District quarterfinals: Jonesville takes down Hillsdale basketball in 55-52 thriller
HILLSDALE COUNTY — Only two Hillsdale County prep basketball teams survived their quarterfinal matchups in MHSAA district playoffs. Four other teams bowed out of the tournament.
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The biggest matchup of round one of districts took place over in Concord. The Hornets took on Jonesville in a rematch of their season opener. A lot has changed since that matchup in Jonesville, and both teams were led by strong efforts from their senior leadership, but only one could move on to the semifinals on Wednesday.
Jonesville basketball managed to just beat out their in-county rivals in Concord in a 55-52 thriller.
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The game started off with a 12-8 run for Jonesville, led by senior Gavin Van Kampen with eight points. Things began to turn in Hillsdale's favor in the second quarter, with Hornet senior captain Jack Bowles hitting a 3-pointer and slamming home a big dunk that energized the entire gym. Hillsdale quickly snagged a halftime lead over the Comets: 23-21.
It didn't take long for the Comets to rain down a couple triples from deep, with senior captain Warrick Elder and junior Drew Bradley both earning a 3-pointer in the third quarter. The Comets allowed just the one dagger triple from Bowles and a shot from Jace Lennox as the main Hornet key plays before the end of the quarter.
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The Comets continued to grow their lead heading into the fourth quarter, at one point up double digits. However, the Comets got into early foul trouble, which allowed Hillsdale opportunities at the free throw line. After 3s from Bowles and Casper Overbye, the Hornets found themselves back in the game late. A layup from senior Ethan Amburgey brought the game to only a 3-point deficit, with Jonesville up 51-48.
It wasn't long before the Hornets would resort to fouls in order to keep time on their side. In the fourth quarter, Elder, Van Kampen, Bradley and Caleb Blonde were nearly perfect from the free throw line, with Blonde missing on just one of his opportunities. They built their lead back up to 55-50 with under 30 seconds to play. The Hornets would take up the final seconds of the game looking to sink a shot. One finally came from the field on a shot from Lennox at the buzzer.
The Comets were led by Elder with 19 points and seven assists. Van Kampen had 13 points and seven rebounds. Bradley and Micah Calligan each had eight points. Blonde had seven.
Coach Jeff Turner said that it took resiliency for the Comets to get the quarterfinal win.
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"(It took) resiliency," Turner said. "It wasn't easy. We got up in the second half, did some good things and then we let them right back in it. Hats off to the effort Hillsdale gave. They played like a team that didn't want their season to end. They kept just clawing back, clawing back and clawing back. Luckily, we knocked down some shots and made a few free throws at the end to get some separation from them."
Bowles had 23 points and three rebounds for the Hornets. Brody Adams had eight points and four rebounds. Lennox and Amburgey each had six points, with Lennox earning a steal and a block. Ryan Bernard had nine rebounds.
The Comets got their revenge against the Hornets for their season opener loss and now advance to play Concord on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The 17-4 Yellowjackets will have home court advantage and plenty of rest heading into the matchup. The Yellowjackets stand in the way of the Comets having a shot to repeat as district champs.
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"They probably got one of the best players we'll see all year in Mekhi Wingfield," Turner said. "He's a tough guard and we'll have to figure out how to slow him down, but they also got some other nice pieces, too. If we pay too much attention to Wingfield, those other guys are going to hit shots and hurt us, too. It should be a dog fight just like when we were in the Big 8 and we fought it out with them all the time. Hopefully, we can take care of business."
For Hillsdale, the season was bookended with two tough games against their rivals. They end the year with a 9-14 overall record. After a strong start to the season, the team closed out the year with a few close league losses. The team says their goodbyes to a senior class that includes Amburgey, Jack Bowles, and Ben Kunkel. The departing group also includes exchange student Casper Overbye.
"The seniors were the foundation of the team this year," coach Rob Salisbury said.
Senior Ben Kunkel was unable to come back this season due to an injury in game two, but Salisbury said that Kunkel was a true No. 1 teammate this season.
"These seniors were great role models for the young guys, and I told them after the game that I hope they were watching and learned something (from tonight)," Salisbury said. "I would say this season was a step in the right direction when you think about last season, but it just kind of kept being left wanting a little bit more. That's kind of how it was the second half of the year, just wanting a little bit more. We had a lot of tough losses and they never got down, practiced hard and gave a great effort on the court. That shows a lot of character."
Senior Jack Bowles had three high school coaches through all four of his varsity years at Hillsdale, but Bowles said outside of the Covid season it was a fun four years of basketball.
"I had four fun years, that was for sure," Bowles said. "Freshman year was Covid, so that was a rough year but from then on I was having good times. This year was a blast. We had a better season; a lot of tough losses I think we could have pulled out. I think we could have placed a lot higher in our league. Things just didn't go our way a lot of the times, but we had such a hard-working team. We had guys coming off the bench that were hard workers. Exchange student Casper (Overbye) came out to help us this year."
Bowles thanked the coaching staff and also shouted out one of his best friends on the team. Bowles thinks the team has a bright future ahead.
"I want to thank my coaches and one of my best buddies Jace (Lennox). I was with him for three years playing, and I've never seen a kid work harder than him...Good luck to him and the coaches. They got a big future in front of them, too."
Bowles looks to continue his athletic career at the collegiate level after graduation.
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This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Jonesville survives district quarterfinal thriller against Hillsdale
