Photos by Scott DeCamp | CatchMark
SCOTTVILLE — Hart’s boys basketball team wasted no time in establishing the upper hand against host Mason County Central Thursday night in a battle of unbeatens.
Now the Pirates sit alone atop the West Michigan Conference Rivers Division standings.
The title chase is far from over, but Hart took control with a hot start against MCC and convincing 71-50 victory.
The Pirates’ Blake Weirich and Parker Hovey led the way by combining for 51 points.
Hart is now 9-0 overall and 4-0 in the WMC Rivers, while Mason County Central is 7-1 and 3-1, respectively. The teams play again on Feb. 23 at Hart.
Here are more details and notables from the game:
- Weirich, a 6-foot-5 junior forward, led all scorers with 27 points. He scored 19 of those points in the first half. He did his damage inside and out, finishing with four 3-pointers. Weirich also grabbed 11 rebounds.
- Hovey, a 6-6 senior guard, finished with 24 points. He was very close to another triple-double, grabbing 15 rebounds to go with eight assists and three blocks. He also made a pair of 3s.
- Hart senior sharpshooter Diego Escamilla hit two 3-pointers right away and finished with 17 points including four triples.
- Hart jumped on Mason County Central from the get-go. The Pirates led 15-2 midway through the first quarter and carried a 24-11 advantage into the second quarter.
- Hart took a 43-26 lead into halftime. MCC cut its deficit to 47-38 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter, but the Pirates finished the period with a 5-0 run.
- Mason County Central senior guard Will Chye, who reached the 1,000-point milestone in Tuesday’s home win over White Cloud, led the Spartans with 13 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
- MCC senior Kolden Myer had 10 points and five rebounds.
- MCC seniors Kaiden Cole and Jack VanderHaag added eight points apiece.
- MCC senior Jayden Perrone finished with six points and five assists.
- Next games: Hart hosts Hesperia on Tuesday (Jan. 17), while Mason County Central visits Shelby on the same night.
