Black Bears skewered by Swordsmen, Maplewood girls roll

HARBOR SPRINGS – The Maplewood Black Bears boys basketball team found itself down by as many as 20 points on Tuesday night as the team played Harbor Light Christian without leading scorer and rebounder Brayden Altoft.

The Black Bears were able to get back in the game before coming up on the short end of a 74-67 score in the non-conference clash.

Maplewood trailed 29-13 after one quarter of play, but outscored the Swordsmen 26-17 in the second quarter to go into halftime trailing 46-39. The visitors took the third quarter as well, nipping the Swordsmen 16-14 to enter the fourth facing a 60-55 deficit.

“I thought our guys fought hard to get back into the game,” Maplewood coach Steve May said. “Our defense was better in the second half, but just couldn’t make enough plays at the end.”

Joh Smith led Maplewood with 20 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, while Ian Browne put a double-double with 16 points and 10 boards. Carver Day scored 15 for the Black Bears, while Luke Royer finished with 12.

Harbor Light was led  by Kirk Rose, who hit for 19 points, and David Chamberlain, who had 18.

Maplewood, 11-5, will be in action again this weekend, when the Black Bears will travel to Hannahville to play in the Northern Lights League tournament.

MAPLEWOOD       13      26      16      12 – 67

HARBOR LIGHT    20      17      14      14 – 74

MAPLEWOOD – Royer 13, Browne 16, Rader 4, Smith 20, Day 15. FT: 7-18; F: 18; Fouled out: None; 3PFG: 6 (Royer 3, Browne 2, Day 1).

HARBOR LIGHT – Hanes 2, Rauch 2, Jakeway 16, Chamberlain 18, Rose 19, Paulus 11. FT: 9-18; F: 15; Fouled out: None; 3PFG: 7 (Rose 4, Henegan 2, Jakeway 1).

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Maplewood girls disarm Lady Swordsmen

HARBOR SPRINGS – The Maplewood Black Bears girls basketball team notched its 15th win of the season on Tuesday night, knocking the Harbor Light Christian Swordsmen 54-32 in a non-conference matchup.

The Swordsmen were determined not to let Chloe May beat them and employed a box-and-one defense on the Black Bear scoring ace. It was effective in the sense that May was not the leading scorer on the night, but was far from perfect as May still managed to post a double-double, despite the extra attention.

“They did a good job of denying Chloe the ball,” Maplewood coach Caroline May said. “We had some other players really step up. Finley (Hudecek) did a great job tonight, scoring and rebounding. We had balanced scoring which was great.”

Hudecek led all scorers in the game with 16 points and also grabbed 12 boards. Aksana Chromy scored 13 points and dished out five assists, while May finished with 10 points and 11 boards.

Harbor Light was led by Jade Evoy’s 15 points, while Laney Jakeway was also in double figures with 10.

Maplewood held a 10-point lead at halftime and went into defensive lockdown mode in the second half, allowing six total points in the final two stanzas.

The Black Bears (15-3), will travel to Hannahville this weekend for the Northern Lights Conference tournament.

MAPLEWOOD       18      15      12      9 – 54

HARBOR LIGHT    14      9       3       3 – 32

MAPLEWOOD – May 10, F. Hudecek 16, Chromy 13, Jentoft 7, E. Hudecek 6, Peterson 2. FT: 5-9; F: 14; Fouled out: None; 3PFG: 5 (F. Hudecek 4, Chromy 1).

HARBOR LIGHT – Jakeway 10, Evoy 15, Chamberlain 7. FT: 9-16; F: 11; Fouled out: None; 3PFG: 3 (Evoy 3).

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Black Bears skewered by Swordsmen, Maplewood girls roll