Boys prep hoops district finals set; five local teams advance to the championship round

HILLSDALE COUNTY — It was a big night for Hillsdale County boys basketball teams. A total of five punched their tickets to the district championship games in districts 84, 119 and 120.

More: Girls Basketball Roundup: Colts get road win at Hillsdale; Wildcats beat Climax-Scots

This is a recap of each of the five county teams’ district semifinal wins, their tournament run so far and our predictions for who will win on Friday night.

More: District quarterfinals: Jonesville takes down Hillsdale basketball in thriller

District 84: Jonesville vs. Hanover-Horton

The Comets playing against the Comets for a district title, where have we seen that before? One doesn't have to look too far back to see Jonesville and Hanover-Horton playing against each other for postseason hardware. The two programs met in last year's district final game, where the Comets earned their first title since the early 2000's.

Flashback: Seven seniors led Jonesville basketball to a milestone postseason run

Now, both teams will take each other on again for district glory. The Jonesville Comets punched their ticket to the finals after escaping a 54-51 semifinal win over the host Concord Yellowjackets.

More: Watch Jonesville sink two 3s at key moments in their crossover game with East Jackson

The Comets were led by senior Warrick Elder, who scored 19 points and dished out five assists. Senior Gavin Van Kampen had 12 points. Freshman Caleb Blonde had 12 points. Junior Drew Bradley had nine points.

The Comets previously defeated Hillsdale 55-52 on Monday night in the quarterfinals. The battle tested Comets face a Hanover-Horton squad that defeated Addison 76-58 in the semifinal round.

Prediction

We believe Jonesville to be the better Comet team come Friday night's matchup. As long as Jonesville doesn't allow Hanover senior Logan Blackledge to score 42 points like he did on Feb. 8, coach Jeff Turner and the Jonesville Comets should repeat history.

District 119: Litchfield vs. Hillsdale Academy

The district quarterfinals and semifinal rounds played out how we predicted for District 119, save an unexpected brawl on Monday night.

That result of that on-court scuffle left Tekonsha undermanned heading into their semifinal matchup with the one-seeded Hillsdale Academy Colts. The Colts took care of business in the 72-23 final. Dawson Scharer led the Colts with 15 points, and Andrew Spiegel had 10.

Coach Zach Miller and the senior Colts are looking to earn their third straight district championship, and they will have to go through the District 119 host team, the Litchfield Terriers.

More: Quarterfinal basketball roundup: Litchfield advances; Four teams eliminated in round one

After a 66-36 final against Camden-Frontier, the Terriers exacted revenge on the Will Carleton Academy Cougars in a 60-49 final. Both teams had been preparing for the matchup for some time, having split their regular season matchups.

Senior Tyler Bills, son of coach Corey Bills, had 25 points including 15 from 3-point range. Alvarez ended the night with 21 points. Senior Simon Collins contributed six points.

The Litchfield starting rotation includes multiple seniors who have made a major impact on the recent Litchfield Athletics program history. Coach Corey Bills said the win was an emotional moment for the players who were unfortunately without their teammate Brandon Campbell. Campbell suffered a setback with an injury that has been present since the start of the school year but played through it in 22 games.

“These guys that I have had worked so hard for this and I wanted this so bad for them that I could hardly stand it,” Bills said.

For WCA, Thomas Maier (single season and single game steals school record holder) had 18 points. Senior Tyler Barnes had 10 points. WCA loses three seniors: Caleb Daniels, Tyler Barnes and Paul Kies. For coach Lucas Westblade, the seniors showed exemplary leadership amongst a sea of change in their fifth year of basketball.

“Hats off to those guys,” Westblade said. “It’s tough to be playing one system for a long time and then switch for your senior year. I think that contributed to the slow start, but those seniors started in eighth grade and have been playing for five years. They are great learners to be able to do that over the course of the season and you kind of saw that when we had a run at the end. I’m really proud of them and the leadership they’ve shown.”

Both the Terriers and the Colts have their own storylines that they hope get fulfilled on Friday, but only one team can walk away district champions. Coach Corey Bills says the Terrier coaching staff and players are ready to enjoy the moment on Friday and play to win in front of their home crowd.

“We got some work to do,” Bills said. “We are just excited to be there with nothing to lose. We want to battle and play as hard as possible.”

Prediction

When the Terriers are able to knock down shots, they most certainly can hang with the top teams in the County. However, the size advantage for Hillsdale Academy and their experience playing in these types of games leans us to picking the Colts as the winners on March 1.

District 120: Waldron vs. Pittsford

Waldron semifinal stats were unavailable at the writing of this article

Another bracket that has, so far, turned out as expected. The Pittsford Wildcats may not have had Jackson Christian's number in the regular season (0-2 in league play), but Pittsford had an improved defensive night while also knocking down shots in the paint and on the perimeter. Pittsford kept pouring on the points for the 52-36 semifinal victory.

More: District boys basketball preview: Comets vs. Hornets highlights round one matchups

Senior Gavin Carden led the team with 25 points, including 12 from 3-point range. Jake Drawe contributed all nine of his points in the first half, with seven in the first quarter. Senior Bryce Williams helped cap off the game with seven points int he fourth quarter (eight points total).

Like Litchfield, Waldron has overcome some regular season rust to earn their way to a district finals game on their home court. They did it with a 42-34 win over Vandercook Lake.

The Spartans have reached their first district finals game since the 2014-15 season. Standing in their way of winning a title will be the Wildcats. The two teams split their league matchups this season at opposite ends of their schedules.

Prediction

Pittsford last won a district title in March of 2021 but has made finals appearances in the previous two seasons. Both programs have a lot on the line for their seniors on Friday night, but we will stick with a prediction of the Wildcats winning their way to a title.

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This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: 5 Hillsdale county teams advance to the championship round of the boys basketball district finals