By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com
CUSTER — It turned out to be a Homecoming celebration for the Mason County Eastern boys’ basketball team Friday night.
After a rather after a worrisome start that found the Cardinals falling behind, the hosts stormed back for a 74-60 victory over the Walkerville Wildcats. Clay Shoup was unstoppable for the Cardinals with 39 points, including nine 3-pointers.
Eastern caught fire in the second quarter, hitting five 3-point baskets to put the Wildcats in its rearview mirror, and rolled on to a West Michigan D League victory.
It was a makeup game from earlier this season.
“Our energy was much better than it was (Thursday) night, and that’s what we preach to our kids,” said Cardinal coach Mark Forner. “First three or four minutes of every game we just struggle to get going, but then Clay became Clay again (he scored only eight points the night before)
“He was feeling it, so we rode his momentum. Plus, Ronnie Hasenbank and Keith Craig came off the bench and we switched to man-to-man (defense) that really gave us some energy, and that changed the game.”
Walkerville quieted the partisan Eastern crowd with a 20-15 edge at the end of the first quarter, but that lasted only until the start of the second quarter.
Once the Cardinals started bombing away from beyond the arc, the complexion of the game completely changed. The Cardinals rode that hot outside shooting to a 24-9 second period and went into the half with a 39-29 lead.
“We started out good and then they switched up the defense on us and we just didn’t adjust to them,” Walkerville coach Lee Oomen said. “We had some open shots and just didn’t make them. We shot terrible all night. We are improving. They found our weaknesses on our zone defense. We switched up several different defenses and they adjusted well.”
The Cardinals stayed hot in the third quarter, especially at the free throw line where they converted 7-of-8 chances and outscored the Wildcats by nine, 22-13 to open up a 19-point lead,
Shoup finished with nine 3-pointers and was 8-of-14 at the stripe within his point total. Zach Howe contributed 10 points while Trent Hawke and Aaron Darke had eight apiece.
Walkerville’s leading scorer was Collin Chase with four triples and 26 points. Connor Shafer added 11 and De La Paz contributed 10.
Eastern moved its record to 7-10 overall, 5-8 in the league. The Cardinals travels to Baldwin Tuesday for another WMD matchup.
The Wildcats are 6-8 overall, 6-5 in the WMD. Walkerville travels to Traverse City on Monday for a non-conference game with Grand Traverse Academy.
