Thursday, March 6, 2014 •
Area briefs SOCCER
Referee classes
The Petoskey Youth Soccer Association will conduct referee certification, re-certification and bridge classes March 14-15 at the Petoskey High School. Classes are from 6-9 p.m. Friday, March 14, and from 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. Saturday, March 15, which includes a new referee class, recer tification of cur rent referees (levels 9,8, 7) and bridge g rade 8 (upg rade from level 9 to level 8). Registration is available online at www.michiganrefs.gameofficial.net or by visiting petoskeysoccer. com and following the link. For more infor mation, call the Petoskey Youth Soccer Association office, (231) 348-2947.
SOFTBALL
Petoskey Church League
T h e Pe t o s ke y C h u rch Softball League (coed) is looking for players and teams for the upcoming 2014 season, which is tentatively scheduled to begin play in May. For more infor mation, contact Paula Beyer, (231) 347-6495, or (231) 881-1981.
Petoskey open gym
The city of Petoskey fastpitch softball leagues will conduct open gym at the Ottawa Elementary School gym at 7 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. Open gym is open to both men’s and women’s league players. For more infor mation, call (231) 347-9067.
RUNNING
Spring forward 5K
The Spring Forward 5K run/walk is schedulede for Saturday, March 8, at the Petoskey Middle School. T he 5K r un/walk will benefit the Petoskey High S ch o o l b oy s ’ a n d g i rl s ’ cross country teams for new equipment, scholarship money for summer cross country camps and improvements to Petoskey’s new home course. Goody bags with a race souvenir will be handed out to the first 100 registrants. Racing begins at 9 a.m., with a one-mile kids fun run to follow at 9:45 a.m. L at e re g i s t r at i o n a n d packet pick-up is set for 7:30-8:30 a.m. on March 8 at the Petoskey Middle School cafeteria. Awards will be presented to the top overall male and female winners, along with top male and female masters and top three runners in each age division. The race begins and ends at the Petoskey Middle School. For more infor mation and for registration and packet pick-up, call Jennifer Smith (231) 838-9360.
BASKETBALL
Parallel 45 tryouts
Tryouts for Parallel 45’s AAA basketball teams will be from 3-5 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at the Mancelona High School gym for 1 5 - u n d e r ( c u r re n t h i g h school freshmen); from 6-8 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at the Boyne City High School gym for 16-under (sophomores) and from 7-9 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at the Boyne City High School gym for 17-under (juniors). Ar rang ements will be made for players whose teams have made the state quarterfinals. Tryout fee is $20. For more infor mation, contact Steve Bell, (231) 633-7313, or email sbell@ bankhoops.com.
Spring Fling 3-on-3
The sixth annual Spring F l i n g 3 - o n - 3 b a s ke t b a l l tour nament is scheduled for Saturday, April 12, at the Traverse City Central gym. The tour nament is for boys and girls teams in grades 2-12 and serves as a fundraiser for both the T.C. Central basketball pro grams. Cost is $100 per team and games will begin at 9 a.m. Each team will be guaranteed a minimum of two games. Format is doubleelimination. For more infor mation, contact Heather Simpson (231) 944-6279, or email hlsimpson@gmail.com or Jeff Turner at turnerje@ tcaps.net. Registration for ms are available at www.tccentralathletics.com.
B3
Class C District
Women’s College
Inland Lakes tops Newberry in OT
Freshmen making their mark among Big Ten women
Kurt Grangood (231)439-9377 - kgrangood@petoskeynews.com
INDIAN RIVER — Survive and advance. That’s exactly what the Inland Lakes High School boys’ basketball team did. Sophomore guard Andrew Dufek drove the lane and hit a runner at the end of regulation for the Bulldogs to send Wednesday’s Class C district semifinal game against Newberry into overtime. Todd Athey then connected on 4-of-6 free throws in the overtime period for Inland Lakes, leading the Bulldogs to a Class D district title game with a 61-59 win over the Indians at the Inland Lakes High School gym. Inland Lakes, 3-16, will play St. Igance, 13-7, at 7 p.m. Friday, March 7 at the St. Ignace LaSalle High School gym in the title game. The Saints advanced to the district final with a 5956 win over Harbor Springs in a Wednesday semifinal at St. Ignace. “This finishes a crazy week for us,” Inland Lakes coach Joe Mahoney said. “I really need to thank my assistants Lee Nash and Pat Clancy for taking over the team these past 10 days while I had surgery and my wife and I had our first child, a girl, three weeks early.” Newberry, which closes a 2-17 season, jumped out to a seven point lead midway through the first quarter, 103, before Inland Lakes would
battle back to within three, 13-10, to end the first. The Indians then built a lead in the second quarter scoring eight unanswered points, 21-10, before the Bulldogs would pull to within one point, 21-20, at the three minute mark of the second quarter. Newberry held the lead going into halftime, 27-23. “We were taking too many deep shots in the first half,” Mahoney said. “We made some adjustments, defensively and offensively to start the second half.” Inland Lakes started the second half with a 13-2 run and captured the lead for the first time in the game at the 5 minute, 36 mark of the third quarter. The Bulldogs led 43-38 to start the final quarter. In the fourth, the Indians would go up, 48-46, for a short one minute span before Nick Aldrich drained a deep 3-pointer to put the Bulldogs on top once again, 49-48. The lead would change hands four more times in the quarter until the Dufek runner went in at the regulation buzzer to tie the score, 55-55. “Andrew (Dufek) is a very skilled and hard working player that loves the game,” Mahoney said of his second year player. “He did not even bat an eye going to the rim on that play.” In overtime, Inland Lakes’ senior leader Athey went to the free line and hit four
KURT GRANGOOD / NEWS-REVIEW
Inland Lakes sophomore Andrew Dufek (left) moves around Newberry junior Christopher Wendt during Wednesday’s Class C district semifinal at the Inland Lakes High School gym. consecutive free throws and pushed the Bulldogs to the win. Newberry had a chance with under two seconds remaining in the overtime to tie or take the win at the buzzer. The Indians were able to get a long 3-pointer off, but it would miss the mark. For Newberry, Josh Gibson scored a game-high 23 points and John Paramski added 15.
Dufek ended the game with 15 points for the Bulldogs, followed by Athey with 14, Mike O’Connor added nine and Aldrich had eight. “We have not seen St. Igance play this season,” Mahoney said. “But we know they have some talented athletes and like to run and shoot, it should be an interesting game on Friday.” Inland Lakes will attempt to claim the program’s first district title since 1988.
Class C district
Harbor Springs falls to St. Ignace, 59-56 ST. IGNACE — It all appeared to be good for the Harbor Springs High School boys’ basketball team with just two minutes to play. It would be the final two minutes, however, in which the Rams would like to get back. Harbor Springs overcame a five point fourth quarter deficit, but couldn’t hold onto a six point lead in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter as St. Ignace rallied to top the Rams, 59-56, in a Class C district semifinal contest. Sophomore guard Gage Kreski finished with a gamehigh 27 points — of which 11 came from the free throw line — as the Saints improve to 137 on the season and will face Inland Lakes in a district final at 7 p.m. Friday, March 7, in St. Ignace.
Inland Lakes, 3-16, advanced to the district title game with a 61-59 victory over Newberry in its district semifinal Wednesday. With the loss, the Rams close a 7-14 season under first-year coach Adam Wood, who took over the program from longtime coach Geoff Morse following his resignation last season. “I’m proud of the way our kids finished the year out playing strong,” Wood said. “I liked our chances and I can’t fault our effort, we just made too many mistakes at crucial times and I feel bad for the kids, especially the seniors. “They’re tough kids.” Trailing by five points with just around four minutes to play, the Rams put together a quick scoring run to take a
six point lead with two minutes to go. “We made a great run to go up by six, but then they (St. Ignace) made a run at the end,” Wood said. “They had some things go their way, got to the hole, got the foul line and we shot ourselves in the foot.” St. Ignace led at the quarter breaks including 20-11, 32-20 and 45-43. For the Rams, Pete Kelbel had 14 points and seven rebounds, while David Walker added 10 points and nine rebounds. Wood lauded the play of St. Ignace’s Kreski, who led the Saint comeback down the stretch with his ability to get to the free throw line and to the basket. “He’s solid and he’s sneaky around the basket,” Wood
said of Kreski. “He was able to draw some fouls and when he gets to the line he does a good job.” The Rams will graduate eight seniors including Kelbel and Walker along with Mitch Wallin, Bennett Langton, Justin Roberts, Aaron Burdick, Cole Selewski and Jacob Hickman. “One of the biggest things for us is our seniors can be looked at as a springboard for the rest of the program,” Wood said. “They way we finished the year, we can be proud in that. We were close to this being our fourth win in a row and we gave ourselves a chance. “My hope is they (seniors) go on to bigger and better things and I thank them for being a springboard of what’s to come.”
throwing the ball around.” Strehl, a senior, echoed those sentiments about the Loggers’ defense after the game. “I have to give credit to Boyne Falls, because they came in and really executed their game plan,” he said. “Everything they did was almost flawless. They have a lot of good parts in their game.” The Loggers held St. Mary shooters to 23 of 55 from the floor. Boyne Falls faces Bellaire, 21-0, in the district final at 7 p.m. Friday at Ellsworth. Smith said if his team hopes to win the g ame, they must do a better job rebounding because Bellaire will take advantage of the second-chance opportunities to score. “Obviously, we’re playing
a really great team, so we have to come out and win the game on Friday,” he said. “Bellaire never beats themselves, and I thought we weren’t very good rebounding in the second quarter tonight. I thought we gave up too many second shots which kept the game kind of close. “We have to do a better job rebounding especially against a team like Bellaire.” Bellaire defeated Ellsworth 58-42 in the other district semifinal on Wednesday. James Schrader, Denny Hall, and Hunter Walsh each led Bellaire with 17 points apiece, and Hayden Niepoth added seven. E l l swo r t h ’s D i a m o n d McPherson scored 19 points, Nate Veldboom added 16, and Winter Romeyn had 13.
Loggers from B1 points, and Andrew Campbell chipped in nine points. Boyne Falls, 19-1, utilized aggressive ball movement on offense but still managed to make clean, crisp passes to set up shooters with wideopen attempts. “We’re very efficient, and we have players on this team who shoot over 60 percent from the floor because we take good shots and are always willing to pass,” Smith said. “Marcus took advantage of that tonight. He does a lot of nice things in that he plays the guard, he plays the wing, and he plays the post. He can do a lot of different things defensively, and he’s just a real classy ball player.” The Loggers limited St. Mary to just 24 rebounds and they also forced 17 turnovers. “One thing we knew that
they do well is attack the glass,” St. Mary coach Ken Blust said. “Marcus did a nice job, and he was all over the place. Brendon did a nice job for someone who is limited in his abilities.” Boyne Falls never let up on defense. St. Mary struggled to swing passes along the perimeter, and each Snowbird who shot the ball had a hand in their face. Charles Strehl of St. Mary scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Levi Milan added 10 points, and Nick Harrington had eight points and nine assists. “Defensively, they put a lot of pressure on the ball, and they got on Charles,” Blust said. “They made him work to just touch the ball. Harrington did a nice job bringing it up the court, but we got really sporadic at times
NBA
Augustin, Noah lead Bulls past Pistons 105-94 AUBURN HILLS (AP) — The Chicago Bulls didn’t get a great night from their starters Wednesday. Their backups made sure they didn’t need one. Reserves D.J. Augustin and Taj Gibson combined for 48 points on 18-of-30 shooting as the Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons 105-94 for their fifth win in six games. The Bulls only led by one point going into the fourth, but Augustin and Gibson had 20 of Chicago’s 34 in the fourth. Both coaches went with seven-man rotations for
most of the game, but Chicago’s duo completely outmatched Rodney Stuckey a n d Wi l l B y n u m . T h e y finished with 12 points on 5-of-20 shooting, including a 1-for-11 night from Bynum. “Will played his heart out, just like he always does,” Pistons coach John Loyer said. “He gives us everything he’s got every night, but there are going to be some games where the ball just rolls off the rim. They’ve got two very good players coming off the bench — Gibson has done that all year for them and Augustin has been like
that since he got to Chicago.” Joakim Noah finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his sixth career triple-double, including two in the last three games and three in the last month, while Jimmy Butler had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Greg Monroe led Detroit with 27 points, but the Pistons struggled all night to get anything going from the outside. They took 34 shots from outside the paint, and only hit nine (26.5 percent), including 2-of-11 on 3-pointers. In contrast, the Bulls hit 46.7
Up next WHO: Pistons at Timberwolves WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday TV: FSD PLUS RADIO: WJML-AM 1110 percent from outside. “They hit shots, especially in the fourth quarter, and they picked up their intensity on defense,” Loyer said. “We didn’t match that, and when you do that against a playoff team, you aren’t going to win many games.”
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Big Ten women’s basketball tournament will be a showcase for the conference’s wealth of young talent — and there’ll be lots of scoring if the regular-season trend continues. The tour nament opens with four games Thursday in Indianapolis. The winner of Sunday’s championship game earns an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. For the second straight year, the top four seeds are No. 11 Penn State (22-6) and No. 19 Michigan State (218) — the regular-season cochampions — and No. 16 Nebraska (22-6) and No. 17 Purdue (21-7). Michigan State relied heavily on two freshmen to finish with five straight wins and tie Penn State for the regular-season title. Aerial Powers led the Spartans with 13.8 points and 8 rebounds a game, and Tori Jankoshka averaged 12.7 points. Jankoshka, Michigan’s Miss Basketball last year, took over at point guard after junior Kiana Johnson WHO: was susMichigan pended State vs. in early FebruIndiana/ ary for Michigan violatwinner in ing team Big Ten rules. tournament “Tori was the WHEN: 6:30 one who p.m. Friday, without March 7 a doubt TV: BTN has really given us a spark,” MSU coach Suzy Merchant said. “She gives us a different dynamic to our offense. She was ready, and she’s super intelligent when it comes to the game of basketball.” Powers was joined on the league’s all-freshman team by Indiana’s Larryn Brooks, I ow a ’s A l ly D i s t e r h o f t , Northwestern’s Nia Coffey and Minnesota’s Amanda Zahui B. Zahui B. was freshman of the year after averaging 15.1 points, 2.9 blocks and a Big Ten-leading 11.3 rebounds. “We were hoping to eventually see what she’s doing, but not this quick,” Gophers coach Pam Borton said. “A lot of the credit goes to Amanda. She came in and dropped 25 pounds, is in great shape and is coachable. She’s shown up every night and put up numbers. That’s unusual for any freshman.” Nine freshmen rank among the top 30 scorers in the league, whose teams have combined for 197 70-point outings compared with 131 last season. There have been 82 80-point games compared with 56 in 2012-13. Purdue, which has won six straight games, is the twotime defending champion. The Boilermakers have put together their longest win streak of the season, and the longest current streak in the Big Ten, without point guard KK Houser. The threeyear starter tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee on Feb. 2. “I feel really good about the team,” Purdue coach Sharon Versyp said. “The Big Ten is exceptionally tough day in and day out. We’ve played the top teams in the country, we’ve beaten Nebraska twice. Right now we hopefully have a good (NCAA) seeding no matter what happens.” While the Boilers rely on experienced players, a lot of other Big Ten teams have had newcomers play prominent roles. “This is the strongest freshman class I’ve ever seen,” said Lisa Bluder of No. 23 Iowa, who’s in her 14th season with the Hawkeyes and the Big Ten’s longest tenured coach. “That bodes well for the future of our conference.” Indiana (18-11) plays Ohio State (15-17) in the tournament opener.
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