McBain Ramblers tame Benzie Central Huskies, 50-33

Mar. 1—BENZONIA — About the only thing McBain didn't do well Friday night was shoot free throws.

Other than that, the Ramblers were just about perfect.

McBain won a physical Division 3 boys basketball district championship at Benzie Central by a 50-33 final.

"It was just a brawl," McBain 6-foot-9 senior center Evan Haverkamp said. "It was physical the whole time, both ways. Both teams weren't getting the calls we wanted. We worked our butts off and, honestly, I think we deserve it."

The championship bout featured a dichotomy of styles, as Benzie's frenetic, fast-paced play clashed with McBain's deliberate, defense-oriented game.

"The (big) one was take away their transition points," Ramblers head coach Bruce Koopman said. "I've watched these guys on film throughout the year, and a lot of it is go, go, go; so we sent two guys deep, we smacked the boards hard. I figured we might give up a couple, but we'll get some rebounds, and we did a great job rebounding."

McBain (22-2) not only didn't give up those transition points, but the Ramblers had two quarters in which they held Benzie (19-5) without a field goal.

The Huskies didn't hit a field goal in the second and fourth quarters. McBain also limited Benzie's fourth-all-time-leading scorer to one field goal for the entire game as Jaxon Childers ended up with nine points — almost all from the free-throw line.

"Benzie was a great team," McBain junior guard Ben Rodenbaugh said. "They played some tough competition and won some tough games. We knew if we could beat them, we had a great chance of going even farther. ... I want to play and keep going and go all the way to the Breslin."

The Ramblers face Ithaca (16-8) at 5:30 p.m. in Tuesday's Houghton Lake regional. The other half of the bracket features Sanford Meridian (20-4) and Beal City (20-4), a team McBain beat by 17 and 24 points in the regular season.

Friday's district final looked like a defensive battle from the start as McBain only led 9-8 after one quarter.

Haverkamp and Rodenbaugh scored the Ramblers' first 18 points, including a spurt of 10 in a row by Rodenbaugh in a span of just over three minutes to put McBain up 24-13 at halftime.

"We just work so well together," Rodenbaugh said. "If I can hit some outside, he can get easy shots inside and we just feed off of each other."

Rodenbaugh ended with 13 points and Haverkamp 10.

With Haverkamp battling foul trouble in the second half, 6-foot-5 freshman Clayton Heuker stepped up big time, ending with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

"I'm so proud of him," Haverkamp said. "It blows me away. He steps up every day in practice. He's always challenging me. He works his butt off, and I couldn't be more proud of him."

Heuker scored 14 points after Haverkamp picked up his fourth foul with 4:10 left in the third quarter and the Ramblers leading 31-16.

"He can do anything," Rodenbaugh said of Heuker. "He's a great shooter. He's a great inside scorer. He does it all, and it helps out a lot. It gives Evan a break, too."

Haverkamp said this was the toughest district he's played in at McBain.

Rowan Zickert paced Benzie Central — which wore its road red jerseys as McBain was technically the home team — with 10 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter. Childers scored nine, Andrew Gray six, and Miles Pritchett four.

"I've really enjoyed this team," Benzie head coach Josh Crocker said. "They have been a lot of fun to coach, and they have accomplished some great things. Undefeated conference champs, 19-5 record, 14-game winning streak."

Benzie also produced the program's best scoring defense, allowing an average of only 45 points per game.

The two programs hadn't faced off since Jan. 18, 2018, when McBain won an 80-42 home decision. The Ramblers won the previous three meetings in the series, dating back to the 2015-16 season.

McBain marched at least to the quarterfinals in four of the last 15 seasons, making the 2011 state finals and 2015 Final Four while winning eight district crowns in that span.

Benzie claimed two district titles in that same time frame, in 2022 and 2015.

Koopman, 58, said he hasn't decided if he'll coach next season after leading his alma mater for the last 30 seasons.

"We hit a little low patch there after we got beat by Hamtramck," Koopman said. "We struggled with (Traverse City) St. Francis and had a little bit of a team talk. We've kind of been back the right way now. I feel like we're in a good place, I really do."

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