Local Sports Journal

Bernard Smith didn’t just eclipse the 1,000-point mark his career … he sailed well past it on Saturday night.

Smith, a senior center, scored 31 points and led the Western Michigan Christian Warriors to a 65-60 nonleague boys basketball victory over the host North Muskegon Norsemen. Smith also snared 15 rebounds.

Smith took an inside pass from Riley Arkema late in the first quarter and scored to eclipse the mark. Smith needed nine points to reach the plateau.

“A lot of teams will double and triple team Bernard and having 1,000 points in your career will do that to you,” WMC coach Kyle Mastenbrook said. “He played very well for us in a physical game down there. I’m thankful he kept his cool.”

WMC (10-5) led 15-13 after one quarter. While Smith was leading WMC with 10 points in the quarter, NM’s Antonio Gordon was red hot. He scored 11 of his team’s 13 points in the opening eight minutes. Gordon finished with 24 points.

The Warriors took a 26-22 lead into halftime.

Sophomore Nate Dugener sparked the Warriors in the third quarter with a pair of 3-pointers. He hit two more treys in the fourth quarter and finished with 13 points.

“We need some shooting tonight and we got that from Nate Dugener,” Mastenbrook said. “Hitting four 3-pointers in the second half really opened it up for us where we hadn’t had any of that in the first half.”

NM poured in 26 points in the fourth quarter, led by Gordon with 10 and Marco Visconti with six.

However, WMC was able to keep the Norsemen at bay thanks to Dugener’s hot hand.

Visconti finished with nine points and Bailey Cooper came off the bench to score eight for NM.

Western Michigan Christian 65, North Muskegon 60

NORTH MUSKEGON
Antonio Gordon 7 6-10 24, Reese McCamant 3 0-0 7, Ryan Gannon 3 1-3 7, Brody Scott 1 0-0 2, Marco Visconti 2 4-10 9, Bailey Cooper 2 2-2 8, Mitch Edick 1 0-0 2, James Duncan 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 14-27 60.

WESTERN MICHIGAN CHRISTIAN
Alex Rop 2 0-0 4, Jacob Ray 3 1-3 7, Sam Mast 0 0-0 0, Derrick Holt 1 2-3 5, Bernard Smith 12 7-9 31, Jared Varnado 0 1-6 1, Devin Eekhoff 1 0-0 2, James Godwin 1 0-0 2, Nate Dugener 4 1-2 13. Totals 24 12-23 65.

NM 13 – 9 – 12 – 26 — 60
WMC 15 – 11 – 17 – 22 — 65

3-pointers: Gordon (4), Visconti, Cooper (2); Holt, Dugener (4). Technicals: Visconti. JV: NM 56-54.