Wayland’s defensive effort Friday night in the first half of the district basketball tournament finals was, in a word — “outstanding.”
The Wildcats limited a pretty good outfit from Fennville to just four field goals in the first 16 minutes en route to a 66-46 victory that enabled them to capture their first district trophy in three years, the other two being disasters at the hands of Wyoming Godwin Heights. The verdict also moved the ‘Cats’ overall season record to 20-3 while the visiting Blackhawks weren’t too shabby themselves, finishing a 16-4 campaign.
Wayland now will play in the regional semifinals at Allegan at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
The swarming, pressure and attacking defense paid dividends on a night Wayland was guilty of putting up a slew of air balls in its three-point attempts. Normally a strong suit in its offensive game, virtually no one was able to connect from beyond the arc except Mitchell Dykstra in the early going and Avery Hudson in the third and fourth quarters.
But Fennville fared no better, dropping in only a couple of two-point field goals and a couple of threes in the entire first half. The Hawks were held to seven points in each of the first two periods and trailed 26-14 at intermission.
Wayland’s 26-point total at the half was one of its lowest all season long. Hudson was relatively quiet and Dykstra looked like a one-man wrecking crew offensively. He was found for easy layups under the basket by Hudson and 6-7 center Zack Nieuwkoop and he scored all of the Wildcats’ paltry four points in the first five and a half minutes of the second quarter.
By intermission, Dykstra had scored 13 points, just one fewer than the entire Fennville squad. But Wayland was held to single digits, just nine points, in the second stanza.
But the verdict was inevitable. Fennville gamely went after the Wildcats, but could no longer compete when Hudson heated up from the outside. The senior point guard nailed a three from the corner at the five-minute mark of the third period and came right back with another one to blow the contest wide open at 38-16. He hit a third one just minutes later to put his team up 43-20 and everything looked academic after that.
Wayland had a 45-26 cushion at the start of the final eight minutes. The Blackhawks pulled to within 16 points, 45-29 in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, but that’s as close as they would get.
When coach Mike Hudson finally called off his dogs with 2:03 left in the ballgame, the count was 62-34. Fennville’s reserves swished an astonishing number of threes at the end to make the final score as close as it was.
Avery Hudson finished with 27 points after his slow start in the first half. Dykstra settled for 21 points and Nieuwkoop had 10, including two slam dunks, but his greatest contribution, as usual, was his boatload of rebounds.
John Paul Alfaro led Fennville with 14 points and Austin Lewis added 11.
Wayland now will play the winner of the Vicksburg district, either Paw Paw or Three Rivers, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 13, at the Class B regionals in Allegan. The other two teams in the regional, Benton Harbor and Battle Creek Harper Creek will meet in the regional opener at 5:30. The finals will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Paw Paw (18-4) will take on Three Rivers (13-7) in the district finals Saturday. The game had to be postponed because the district semifinals were canceled Wednesday night because of the windy weather.
PHOTO: The Wayland varsity basketball team poses for a post-game hardware photo after winning the district tournament Friday evening.
Coach Mike Hudson received the trophy and congratulations from Wayland High School Principal Tom Cutler. Behind Cutler are four members of the junior varsity who were pulled up to the varsity for the tourney.