Deck the Halls with Dunks & Rebounds

Day one of the two day tournament featured three games.

Game 1: Albion (47) vs. Lansing Everett (52)

The first matchup of the night saw Albion loose to Lansing Everett 47-52 in overtime.

Everett found themselves in a first quarter hole, but battled back to take the lead 22-20 at halftime. Everett came out of the lockerroom on fire, starting the third quarter with a 9-2 run that made the score 31-22, but then Albion came back to cut the lead to just one basket at the end of the third quarter.

Regulation would end with the score tied 47 all, but Everett would hold Albion scoreless in overtime and score five points for the win.

Albion was led in scoring by senior guard Andrew Nicholson, who had 15 points.

Lansing had a one two punch of Deshawn Qawwee and Darren Kimbrough who had 12 and 13 respectively.

Game 2: Ann Arbor Skyline (67) vs. Warren De La Salle (57)

The second game featured the two teams that traveled the furthest.

Ann Arbor Skyline defeated Warren De La Salle 67-57.

At several points during this game, it semmed as if De La Salle was down double digits. But whenever I looked up at the scoreboard, they were only down by four or five points.

The highlight of this game came in the second quarter when Skyline's senior forward Jordan Woods threw an alley-oop over the defense to senior guard Theron Wilson.

Woods also got in on the dunking after a steal in the third quarter finished with a rim rocking dunk. Woods would also show the crowd he can play defense too by hustling back and blocking a layup attempt.

Wilson sealed the game down the stretch for Skyline by knocking down 8 free throws in the fourth quarter.

Wilson finished the game with 14 points while Woods had 9. But Skyline got solid contributions from Jack Clark (10 points), Peter Bakker (9 points), Sakth Sambandan (9 points), and Jarrius Mann (7 points).

De La Salle got 21 points from Connar Tava, with nine of those coming in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough to defeat Skyline's balanced attack.

Game 3: Battle Creek Central (50) vs. Grand Rapids Union (48)

If there were three words to describe this game, they would be Stuckey and Taylor.

Union’s Demarkus Stuckey scored 26 while Battle Creek Central’s one-two punch of Diante and Nathan Taylor scored 38 points (20 for Diante and 18 for Nathan). Both Taylor's also chipped in with two blocks on the defensive end.

The second and final day of the tournament is tonight at the Fieldhouse. The first game starts at 4:15 pm. Here is the list of games: