Harbor Country News ✹ Friday, March 18, 2011 ✹ B1

By Tim MoranNews Staff Writer

ST. JOSEPH — Playing without senior leader Derek Dudiak, starting two players that normally play on the JV squad, and facing a Michi-gan Lutheran team favored to win the Class D district boys basketball tournament at Lake Michigan Catholic, the odds were against River Valley on Wednesday night, March 9.

Seeing the Titans jump put to an 18-0 lead midway through the first quarter didn’t help, and the Mus-

tangs concluded their sea-son with a 79-36 loss.

“We’ve had trouble start-ing games this year,” River Valley head coach Shawn Gedert said. They (Michi-gan Lutheran) came out on fire, and we didn’t box out which led to a few second chance points. Give credit to Michigan Lutheran, they did just about everything right.”

The Titans held the Mus-tangs scoreless until Trevor Harlan hit a pair of free throws at the 2:21 mark of the first, and had a 25-7 at

SPORTS

Bees play their gameto claim district titleBy David JohnsonNews Editor

BRIDGMAN — With the exception of a few first-half hiccups, the Bridgman High School basketball team played its brand of basketball on Friday, March 11, to top Brandywine 64-41 in the Class C district tourney title game.

“It just feels good to get back to Bridgman basket-ball,” said senior guard Zane Copeland. “We ran, we trapped, we did what we normally do.”

The Bobcats started strong, with early inside scores from front-court players Alex Er-win and Jacob Frazier helping forge an 8-2 lead.

Bridgman guard Josiah Badger jump-started the home team’s offense by sinking a three-pointer with 4:48 showing on the clock, driving to the hoop shortly

thereafter, and dishing the ball off to teammate Conner Magro for the go-ahead lay-up at the 3:49 mark. Another “3” by Badger and Conner

Magro’s airborne tip-in off a barely missed Badger trey pumped the margin up to 14-8. Cameron Magro chipped in a three-point shot and lay-up made possible by his own steal in the late going of the first stanza to leave the score 19-10.

Bridgman coach Mike Miller said Badger gave the team a big lift with his 8-point, 5-steal, 4-rebound performance in the opening stanza.

“The other kids fed off that. It was a great win,” he added.

The Bees came out firing from three-point land in the second quarter. Shots by Michael Kamp, Cam-eron Reeves and Cameron Magro boosted the Bridgman advantage all the way up to 16 points (30-14) with 4:27 remaining in the first half.

But the Bees ceased scor-ing over the next three and a half minutes while Frazier, the Bobcats’ solid senior cen-ter, powered his way inside for three buckets to help cut the lead in half (30-22) by half-time.

Bridgman quickly took control as the third period got rolling. Kamp hit a jumper right off the bat and an-swered another Frazier score with a three-pointer. Subse-quent field goals from Zane Copeland, Conner Magro (off a steal) and Reeves (a “3”) grew the Bee lead all the way up to 18 points (42-24) and Brandywine never mounted another serious threat to Bridgman’s defense of the district championship

Cameron Magro said the Bees worked to “give it up for each other” during the game.

“We worked so hard all year. It’s nice to see things like this pay off,” he said.

Bridgman has won four of the last five local district titles.

The Bees balanced of-fensive attack included 13 points from both Kamp and Cameron Magro, 11 points

by Reeves, and 10-point performances by both Badger and Conner Magro. Copeland was credited with four steals.

Bridgman forced a total of 25 turnovers and shot 49 per-cent from the field. The Bees also totaled 11 three-pointer baskets, raising the squad’s record-setting total to 190.

“The shots were falling,” noted Reeves. “We got open, penetrated and kicked to teammates, finding each other, and we were just knocking down the shots.”

Frazier paced the Bobcats (9-14) with 23 points and 16 rebounds.

Bridgman’s Conner Magro (right) looks to out-rebound Brandywine center Jacob Frazier during the Friday, March 11, district title game. Photos by David Johnson

Zane Copeland finishes cutting down the net in celebration of Bridgman’s March 11 district title game victory.

Bridgman’s Jan-Hendrik Koch signs a basketball for young Bee fans during the district championship celebration.

Chiefs stop Bridgman’s tourney runBy David JohnsonNews Editor

VICKSBURG — Battling from behind for much of the evening, the Bridgman High School men’s basket-ball team made one last run at White Pigeon in the fourth quarter of the Monday, March 14, regional semifinal game.

It wasn’t enough.The Bees cut a 10-point deficit down

to five with four-and-a-half minutes left in regulation, but the Chiefs answered by reeling off seven straight points en route to a 62-48 triumph.

The eighth-ranked Bees struggled offensively, hitting 16 of 61 shots from the floor.

“That was our worst shooting night of the season percentage-wise,” Bridg-man coach Mike Miller said. “And 11 turnovers in the second half is our worst turnover total for a half. We

average like nine turnovers a game. Those two issues cost us the basketball game tonight.”White Pigeon started fast, jumping out to a 5-0 lead on Nate Wolf’s three-pointer and a Tanner Nich-ols bucket.

Cameron Magro’s “3” with 6:14 remaining in the first stanza and his sub-sequent score off an offensive rebound tied things up at 5-5. Conner Magro then drove to the basket for a go-ahead lay-up.

Cory Wynkoop’s three-point shot at the 3:15 mark sparked an 11-4 run by White Pigeon that had opened up a 16-11 advantage after one period of play.

A Nichols field goal early in the sec-ond stanza upped the margin to 18-11, but Conner Magro tossed in a clutch three-pointer two-and-a-half minutes into the period. Subsequent scores from Michael Kamp, Cameron Magro and Josiah Badger pulled the Bees even at 20-20.

After Wynkoop and Zace Gropp hit shots to power the Chiefs o n top 24-20, two foul shots and a trey by Kamp fol-lowed by a 2-for-2 trip the stripe from Conner Magro leap-frogged Bridgman into a 27-24 lead. A late score by Wolf had helped White Pigeon even things up at 27-27 by half-time, however.

Conner Magro drove strong to the hoop just 12 seconds into the second half to give the Bees their last lead of the evening. The Chiefs came up with seven unanswered points (Wolf hit a “3” while Wynkoop sank a jumper) and never looked back. The lead reached nine points (40-31) after Nichols drove to the basket and Matt Crowl tallied two straight field goals.

The Bees spent the first half of the fourth quarter playing catch-up. Kamp led the charge by knocking down a pair of three-pointers, with Zane Copeland’s surge to the net reducing the deficit to five points (47-42) at the 4:39 mark.

But it was all White Pigeon down the stretch.

Choosing to run an aggressive, score-first offense, the Chiefs quickly doubled their advantage to 10 points (52-42) thanks to Zac Miller’s three-point shot and a drive to the basket by Wynkoop.

Conner Magro and Cameron Reeves provided the Bees’ last hurrahs by con-necting from the three-point zone as time wound down, but White Pigeon (20-2) made six straight free throws to provide the final margin of victory.

“The second half was obviously a big difference from the first,” White Pigeon coach Tony Cholometes said. “I thought the first half we were a little flat-footed and lethargic. I thought they wanted it a little bit more than we did. Defense has been our mantra for the whole year, and I think defense stepped up and made a difference in the second half.”

Miller had high praise for the eight seniors on his roster (Cameron Magro, Zane Copeland, Josiah Badger, Cam-eron Reeves, Michael Kamp, Conner Magro, Brandon Crowder and Jan-Hendrik Koch).

“I’ve been coaching 19 years at Bridgman and it’s the best group I’ve Bridgman players huddle togwther in the late-gooing of the Monday, March 14,

regional semifinal game against White Pigeon.

River Valley senior Trevor Harlan takes a shot against Michi-gan Lutheran on March 9. Photo by Tim Moran

Titans overwhelm RV

See STOP, Page B2

Bridgman forward Michael Kamp has a shot swatted away by Austin Searles.

See RV, Page B2