How Michael Haig found his shot for Holland Christian in win over Fruitport

HOLLAND - Michael Haig was frustrated after his team lost the conference opener last week to Coopersville.

So the Holland Christian senior took out his frustrations on Fruitport.

Haig had 16 points and eight assists as the Maroons beat Fruitport 62-36 on a snowy Tuesday night.

“It’s really big,” Haig said of the win. “We wanted to start conference play strong, but we couldn’t get it done against Coopersville. But it feels good to get a conference game on the board and pushing toward our goal of winning the conference title.”

Holland Christian led 29-9 at halftime after holding the Trojans to just three field goals in the half.

“I thought we came out with good energy,” Haig said. “We were locked in defensively as a team. Everyone was stopping their man and we were shooting the ball confidently.”

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Holland Christian improves to 1-1 in the O-K Blue Conference and 5-4 overall. Fruitport falls to 0-2 in conference and 4-5 overall. The Maroons lost to Coopersville 51-42 on Friday.

“Coming off the Coopersville game, we had a bad taste in our mouths,” Maroons coach Brad Jansen said. “So we had a really good practice yesterday. One of our assistant coaches said it best: I think we won this game yesterday in practice. We knew because of the snow and it being on a Tuesday night so there weren’t going to be a lot of people there. So we talked about them creating their own energy. It starts with defense. We held (Fruiport) to nine points at halftime. And at one point, they only had two field goals.”

Haig drained four 3-pointers before sitting in the fourth quarter. Jansen said he knows Haig has more in him and told him to shoot more.

“We challenged him a little bit after the Coopersville game,” Jansen said. “We told him, ‘You need to shoot more.’ He shot the ball well tonight.”

Eight different Holland Christian players scored on Tuesday. Caleb Karsten had 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds and Grant VanderZee had nine points.

“He had 10 boards and he got to the hoop really well,” Jansen said of Karsten. “What I like about him is, he’ll take what’s there. He likes to get his teammates open. He had an awesome find to Grant after he pump-faked and drove to the lane. He’s one of the better rebounders on the team, too. We told him, ‘You can affect the game in a lot of ways.’”

Holland Christian 62, Fruitport 36

FRUITPORT (0-2, 4-5)

Daiton Campbell 0 0-2 0, Satchel Norwood 1 0-0 2, Day Day Williams 3 1-4 8, Kyle Burke 1 0-0 2, Grade Anspach 6 0-0 14, Evan Butler 0 1-2 1, Hudson Hazekamp 1 0-1 2, Trevor Rusnak 1 2-2 5, Ryan Bosch 0 2-4 2. Totals 12 6-15 36.

HOLLAND CHRISTIAN (1-1, 5-4)

Luke Bushouse 1 0-0 2, Luke Michmerhuizen 3 0-2 6, Caleb Karsten 5 0-0 11, Michael Haig 6 0-0 16, Caden VanHuis 1 0-0 3, Alden Baker 3 0-1 6, Henry Langerjans 3 0-1 7, Grant VanderZee 3 3-4 9. Totals 25 3-8 62.

Fruitport 6 - 3 - 12 - 15 = 36

Holland Christian 9 - 20 - 19 - 14 = 62

3-pointers - Fruitport 4 (Anspach 2, Rusnak, Williams). Holland Christian 7 (Haig 4, Karsten, VanHuis, Langerjans). Rebounds - Fruitport 26 (Bosch 9), Holland Christian 37 (Karsten 10). Assists - Fruitport 4 (Williams 3). Holland Christian 14 (Haig 8). Total Fouls - Fruitport 5, Holland Christian 15. Fouled out - None.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Michael Haig found his shot for Holland Christian in win vs Fruitport