The Hopkins boys’ varsity basketball team improved its overall season record to 3-0 Tuesday night with a 56-52 victory over Grand River Prep.
The Vikings consistently held slight lerads in every quarter, 19-17, 30-28 and 44-40.
“It was a tight game throughout, and it took winning plays in crunch time to come out on top,” coach Jake Jewett said. “Our team grew up a ton tonight and battled through a lot of adversity. GR Prep. was a very athletic and talented team, and it was a tremendous challenge for us to match their intensity and energy.
“Playing in their gym with their crowd was not easy, but our guys showed a lot of resiliency and battled until the very end.”
Junior Nick Schultz finished with 19 points, senior Micah Estelle finished with 13, and senior Jayden (JT) Reed finished with 10 points.
Freshman guard Trent Smith finished with 7 points total and came up with some clutch free throws down the stretch.
“Overall, I’m proud of our guys, but we have a lot of work to do in order to get ready for Wayland coming to town Friday night,” Jewett added.
The Wayland boys fell to 0-3 Tuesday night with a 65-45 defeat at the hands of Caledonia.
The Martin girls’ varsity basketball team picked up where it left off from last season by posting a 61-22 season-opening triumph on the road at Coloma.
The Clippers, who fashioned an 18-5 record last year and won their Southwest Athletic Conference division with an undefeated record, were never in trouble in the rout.
“We kicked off the season in great fashion tonight with an excellent team win,” said coach Ben Schipper. “We were very pleased with the way we executed some new areas of emphasis for our team this year. It was good to go live with our press more than we’ve been able to in practice, so we can pick it apart on film.
“Our girls handled our in-game adjustments extremely well, especially for the first game of the season. We want to play much faster this year, and that was a huge positive for us tonight.”
Schipper said things went a little unplanned in the second period when starters Makala Goddard and Liz Reinke had to sit the entire quarter due to foul trouble.
“I’m proud of our other girls, especially our newcomers, for stepping in and playing through that adversity,” the coach said. “We came out hungry in the third quarter with those two back on the floor and outscored Coloma 25-2. It was a well balanced scoring attack.”
Junior Avery Jager got going with 10 points. Marybeth Ritchie played through sickness and gave a gritty spark, scoring 10 points on probably only nine or so minutes. Macy Thorne, stepping into a larger role this year, and gave contributed eight points. Goddard managed 18 points, including four threes.
“I’m proud of each player as they all made an impact on the floor tonight,” the coach added.
Martin boys, however, absorbed their third straight defeat in the young season Tuesday evening, 74-10 against Watervliet. They have come no closer than 40 points of their opponents this season under new coach Corby Callaway.
The Hopkins girls squad suffered a heartbreaking double overtime loss to Forrest Hills Central, 45-43.
Also losing in overtime was the Wayland girls’ squad, 51-48, in its season opener.
Wayland had a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter. Lily Courtmaker hit a three to tie it and take it to overtime for Caledonia. All three of the Wildcats’ front court starters fouled out before overtime, and one guard fouled out out at the beginning of overtime. Wayland was whistled for infractions much more often than the Scots.
Junior Harmony Laker led the team in scoring, despite seeing limited time.
