Holland Christian rally comes up just short against rival Unity Christian
HUDSONVILLE - Holland Christian coach Brad Jansen loves the way his team battles.
The Maroons staged a furious rally in the fourth quarter, but fell short in a 70-66 loss to Unity Christian on Tuesday night.
“We scored 66 points tonight against a pretty good defensive team,” Jansen said.
Caleb Karsten scored 12 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter. Luke Michmerhuizen had 15 points and Michael Haig added 13. Karsten drained four 3-pointers and Haig had three.
“He’s shooting so confident right now,” Jansen said of Karsten. “Mike is, too. They are hitting big shots. We had maybe 19 turnovers and we had that bad stretch at the start of the fourth and we were still one shot away from cutting it to two points.”
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Unity Christian began the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 59-42 lead. But the Maroons fought back.
Karsten drained a 3-pointer with 2:10 left in the game to cut the lead to 63-59. But that’s as close as it got.
“We know they’ve got some good shooters,” Unity Christian senior Colin Nieuwenhuis said. “We should have done a better job of staying out on them. Their pressure was intense in the final four minutes. We had to stay calm.”
Nieuwenhuis led Unity Christian with 20 points and Kyler Berghuis had 12.
Karsten now has 29 3-pointers this season and is shooting a stunning 48-percent from deep. He’s averaging 16.5 points per game.
“He’s shooting almost 50 percent,” Jansen said.”That’s pretty outstanding.”
Michmerhuizen helped the Maroons to a blistering start to the game. He had seven points in the first quarter as they took an 11-2 lead.
“Unity missed a few shots and we got some to go down,” Jansen said. “Then they pressured the wings and that led to them coming back. We went from trusting the team shots and got too much one-on-one.”
Holland Christian snapped a three-game win streak and falls to 3-2 in the OK Blue Conference and 7-5 overall. Unity Christian now leads the conference with a 5-0 mark and are 9-4 overall.
UNITY CHRISTIAN 70, HOLLAND CHRISTIAN 66
HOLLAND CHRISTIAN (3-2, 7-5)
Luke Michmerhuizen 6 3-5 15, Caleb Karsten 9 2-3 24, Michael Haig 5 0-0 13, Caden VanHuis 0 0-0 0, Alden Baker 1 0-0 2, Henry Langjans 2 0-0 5, Ryder Gravenhof 0 0-0 0, Grant VanderZee 3 0-0 7, Luke Bushouse 0 0-0 0. Desmond Meyaard 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 5-8 66.
UNITY CHRISTIAN (5-0, 9-4)
Colin Nieuwenhuis 8 2-4 20, Brogan Sherd 0 0-0 0, Kyler Berghuis 5 2-2 12, TJ Fisher 3 2-2 8, Jack Kamminga 2 4-4 9, Micah Arrowsmith 1 0-0 2, Hugo VanderWaal 0 0-0 0, Owen VanderWaal 3 3-6 9, Max VanKoevering 5 0-0 10. Totals 27 13-18 70.
Holland Christian 17 - 14 - 11 - 24 = 66
Unity Christian 21 - 17 - 12 - 20 = 70
3-pointers - Holland Christian 9 (Karsten 4, Haig 3, Langejans, VanderZee). Unity Christian 3 (Nieuwenhuis 2, Kamminga). Rebounds - Holland Christian 30 (Karsten 8). Unity Christian 26 (VanKoevering 7). Assists - Holland Christian 8 (Haig 4). Unity Christian 14 (Berghuis 3). Total fouls - Holland Christian 14, Unity Christian 11. Fouled out - none.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland Christian rally comes up short against rival Unity Christian
