NORTH MUSKEGON — For most of three quarters Friday night, Hart’s battle with North Muskegon was everything you want high school basketball to be: Two great teams playing at their best in front of a raucous crowd with a conference championship on the line.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, the Norsemen’s Adam Dugener found another gear late in the third quarter, helping his team finish the quarter on a run and pull away for a 73-56 win, securing the West Michigan Conference Rivers championship for the home team.
Dugener, who will play at Calvin University next year, exploded for 37 points in the game and put up 10 of them in the third quarter, expanding a three-point Norsemen lead to 12. He punctuated his spectacular night by swishing a three-quarters court shot at the third-quarter buzzer - right in front of the Hart bench.
“As soon as he hit that, this is what happened to Hart,” North Muskegon coach Chuck Rypstra said, miming slumping his shoulders. “You looked, and they all went (like that), and it’s just, ‘What are we going to do?’
“A few years ago they had (Parker) Hovey. And we were good, but we could not (stop them), because he just kept making every play. I’m going to find (Hart coach) Nick (Bronsema) and tell him that Adam’s gone (after this season), finally, just like I was glad when Hovey was gone.”
It wasn’t just Dugener, though at times it felt like it; the Norsemen hit 14 three-pointers in the game, with their senior star hitting half of those. They shot over 45% from beyond the arc as a team, a remarkable figure.
Well into the third quarter, though, despite how well North Muskegon played, Hart (17-3, 9-2 WMC Rivers) matched it shot for shot. North Muskegon built a 16-9 lead early, but the Pirates stormed back with a 15-3 spurt to take the lead. Back and forth they went, with high-level play on both ends a hallmark of the game.
Dugener hit consecutive treys to put North Muskegon ahead again, 30-27, but Hart finished the first half on an 8-2 run. Caleb Ackley had the highlight play of that sequence, coming up with a steal, then leading the fast break before passing off to Jagger Lenon for a driving layup. Hart led 35-32 at the half.
“We wanted their best,” Bronsema said of North Muskegon. “We got some amazing play from North Muskegon. Our guys showed resilience. We didn’t show resilience the full game, but we showed resilience early on, and it kept us going. We’d like to sustain it for four quarters, but I’m very proud, because we are trying to grow throughout the season.
“We want games like this, and we love everything about this game because it’s going to make us stronger in the end. We don’t love the result, obviously. You want to win, and that’s why we play.”
The teams kept trading haymakers in the third. After Braylen Burrel put the Norsemen ahead with two three-pointers, Hart took the lead again when Luke VanderWilk made a terrific post move for a bucket, followed by taking a no-look pass from Kolton Rockwell and scoring. However, Dugener and North Muskegon just kept drilling treys, and eventually Hart ran out of answers.
“When the moment arises, it always feels like the better players are magical,” Bronsema said of Dugener. “I used to say it about Keontae Barnes all the time (at Orchard View) and Parker Hovey since I’ve been here; big-time players show up and do some amazing things. I wasn’t surprised, if that makes sense, because we practiced like he was going to play this way, but we were hoping to defend him a little bit better.”
Ackley led the Pirates with 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Rockwell had 15 points and six boards. Lenon chipped in 13 points, all in the first half.
Despite the WMC Rivers dream being dashed, Hart still has much to play for. Next week begins the district tournament, and the Pirates are the No. 2 seed opposite top seed Ludington - another team that was victimized by North Muskegon in a road game this season.
Bronsema appeared confident his team would respond well to the disappointment of Friday’s defeat and use it as fuel going forward.
“They’re wonderful people,” Bronsema said. “They’re going to take this the right way. We had a wonderful talk after this. They’re not satisfied by any means. They’re not excited, even though they did many nice things. We’re looking to refine things, and finish out the season. We take it one game at a time. We really are playing (against) ourselves all the time. That’s our goal.
“The big thing is, I don’t want to stop coaching these kids because they’re really great people, and they’re so much fun to be around. I feel like they make me better just by being around me. I don’t want it to end.”
