Aiden Storz (4) and his Reed City Coyotes have ended the regular season at 13-9.
File photoREED CITY – Reed City ended its regular season for boys basketball on an extremely impressive note on Thursday with a 56-51 Central State Activities Association tournament win over White Cloud.
Reed City was seeded fifth and White Cloud sixth in the league’s fifth through eighth-place tournament. Reed City defeated Tri County and White Cloud this week to go 2-0 in this bracket.
The Coyotes also beat White Cloud 45-42 during the regular season.
Reed City was down 20-14 after the first quarter but was up 29-27 at the halftime and RC was down 39-38 after three. The Coyotes had an 18-12 scoring edge in the fourth.
Max Hammond had 20 points for Reed City while Xavier Allen had 14 points.
“Isiah Zelinski had six points but four of his came late in the fourth and were huge for us,” Reed City coach Brennan Walsh said. “Ty (Kailing) hit two threes in the fourth to keep our lead. For the third game in a row, we have shot free-throws well; that, along with timely plays on a defense.
“I thought we did a great job of closing the game out. White Cloud definitely made us earn it. They are tough and well coached. But our seniors get to walk out with a win in their last home game. We’ve won five straight and hopefully we can take some momentum into districts.”
Reed City is 13-9 and was set to play Chippewa Hills at 7 p.m. in a district first-round game on Monday, March 6, at 7 p.m. in Big Rapids.
Evart boys update
Evart boys basketball lost 48-44 to Beal City on Wednesday to close out the Highland Conference season at 8-8, but defeated Kalkaska 70-46 on Thursday to end the regular season at 11-11.
Belal City had a 10-7 first quarter lead over Evart which led 25-22 halftime. It was 33-32, Beal after the third. Dakobe White had 14 points while , Kamden Darling and Marcel White both had 10.
“It was another good close game,” Evart coach Kris Morgan said. “We were up by four with about a minute to go. We missed two front ends of one-and-ones. We ended fouling a kid on a 3-pointer and got a bad turnover at the end. We were down by two and fouled them and they made both their free throws.
“Overall, we played very well. We definitely had our chances. Free throws were huge against us.”
Against Kalkaska, Evart had quarter leads of 17-15, 34-20 and 51-30.
It was senior night for Evart. Marcel White had 15, Darling had 14, Jordan Albright 11 and Jake Ladd 10.
“We had a slow start but hit our free throws which was huge,” Morgan said. “We were 16-of-24 which for us is pretty good. In the second quarter, we only allowed five points so we really turned it on there. We had a lot of contributions from our young guys.”
Evart plays on Wednesday at Houghton Lake against either Charlton Heston Academy or Roscommon.
Pine River 42, Manton 33
Pine River trailed after the first quarte but led 22-10 at halftime and 30-21 after the third.
Evan Esiline had 13 points and eight rebounds while Dante Fauble had eight points and seven steals and Austin Dean had five points and five rebounds.
“I think both teams came out pretty tight in the first quarter,” Pine River coach Brian Goodenow said. “It was senior night and their guys came out very fired up and aggressive. It took us a whole quarter to adjust to their physicality and handle it a little better.
“Evan kind of took over in the second quarter. He led us in scoring but he also led us in toughness. We got great minutes from Tanner and Xander, too. We’re happy with the win but we know we have to be a lot better on Monday night.”
The Bucks played on Monday against Manton at the LC district.
Pine River won the JV game 48-40 to finish the season at 19-3.
