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Reed City's Max Hammond (3) looks to make a play to the basket against White Cloud on Friday.
Pioneer photo/John Raffel
REED CITY –The shots would not fall as often as the Reed City Coyotes would have preferred on Friday night.
But they fell long enough for the Coyotes to pull out a 45-42 Central State Activities Association boys basketball win over White Cloud.
The win was important to keep the Coyotes hopes alive of making the top four bracket of the CSAA tournament, which starts on Feb. 28. The top four play two rounds of single elimination for the tournament title. Teams five through eight also play in two rounds of single elimination. Teams nine through 11 will play each other in a round robin.
By holding off White Cloud, Reed City improved to 6-3 in the league and is tied with four other teams for second place. They close the CSAA regular season at home on Friday with Central Montcalm.
Reed City is 10-6 overall. White Cloud falls to 6-4 and 11-7.
“I thought we played really well,” Reed City coach Brennan Walsh said. “I thought our defensive style had a couple of defensive breakdowns. We gave up some easy buckets. For the most part we were in the right spot at the right time. Offensively we were very unselfish and did the right things.
“Everything we worked on the last couple of days we executed. We just couldn’t put the ball in the hole, we missed layups, we missed open shots and free throws down the stretch. It was frustrating for everybody. I’ll give our boys credit for maintaining their composure and pulling out at the end. We made timely plays. We needed the win.”
But Friday’s win wasn’t an easy one for the Coyotes against the scrappy Indians. The hosts were up 8-4 after the first quarter and 20-17 at halftime. Ty Kailing had seven points and Xavier Allen six points in the first half for Reed City.
Allen hit a pair of threes in the third and Allen drove for two to give Reed City a 36-25 lead. It was 36-27, RC, going into the fourth.
The Reed City lead was 41-31 but then the Coyote shots would not drop and White Could went on an 11-0 run, taking a 42-41 lead with 1:41 to play on Jared Watson’s bucket.
Kailing passed to Teddy Szymanski for a layup and 43-42 lead with 1:17 to go. The Indians were fouling and finally got RC into the bonus. Szymanski missed a free throw with 33.9 second s to go. But Aiden Storz got the steal and layup to end the scoring.
Kailing had 17 points and Allen 11 for Reed City. White Cloud got 15 points from Noah Robinson and 14 from Watson.
"I thought we played with a lot of intensity tonight," Kailing said. "We knew we had to win to get into the tournament (for top four) at the end of the year. We would get to go to Big Rapids and play there and hopefully get another shot at them. Tonight I thought we shared the ball well. A lot of shots didn't fall for us."
