It was a night that will live in infamy for the Wayland boys’ varsity basketball team, which went through its most miserable twelve and a half minutes of the season Tuesday.
The Wildcats fell 67-53 to visiting Middleville Thornapple Kellogg, a team with which they have had a lot of trouble, having won only 44-42 last month. This time TK took control from the opening tipoff and never trailed.
Trojan sophomores Austin VanElst and Cole Shoobridge did a terrific defensive job in containing 6-8 Wildcat ace pivot Cory Ainsworth, limiting him to just a basket and two free throws in the entire first half. His teammates tried to get the basketball in his hands, but most of the time the result was turnovers.
Meanwhile, Wayland couldn’t buy a basket offensively and its team point total stood at just six throughout those awful first 12 1/2 minutes, enabling Middleville to run out to a 16-6 lead. Point guard Carson Sevigny finally swished a three-point field goal with 4:29 remaining in the half, but the Wildcats had to play a wild, scrambling game of catchup for the rest of the evening.
And they only got as close as five, 35-30 early in the third quarter, on eight unanswered points from Ainsworth, George Yanakiev and sophomore Riley Fields. Things seemed to be looking up when both sophomore defenders for the Trojans were whistled for their third foul. But TK then proceeded to go on its run of seven straight points to end the third period with a 42-30 advantage.
Making matters worse was that starting forward Jack Donewald and shooting guard Ternor Hudson both fouled out and Ainsworth played some of the third and all of the fourth quarter with four fouls.
Poor shooting in the early part of the contest and turnovers doomed Wayland’s effort, and its overall season record sank to 10-5, 4-3 in the O-K Gold Conference. The loss was even more astonishing because Middleville came into the contest with only one victory, a three-point squeaker over Hastings.
Ainsworth rallied to finish with 17 points, still below his better than 20 points per game average. Hudson and Fields both added eight.
It was a big night for Trojan senior point guard Isaiah Guenther, who netted 29 points, with 16 coming from free throws. At one point, he swished four in a row on one play after a technical foul against the ‘Cats.
Shoebridge added 12 points and Austin Dahley had 11 for TK, which now owns a 2-12 overall season record and 1-7 in the O-K Gold.
COVER PHOTO: Thornapple Kellogg was wildly successful in bottling up Cory Ainsworth (32) and holding him to just four points in the first half. (Photos courtesy of Josh Cline)