By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com
BEAR LAKE — Down by 11 points at the half, the Mason County Eastern boys basketball team stormed back to defeat Bear Lake, 69-57 Friday night in Bear Lake.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was Clay Shoup with 32 points.
It was the second straight win for the Cardinals after a 2-6 start and left them three games under .500 in the West Michigan D League, Pentwater sits atop the league with a 9-0 mark.
The Cardinals, who like everyone else, had last Friday’s game cancelled because of the weather, sputtered in the early going and Bear Lake capitalized and more than doubled them up, 19-8.
Both teams scored 10 points in the second quarter and that left the Cardinals with a 29-18 halftime deficit.
Eastern started to make its climb back in the third with a 16-13 edge and got the deficit below double figures at eight points, 42-34, at the horn.
The Cardinals then exploded for a 35-15 fourth quarter behind 13 points from senior All-Stater Clay Shoup. Trent Hawke and Keegan Nelson had eight apiece.
“Our guys have been playing well over the past three weeks, but have come up short in the fourth quarter a couple times,” said Eastern coach Mark Forner. “Tonight, we talked about playing hard for all four quarters and that’s exactly what we did. Keegan and Trent hit a couple big 3-pointers late in the fourth to give us the lead.
“Bear Lake is a very physical team. We told our kids that we would win it at the free-throw line and that is exactly what happened,” Forner said. “Clay stepped up and took really took control of the game in the last period. He has played banged up all year, but he was able to gut it out tonight and was really the key to our victory.”
Besides Shoup, Hawke contributed 14 points and Nelson finished with 12. The Cardinals sank 19-of-26 free throw shots.
The Cardinals improved their record to 4-8 overall and 3-6 in the WMD. They step out of the league Monday night for a home game with Cadillac Heritage Christian.
