SHELBY — Despite a game effort early on from Shelby, Hart dismissed the Tigers in Friday's rivalry battle just as it had its previous four opponents, taking an 88-42 victory.
The Tigers shook off a quick early start by the Pirates and trailed only 13-11 after Eli Kelley hit a three-pointer, but there was no denying Hart on this night as the Pirates lit up the scoreboard with 13 three-pointers.
"Credit to them, we knew they were going to play hard," Hart coach Nick Bronsema said of Shelby. "We knew we were going to get their best shot early on, and they were knocking us around a little bit. Credit to our guys for keeping their heads. Those guys on our bench really gave us a lift - Bryce Vander Kodde, Trevor Vander Kodde, Grant Ackley, and our foreign exchange student, Lorenzo Furlan."
After Kelley's trey made it a two-point game, Hart (5-0, 3-0 West Michigan Conference Rivers) quickly responded, highlighted by an and-one basket from Jagger Lenon coming off a steal. When Lenon missed the free throw, Bryce Vander Kodde grabbed the rebound and scored through another foul, converting the three-point play to make it 20-12.
The Pirates hit five treys in the first half, and then more than doubled that total in the third quarter alone by knocking down six more on the way to an incredible 35-point quarter.
Hart has adopted an ethos of playing with speed at all times, and seemed to take it personally when it didn't get off to the quick start it hoped for, turning the speedometer up even higher in the third quarter.
Hart's Miguel Escamilla and Shelby's Isaac Garcia pursue a loose ball during Friday's WMC Rivers game at Shelby. The Pirates rolled to an 88-42 win.
"Our goal is to run the whole time, because we know we have depth guys," Bronsema said. "We have really good kids, and we know that in order for us to be where we want to be, we've got to play a certain way. We want to run.
"We take pride in conditioning. We discuss it quite a bit, that if the way we play doesn't work at first, we feel like eventually we're going to hit a moment where we can break things open, so that's what we're searching for."
Shelby (1-3, 1-2 WMC Rivers), which boasts neither the size nor the raw athleticism present on the Hart roster, impressed coach Rick Zoulek with its first-half effort, but without the same depth Hart has, it wasn't sustainable for 32 minutes.
"It wears you right down," Zoulek said. "They've got a lot of different guys that can score and a lot of different guys that can rebound. If we try to concentrate just on rebounding, we forget about scoring. I was really pleased with how hard we played in the first half."
Because the Tigers don't have Hart's size, Zoulek said they had to approach their possessions with a mindset of getting the best shot they can, knowing offensive rebounds were unlikely. However, as Hart pulled away, his team got sucked into playing Hart's game.
Shelby's Leighton Belasco powers up a shot against the defense of Hart's Caleb Ackley during Friday's game at Shelby. The Tigers lost to the Pirates, 88-42.
"We started trying to play their style, so to speak," Zoulek said. "They had more open shots. They had more open looks. We were forcing shots up.
"We don't need to be deliberate, but we've got to be selective in our shots. We were trying to push it up for a while, and when we were attacking the basket, we were doing pretty well there in that first half. If we don't have shots, we have to know enough to pull it out. And that's the tough thing, because we don't get a lot of offensive rebounds, whereas they do."
The gym was raucous throughout the game, but maybe never louder than when Hart's reserves stepped on the floor in the final minutes and enjoyed success, including a three-pointer by Allen Alcala that brought the house down. It was a sign of the strong team chemistry the group has developed, Bronsema said.
"This team, man, they're pretty special because they care about one another," Bronsema said. "I think in the second half, we got to be who we are more so on the offensive end....(Then, the starters) were so excited for Allen because they know a good kid like him deserves the moment almost as much as they do being out there."
Lenon scored 23 points to lead all scorers, and Caleb Ackley notched another double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. For Shelby, Kelley led the way with 11 points.
