Wayland probably is hoping it won’t see a basketball opponent as good as Grand Rapids Catholic Central the rest of this season.
The Wildcats Friday night lost 73-59 to Catholic Central in the finals of the Legends Tournament at Aquinas College in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score might indicate. The ‘Cats haven’t been accustomed to being outrebounded and forced into a flurry of turnovers, many of them for traveling. But it happened.
The Cougars used to be O-K Gold Conference rivals until a couple of years ago when they were moved to the O-K Blue. And good riddance. The Gold is tough enough without Catholic Central, which defeated perennial Gold power Grand Rapids Christian by five points last month. The only blemish in its 7-1 record overall is a loss to Class A Plymouth Salem.
Even worse, only one of the team is a senior.
It didn’t take long for the Cougars to establish dominance in the ballgame. They shot out to a 10-4 lead in the first few minutes and were never headed. Though 6-7 center Mykel Bingham and 6-5 freshman Genesis Kemp were retired to the sidelines with foul trouble late in the first period, guards Devin Boyd and Austin Braun took control of putting points on the board.
Boyd nailed four three-point field goals in the first half alone and Braun had 11 points during the same time span and Catholic was off and running to a 37-24 advantage at intermission.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats were struggling with 13 turnovers and were getting beat up on the boards. A customarily formidable rebounding team, it had just one offensive board in the entire first half and finished the game with only three.
Sophomore guard Riley Fields made a three-point goal early in the second quarter to make it 17-13, but the Cougars then reeled off the next 13 points unanswered.
Wayland made a brief run at getting back into the ballgame early in the second half, cutting its deficit to just eight points, 37-29 on a three by senior guard Jory Shepard and a nifty pass from George Yanakiev to Cory Ainsworth for a layup, but Braun answered quickly with a three and the ‘Cats never were able to get within single digits for the rest of the evening.
Catholic continued to pull away to take command of leads of more than 20 points. It wasn’t until midway into the fourth period that Wayland was able to get the gap as close close as a dozen because of a frantic and gambling full-court press.
Boyd, who was selected tournament most valuable player, scored 25 points and Braun added 23.
For the Wildcats, Ainsworth finished with 21 points, Ternor Hudson canned four three-pointers for a total of 14 and Jack Donewald had nine.
The loss dropped the ‘Cats’ overall season record to 5-2. They will begin O-K Gold action Tuesday at Middleville Thornapple Kellogg.
For more of Josh Cline’s photos, go to Ph3 Photos LLC on Facebook.