North Muskegon’s boys basketball team put the finishing touches on a perfect regular season Monday night in an 83-36 victory at Holton. Make that, the first unbeaten regular basketball season in school history.
As the Norsemen have been stating, going 22-0 was never the goal. The state’s second-ranked team in Division 3 is eyeing a deep state tournament run.
“To go 22-0, you know, it’s the first time our school’s ever done it so it really means a lot because we worked really hard and we have a great group of seniors leading us,” North Muskegon junior guard James Young said. “We know this is only the start and we’ve got to keep it going, going into the postseason.”
North Muskegon, which finished 12-0 in the West Michigan Conference Rivers Division, opens its state tournament run with a district semifinal game at 5:30 p.m. next Wednesday (Feb. 28) at Hesperia against the winner of the Holton-Shelby first-round matchup.
North Muskegon jumped on Holton in the regular-season finale. The Norsemen led 24-10 after one quarter and 47-23 at halftime. The lead grew even more in the third quarter with a 25-6 surge by the Norse.
“We were able to jump out to a good lead and kept it rolling,” North Muskegon veteran coach Chuck Rypstra said. “Holton hit some deep 3s to keep it close for a while, but in the end we just made a few more.”
North Muskegon senior Jaxon Lisinski led all scorers with 23 points. Senior Lamarkis Graham had 18 points and five steals, while sophomore Adam Dugener scored 16 for the Norsemen.
Junior TJ Byard finished with eight points and five assists, while Young contributed five points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists.
“It’s pretty special to me because it’s my last year doing this,” Graham said. “Just to have this momentum going into the postseason is great.”
For Holton (2-19, 0-11 WMC Rivers), Carter Brant scored 15 points and Keon McMillan had 14.
Even though North Muskegon is a targeted team with its lofty record and state ranking, Young and Graham said the Norsemen do not feel any pressure.
“Our goals are getting championships and moving on,” Young said. “The postseason is what you work for, right, so we’re going to keep working hard at practice and we’ve got a week to prepare.”
Photos by Mia Milner for CatchMark
