So Hopkins is the Cinderella te
am for the 2015-16 boys’ basketball season in these parts.
The Vikings for more than half the campaign have looked like a doomed ballclub that may have had to settle for two victories, both over hapless Wyoming Lee. But that was not to be.
Hopkins defeated Belding in a nonleague contest and upended Maple Valley in the regular season finale. Coach Darrin Smith insisted his team was coming together after a respectable loss to Kelloggsville in the league season finale.
The Vikings were 4-15 going into the Class B district tournament at home, and this week have scored 57-47 triumphs over Plainwell in the tourney opener and now 60-41 over Allegan Wednesday night in the district semifinals.
The pumpkin, however, just might come a-callin’ Friday in the district finals when South Haven (18-3) pays a visit.
Now 6-15 overall, Hopkins looked pretty ragged in the first quarter against an Allegan team that hadn’t won any of its 20 games and had just one senior on the roster.
The Vikings were getting just one shot at the basket and were getting outrebounded. The Tigers jumped out to an 8-2 lead before the home team got its act together.
Allegan, loaded with freshmen and sophomores, played a lot like a junior varsity outfit in making plenty of bad passes, and the Vikings made them pay dearly with interceptions and fast break baskets.
After Dylan Pierce nailed a three-point goal just before the end of the first period to tie the score at 11-11, Hopkins went on a 20-7 tear for the entire second quarter. Guard Curtis Opatic and 6-7 center Jake Sapp led the assault with eight points apiece in the first half and the home team was enjoying a 31-18 cushion at the intermission break.
Guard Hunter Lewellyn tossed in a couple of key threes and Justin Weick joined Opatic in taking the ball on the run for easy layups.
About all Allegan could muster offensively was some inside work by sophomore 6-4 center Landon Mielke, who finished with 12 points, and the outside shooting of junior Jacob Sturman, who collected nine.
Sapp led Hopkins with 14 points and was the team’s top rebounder with seven and he had three blocked shots. Opatic dropped in 11 points, Llewellyn finished with 10 and Weick nine in a balanced offensive attack.
On the down side, Hopkins made just 15 of 28 free throw attempts, a department in which it will need to step up mightily to be able to pick off an upset of South Haven.
The finals will be at 7 p.m. Friday at the Hopkins gym.
PHOTO: Curtis Opatic
