Photos by Laura Moat for CatchMark
It’s not often when a team’s leading scorer can finish with zero points and that squad still goes on to a comfortable victory.
North Muskegon did just that in Friday’s 61-34 win over Kent City in a Division 3 boys district championship game at Holton.
Senior Troy McManus, who is averaging about 15 points per game and was coming off a 25-point effort in Wednesday’s district semifinal win over Ravenna, did not score a point but he was fine with that because the Norsemen added a third-straight district-title trophy.
North Muskegon (19-4) advances to Monday’s 7 p.m. regional semifinal at Kent City, where the Norsemen will take on Pewamo-Westphalia (17-6). Blanchard Montabella (22-2) and Grandville Calvin Christian (23-1) play in the 5:30 p.m. regional semifinal Monday at Kent City.
With McManus facing double- and triple-teams, he played the role of distributor and his teammates came through. Lamarkis Graham paced the Norse with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists. Jaxon Lisinski scored 14 points. Sam Gallo had 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Adam Dugener finished with 10 points and three assists.
McManus grabbed five rebounds and Denny Belmonte had three assists.
Jaret Jaramillo led Kent City (14-9) with 14 points. Seth Vanderwest scored 10 and Nick Rude seven for the Eagles.
After a tight fight quarter, in which North Muskegon held an 11-7 edge, the Norsemen broke it open in the second quarter with a 21-3 scoring run.
Check out the photos at the top of this story, courtesy of Laura Moat.
Watch the video below and hear from Norse coach Chuck Rypstra along with McManus and Graham. Video clips and interviews are courtesy of Ken Byard. Make sure you watch the end of the video, as a special guest appears.
