The Big Rapids Cardinals posted a memorable season by going to the boys basketball Class B state semifinals for the first time school history.
But the Cardinals came tantalizingly close to also making their first trip to the state finals. But Big Rapids couldn’t hang onto a six-point lead in the fourth quarter against Stevensville-Lakeshore in the semifinal game on March 25 at the Breslin Center and fell 61-60 to end its season at 23-3.
Big Rapids had been to the state quarterfinals in 2013 and 2014 but lost to Cadillac both times. This year, Big Rapids defeated a cold-shooting Essexville Garber team 42-23 in the quarterfinals to make the trip to Michigan State.
“This was a fun season, probably the best basketball season, I’ve had at Big Rapids,” senior center Ryan Mackall said.
“They’re a great group of guys, coach Kent Ingles added. “They’re goofy. You don’t always know what they’re going to do next. But they always come to play. They did tonight. It’s state semifinals and was a one-point game and it could have gone either way.”
It was a Lakeshore’s height advantage against Big Rapids’ speed and shooting and it appeared the Cardinals might prevail to advance to the title game against Henry Ford.
The Cardinals were up 30-29 at halftime and 49-44 after the third quarter. Lakeshore’s defensive pressure got the job done at the end.
Big Rapids has been a strong shooting team all year from outside and shot 43.5 percent for the game including 11-of-23 in 3-pointers and 5-of-10 from behind the arc in the second half.
Junior Demetri Martin was 7-of-11 from the floor and scored 22 for Big Rapids.
Senior Kenny Davis had 15 points on five 3-pointers. Both had been deadly from behind the arc all season.
“I just started relaxing and started shooting the ball like I did all season,” Davis said.
“I thought it was kind of a crazy game,” Lakeshore coach Sean Schroeder said. “In all the films we watched on them, we never saw them make that many 3s. They shot the heck out of them. That’s a credit to them. They made a ton of shots. It’s a testimony to my team. We seem to find a way to win. That’s how it’s been during the tournament.
“We rely on throwing the ball inside. When you have guys our size, that makes sense. I’ll give Big Rapids credit, a lot of times they made our defense not look very good. That’s what happens when you makes 3s. But in the end, we got stops.”
Lakeshore came up with some key steals and 3-pointers to take the momentum away from Big Rapids in the late going.
“We missed a couple of free throws and turned the ball over once or twice,” Ingles said. “We had a couple of calls and couple steals that didn’t go our way. They got a couple of big buckets and they executed down the stretch. We may have lost our composure. We let then get a couple of easy buckets and that hurt us.”
Lakeshore’s height advantage didn’t seem to seriously cripple the Cardinals.
“We missed a couple of assignments during the ballgame that I think hurt us,” Ingles said. “To be frank, if you can post up by pushing people away you’ll never stop them, and they got away with it all night long.”
“Next year should be fun,” Martin, a junior, said. “For me, this was fun to play in a big arena. Big Rapids never made it here. To be here is a blessing.”