Harbor Light boys show second half fight, fall to TC Christian in opener

HARBOR SPRINGS — They’re building something at Harbor Light Christian at the moment.

Well, that’s both literally and figuratively speaking.

Construction on the Solid Rock Center at the school continues, which will be the future home of Swordsmen athletics, though so too does construction on the Harbor Light boys’ basketball program.

On Monday night at home, brick laying continued for the Swordsmen as they opened the season with a matchup against a tough Traverse City Christian team.

Down 22 points midway through the third quarter, Harbor Light’s young squad never stopped believing, cutting the deficit to six early in the fourth, until the Sabres put on another run to eventually earn a 74-53 win.

To show that kind of second half fight, Harbor Light coach Jason Roussin was proud of his guys.

“We have a ton of potential and that’s what’s great,” said Roussin. “If we’re building a house, we’re putting in the foundation. That’s what’s exciting about this year and the years to come here at Harbor Light, along with the addition of the Solid Rock Center, there’s a lot of excitement. We have goals and this is only game one.”

Things didn’t exactly start out great for the Swordsmen Monday, as they fell behind 17-6 after the opening quarter while playing a bit out of control.

Though it’s a young group, with just an eighth grader running the point, Roussin doesn’t look at a team without even a senior on the roster as that young because of what he’s seen them do, which included winning the first district title in a decade a year ago.

“Even though we have so many underclassmen, I don’t really consider us young anymore because we’ve played together,” said Roussin. “The first quarter we had nine turnovers and then the rest of the game we didn’t have that many. Just some first game jitters.”

Things settled down some in the second, though TC Christian’s Levi Schultz kept his big first half going with nine more points in the second, including a transition dunk. The Sabres eventually led in a 35-20 game at the break.

Traverse City continued to stretch the lead in the third, bringing it to a 46-24 game, before shots started to fall and things slowed down for the Swordsmen.

An old-fashioned 3-point play from Corin Paulus got the Swordsmen started, then Landon Jakeway finished drives and Truett Kruger hit a pair of 3-pointers to bring the Swordsmen to within 10 after three, 48-38.

“One thing that we believe in here at Harbor Light is you never quit no matter what the score is,” said Roussin. “The kids battled to six and I appreciate that. We got in foul trouble early and our main offensive threat was on the bench for a quarter and a half.”

Vaughn Henagan opened the fourth with a three for Harbor Light, then Kruger added another to make it a 50-44 deficit for the Swordsmen.

The Sabres eventually put their foot down and closed on a 19-4 advantage as Reece Broderick continued to rain in corner threes for Traverse City.

Still, Roussin was happy to see his guys get back to playing like they’re capable of in the second half.

“They were playing our game, which is fast tempo, under control and making the passes that we want to make, not the pass they want us to make,” added Roussin.

Jakeway, only an eighth grader, finished with 16 points to lead Harbor Light, while Kruger and David Chamberlin each scored 10 points.

For TC, Broderick led with 24 points, hitting six 3-pointers, while Schultz scored 17.

The season continues in a hurry for the Swordsmen, as they get right back to the court on Tuesday, Dec. 6 with their first road trip of the season to Gaylord St. Mary, which will come as another test.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Harbor Light boys show second half fight, fall to TC Christian in opener