, 7 p.m. Holland Black River at Wyoming Potter’s House Christian, 7 p.m. Jackson Northwest at Hastings, 7 p.m. East Grand Rapids at Forest Hills Eastern, 7 p.m. Rockford at Grandville, 7 p.m. Spring Lake at Allendale, 7 p.m. Lakeview at Portage Central, 7:15 p.m. Hopkins at Godwin Heights7:15 p.m. Kalamazoo Heritage Christian Academy at Holland Calvary, 7:30 p.m. Grant at Remus Chippewa Hills, 7:30 p.m.
Girls Basketball MONDAY Holland Black River at North Muskegon, 7 p.m. TUESDAY Calvin Christian at NorthPointe Christian, 5:30 p.m. Benton Harbor DREAM Academy at Holland Calvary, 5:30 p.m. Zion Christian at Fruitport Calvary Christian, 5:30 p.m. Wyoming Potter’s House Christian at Holland Black River, 5:30 p.m. Kent City Algoma Christian at Wyoming Tri-unity Christian, 6 p.m. Hudsonville at Caledonia, 7 p.m. Northview at Lowell, 7 p.m. Comstock Park at Sparta, 7 p.m. Hamilton at Holland, 7 p.m. Forest Hills Central at Greenville, 7 p.m. Muskegon at Grand Rapids Union, 7 p.m. Byron Center at Ottawa Hills, 7 p.m. Cedar Springs at Forest Hills Northern, 7 p.m. Allendale at Spring Lake, 7 p.m. Fruitport at Kenowa Hills, 7 p.m. Holland Christian at Unity Christian, 7 p.m. Wyoming at South Christian, 7 p.m. Zeeland West at Zeeland East, 7 p.m. Wayland Union at Thornapple Kellogg, 7 p.m. Hopkins at Godwin Heights7 p.m. Catholic Central at West Catholic, 7 p.m. Forest Hills Eastern at East Grand Rapids, 7 p.m. Grandville at Rockford, 7 p.m. Covenant Christian at Kent City, 7 p.m. Muskegon Reeths-Puffer at Jenison, 7:30 p.m. Grand Haven at West Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.
Byron Center captures sixth straight Division 2 district championship Byron Center won a Division 2 district title for the sixth year in a row Wednesday at East Grand Rapids, as the Bulldogs beat the host school 57-17 in the final. Coach Tom Barker has won eight titles overall and five in a row at Byron Center. The Bulldogs have a squad of 25 wrestlers that is largely freshmen and sophomores. “We’re very young,” Barker said. “We don’t have any seniors in this group and only five juniors. We had a rough beginning to the year, but a lot of these wrestlers were just growing up and learning the moves.”
Allendale wins 10th straight crown
Godwin Heights guard Lamar Norman scored 33 points in Friday night’s win over OK Silver rival Kelloggsville. MLive.com files
BOYS BASKETBALL
Norman, Godwin Hts. get key OK Silver win Steve Kaminski skaminsk@mlive.com W YOM I NG — It would be premature to call the Godwin Heights boys basketball team the OK Silver Conference champions. But the Wolverines took a big step toward their eighth consecutive league title with an 86-71 victory over Kelloggsville Friday night at home, enabling Godwin to open a twogame lead. Godwin entered Friday’s action with a one-game lead over the Rockets in the fight for first. Godwin, 15-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state in Class B, led by six points at halftime before going on a 10-0 third-quarter run to break it open. “This is a street rival, it’s the OK Silver Conference, and we are very lucky to be in the position that we are,” Godwin coach Tyler Whittemore said. “These guys put in all the work, and I guess I’m the one who is lucky to coach them.” Lamar Norman scored a game-high 33 points to lead the Wolverines. Norman sparked the Wolverines early and late. Norman scored 13 of his points in a first quarter that saw the Wolverines and Rockets battle to a 21-21 tie. Norman also had eight points in the fourth to help thwart Kelloggsville’s lategame rally when the Rockets were trying to climb back into it. “Lamar gives us a lot of effort,” Whittemore said. “He was flying around, and that’s what we preach. We want to get it done on the defensive end, and we have a few things we want to clean up. But Lamar came through, and he was playing hard.” Kelloggsville never led after the first quarter, but juniors Thomas Griggs and Alex Guzman helped keep the pressure on the Wolverines. Griggs scored 31 points, including 9 3-pointers. Griggs netted six of those
BOYS BASKETBALL
Tilden, Berghorst lead Zeeland East Time is running out on the boys basketball season, but Zeeland East still has a chance to catch the competition. Sam Tilden and Adam Berghorst did their best to keep the Chix in the hunt Friday. Both players scored 18 points as Zeeland East defeated Holland 79-62 to remain in the race for an OK Green Conference championship. The Chix are two games behind league-leading Unity Christian. Two stats stuck out for Zeeland East (9-5 overall, 6-2 OK Green). The Chix forced Holland into 24 turnovers and scored 20 points off of those mistakes, and they grabbed 11 offensive rebounds. A 19-6 score in the first quarter didn’t hurt, either. “We’d talked about getting out of the blocks fast,” Zeeland East coach Mike Fenlon said. “We needed to have more solid starts. And we had seven guys score in the first quarter.” The Chix face Zeeland West on Tuesday. GIRLS BASKETBALL
Muller’s buzzer beater lifts GR Christian Sydney Muller hit a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to keep Grand Rapids Christian on top with a 46-43 win over South Christian on Friday. The Eagles (14-3 overall, 8-0 OK Gold) maintain a two-game lead over East Grand Rapids with three games remaining, and they can clinch a tie for the title Saturday against Middleville. The final seconds of the fourth quarter were suspenseful. GR Christian’s Edecia Beck took possession of the ball with 8.8 seconds left, but Beck found herself triple-teamed by South Christian’s defenders.
3s in the second half. Meanwhile, Guzman finished with 25 points, sparking the Rockets early with 16 first-half points. “Tommy is a great kid, he works hard and has really come along as a great teammate,” Kelloggsville coach Nick Patin said. “He’s not afraid to step up at any moment and do whatever it takes to help his team get better.” The loss dropped Kelloggsville to 11-3, with two of its losses going to Godwin. The last time the two teams played Godwin beat Kelloggsville 114-75 on Jan. 14. The rematch proved closer. Griggs drained back-to-back third-quarter 3s to pull the Rockets to within 50-46. But the Wolverines went on a 21-5 run that stretched into the fourth quarter. Godwin would lead by as many as 20. The Rockets did claw back and was able to cut the deficit to 79-68, but they were unable to get any closer. Griggs and Guzman combined for 19 of Kelloggsville’s 21 fourth-quarter points. “I thought our guys played well tonight, but Godwin is so athletic,” Patin said. “You have to give them a lot of credit because they play so hard. They come after you, come after you, come after you. We handled it well in stretches, but there were some moments where they put some runs together.” Godwin senior guard Christian Rodriguez scored 25 points in last month’s game between the Rockets and Wolverines, and he came up big again Friday, finishing with 15 points. Aleal Jimenez added eight points and Markeese Hastings seven. “Kelloggsville is always a great opponent, they always give us their best,” Rodriguez said. “We came out sluggish, and they proved to us why they are second in the conference. We have to come out every time and play our best to beat them.”
Enter Muller, who popped up, took Beck’s pass and fired a shot through the net as the horn sounded. “I’m a proud mother to all of my girls,” said GR Christian coach Charlotte Muller, Sydney’s mom. “And South Christian is super deceptive. Kim (Legge, South Christian coach) has teams that are so wellcoached and have great sportsmanship. I told the kids it would be a street fight in that we would have to go after every loose ball. It was a great test of wills and it could have gone either way.” Muller finished with 24 points, and Beck ended with 15 points. Gabrielle Timmer led South Christian with 18 points.
Kent City clinches CSAA title Kent City clinched its third straight CSAA league title as the Eagles rolled over Lakeview 42-22. “We missed some shots early but really got going in that second quarter, and the momentum carried us from there,” Kent City coach Scott Carlson said. Kaitlyn Geers led the way for Kent City with 19 points, while Paige Mortensen hit three 3-pointers on her way to nine points.
FHN dominates Greenville After a couple of off nights on the court, Forest Hills Northern girls basketball coach Kent Graves felt his team was due for a comeback. It happened Friday, albeit at the expense of the OK White Conference co-leaders. Alexis Hill recorded 17 points and six rebounds, and Beth Chick had 12 points and nine rebounds, as the Huskies held Greenville down in a 47-29 victory Friday. The win gave Lowell, which won a nonconference game over Zeeland West, sole possession of first in the White by a half-game. MLive.com
Allendale won its 10th straight district title as it captured a Division 2 crown with a 56-20 victory Wednesday against Holland. The district final pitted two conference champions against each other, with Allendale winning the OK Blue and Holland taking first in the OK Green. Allendale travels to Allegan on Wednesday for team regionals, where it will face Byron Center.
Hastings wins in Division 2 by criteria Hastings and Middleville finished their district final deadlocked at 36-36, forcing the use of criteria to determine the title. Hastings won eight matches to Middleville’s six for the tiebreaking point and a 37-36 triumph. It was the fourth district title in a row for Hastings, which travels Feb. 15 to the Allegan regional to take on the host school.
Kent City prevails in Division 4 With four 100-match winners in its lineup, Kent City knew it had experience on its side as the Eagles claimed the Division 4 district title with victories over Ravenna and Muskegon Catholic Central. Coming off a standout freshman campaign, John Willison-Westbrook won both of his 130-pound matches. Hulices Hernandez-Ruiz won at 215 pounds, including a pin of Catholic Central’s Jared Bengston during the title dual. Adding to the wins were seniors Joshua Lee and Carlos Diaz, who recently earned their 100th career victories this season. MLive.com
GRIFFINS
NHL’s Bruins turn to former Grand Rapids coach for a spark Peter J. Wallner pwallner@mlive.com
Bruce Cassidy has been tasked with trying to get the underperforming Boston Bruins into the playoffs. He will try and do what Claude Julien could not this season and light a spark as he take over as interim coach. So far, so good. Boston won Cassidy’s coaching debut Thursday against the San Jose Sharks, 6-3. On Saturday, the Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3. “Hopefully, there’s that mutual respect between player and coach that I have right out of the gate, because I’ve been there with them and not being a new face coming in off the street,” he told ESPN.com. Cassidy, who coached the Grand Rapids Griffins for two seasons from 2000-02, was promoted from associate coach Tuesday after Julien was fired after 10 seasons with the Bruins. Julien led the team to the Stanley Cup title in 2011, but they have missed the playoffs the past two seasons. The Bruins are 28-23-6 with 62 points and hold the second wild-card position by three points. Cassidy, 51, has been with the Bruins’ organization for nine seasons. He spent eight with the Providence Bruins as an assistant and five as head coach. With Providence, Cassidy went 207-128-45 and qualified for the AHL playoffs each year. Cassidy left the Griffins to take over as coach of the Washington Capitals (200203). He led them to the Stanley Cup Playoffs as they reached the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. He was fired by the Capitals on Dec. 10, 2003, 28 games into the following season, after an 8-18-1-1 start. In Grand Rapids, Cassidy led the Griffins to IHL division titles both seasons as head coach. He went 53-22-7 with 113 points in 2000-01
when they reached the semifinals, and 42-27-11 with 95 points the following season when the Griffins bowed out in the first round. There now are two former Griffins coaching in the AHL. Jeff Blashill, who led the Griffins to the Calder Cup title in 2013, is in his second season as head coach of the Detroit Red Wings. GRIFFINS FALL TO IOWA
Goals from Martin Frk and Evgeny Svechnikov helped the Grand Rapids Griffins overcome a two-goal deficit, but the Iowa Wild responded with a pair of late tallies in a 4-2 decision on Friday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. Alex Tuch led all skaters with three points (one g o a l , t w o a s s i s t s ) , n e tting what proved to be the game-winning goal to earn first-star accolades, while Steve Michalek turned aside 31 of 33 shots to earn the victory. The result extended the Wild’s point streak to a franchise record-tying 10 consecutive games (7-0-3), matching a 5-0-3-2 run lasting from Jan 15-Feb. 7, 2014. Iowa (25-19-5-1) withstood early pressure and grabbed the lead 3:54 into the opening period on a Maxime Fortunus goal. Iowa added to its lead w h e n M i k e We b e r h e l d Frk’s clearing attempt at the left point before sending a pass across to Mike Reilly for a snapshot off the right post and in past a screened Pasquale at the 17:49 mark. Frk put the Griffins on the scoresheet with 9:45 left in the second period. Evgeny Svechnikov tied it for Grand Rapids 1:18 into the third before the Wild scored twice in the final frame.
Update Next game: Griffins vs. Manitoba Moose, 11 a.m. Wednesaday Online: Saturday’s game against Iowa ended late. Go to mlive.com/griffins for coverage.