Hank Porter flies in for the shot.
On Tuesday, January 26, the Cedar Springs boys Varsity basketball team traveled to Forest Hills Northern to take on the league-leading Huskies. The Huskies entered the game undefeated and leading the OK Blue conference standings.
Jason Gust hit a 3-pointer to start the scoring for Cedar Springs, and then another to end the first quarter and the Red Hawks held a 12-8 lead. Cedar held on to the 4-point lead during the second quarter on baskets by Hank Porter and Ryan Harper and a couple of Gust free-throws.
The Huskies battled back to in the third to tie the game with 5:42 left. Then in the next minute and a half there were 3 ties and 2 lead changes as the Red Hawks traded baskets with the league leaders.
Alec Hanmer turns the corner.
Then the Huskies slowly pulled out to an 8-point lead in the fourth quarter with 1:10 to go in the game. Cedar Springs refused to quit and consecutive 3-pointers by Seth Coxon and Gust brought the Red Hawks within 2 points with 20 seconds to go. Cedar fouled the Huskies who converted on 1 of 2 free throws to give Forest Hills a 3-point lead with 10 seconds left. A Gust 3-point attempt to tie the game was just off the mark at the buzzer and the Huskies escaped with the victory. The final score, in a valiant effort by the Red Hawks, was Forest Hills Northern 51, Cedar Springs 48.
Jason Gust led the Red Hawks with 22 points, Coxon had 8, Porter 7, Harper 4, Trey Reed and Josh Hall 3 each, and Tyler Baker had 1.
On Friday, the Red Hawks continued their tough week on the road, traveling to Comstock Park to take on the 2nd place Panthers. The Red Hawks traded blows with the Panthers and kept the game close with Comstock Park leading 12-10 after one quarter.
The trademark high pressure Panther defense took its toll on the Red Hawk in the 2nd quarter. The Panthers dominated the quarter and led Cedar Springs 35-19 at the half. The Red Hawks didn’t quit and cut the 16-point Panther lead to 11 on a Seth Coxon 3 pointer and a Ryan Harper bucket. Then after a Panther basket, Jason Gust took over the game and scored 9 straight points to cut the Panther lead to 5 points with one minute left in the 3rd quarter. Cedar would get no closer. Comstock Park finished the game with a 29-13 run to win the game easily by a score of 67-46.
Gust led Cedar with 29 points, Coxon had 7, Harper 6, Reed 2, Porter and Ryan Dines 1 each. Cedar Springs travels to West Catholic High School Friday for the 4th and final stop on the tough 4-game league road trip. Cedar is back home again Tuesday, February 9 for the big game against archrival Sparta.
