Jonesville boys basketball survives OT against Columbia Central in 72-65 final

JONESVILLE — The Jonesville varsity boys basketball team survived an overtime thriller against Brooklyn Columbia Central and also earned revenge from their previous Dec. 19 matchup.

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A lot has changed since that late December divisional meeting between two newly minted Cascades West teams. The Comets have lost just one matchup since that meeting, a 60-47 loss to East leader Napoleon. The Comets' 72-65 win over the Golden Eagles on Monday night improved their overall record to 11-3 in league play and 14-4 overall.

The Comets had the advantage early in the first half thanks to three first quarter triples from three different Comets. They led 23-16 at the half, with most of the Golden Eagles' points coming from star player Derek Sanders.

At one point in the third quarter, the Comet lead grew to double digits, settling at 39-31 entering the fourth quarter. The triples continued to rain in for the Comets before that final quarter of play. Caleb Blonde, Warrick Elder and Drew Bradley scored the 3-pointers from quarter one and did it again in quarter three.

The Comets continued to score points at an efficient rate, earning 16 more points in the fourth. However, the Golden Eagles smartly used fouls and timeouts to extend their chances late. Sanders scored 15 points for the Eagles to lead their comeback attempt.

Late free throws with under 30 seconds left kept the Comets in the lead 55-52, but with just three seconds left on the clock, CC senior Conner Cole would drain a triple over Comet defenders to keep the Golden Eagles alive and send the game to overtime. The Comets did not have time to answer the near-buzzer beater 3-pointer.

To start overtime, it looked like the Golden Eagles had swung every last ounce of momentum their way, with Sanders hitting an early 3-pointer and then draining two free throws to give CC the lead 59-55.

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To answer the Golden Eagle rally, the Comets turned to freshman Caleb Blonde on the ensuing possession. With an assist from senior Warrick Elder, Blonde drained a dagger triple from deep near the MHSAA logo to bring the deficit to just one. On the next Golden Eagle offensive try, Comet senior Micah Calligan would have a huge block in the paint, which senior Warrick Elder would turn into a deep two-point swish to give the Comets a 60-59 advantage.

A turnover from the Golden Eagles would lead to an Elder-to-Blonde successful layup play. The score was now 62-59. CC would turn it over once-again on the following possession. The Comets would then convert 10 of their 12 free throw shots the rest of the way. They were 17-for-23 overall.

Blonde led the Comets with 26 points, including four triples. Elder had 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Drew Bradley had nine points. Calligan had seven points. Senior Gavin Van Kampen had six points.

Sanders led the Golden Eagles with 38 points.

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Warrick Elder saw both teams have similarly balanced games in a matchup of two of the top three teams in the Cascades West. With big time playmakers on both sides of the court, Elder says that the Comets had a great team win to start their week.

"That's a good team win," Elder said. "Every game, coach (Jeff) Turner and coach (Jason) Elder say not one individual is going to win this game, and if you go to the stat sheet everyone had an even and balanced game. Everyone contributed from our bench to our starters. They had the same game. Obviously, Derek Sanders is a great player. He's a big-time player, so he's going to hit his shots. But I think that was a great team win."

Comet coach Jeff Turner has seen a lot of growth from week 1 of the season to now. Coach Turner says that the team is excited to head into the rest of this week knowing they have a shot to play their way to a conference title game, despite this being their first season in the Cascades Conference.

"We still got work to do," Turner said. "We got to get back after it, and recover, because it's a big week for us. We are pretty excited. We didn't know where we would stand in the conference, and early in the season we struggled a little bit, but we found a way to get better. We defend better and score better. If you would have told me in week 1 that we could score 70-plus points, I'd tell you there's no way we would do that but here we are. We're very unselfish and kids are knocking down shots."

Next up for the Comets will be a road game against Hanover-Horton. With just two division games remaining before the division crossover games, this matchup could be the deciding factor of who wins the West division title. Hanover-Horton and Jonesville are tied at 11-3 overall in conference play (with the Comets owning the first win over Hanover). They both have two games remaining.

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The matchup will be played at Hanover-Horton on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. Jonesville won the last matchup 71-62. The winner of that matchup likely has the table set to seal the division title with one more win in their final division games next week. Elder says the next two days of prep will be the most important for the Comets and that their following game against Homer will also be a challenge.

"You can't express how important these next two days of preparation are," Elder said. "For Hanover, we put it to them last time. We know they have a good coaching staff and good players in (Logan) Blackledge and (Luke) Soper. They are going to be ready and it's at their place. We got to expect their best game of the season. They've played some pretty good teams so far this season. We are going to expect the best game from Homer as well because that's a rivalry, and I know Tyson (Garrett) doesn't want to lose to me again."

The winner more than likely plays Napoleon for the outright Cascades Conference championship on Saturday, Feb. 17.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Jonesville boys basketball survives OT against Columbia Central, stays tied for West lead