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Ottawa Hills' Amani Pritchett (center) shoots over Wayland's Chase Burgess and Kevin Farmer in Ottawa Hills' upset victory Thursday.
The Ottawa Hills Bengals slayed another giant Wednesday, upsetting the top-seeded and heavily favored Wayland Wildcats, 59-52, in the WBBL Game of the Week, sponsored by Good GMC Isuzu.
After yet another narrow victory over yet another elite team, we may be to the point where Ottawa Hills defeating a powerhouse team can no longer be called an “upset.”
“Wayland won the (OK Gold) conference, but that didn’t mean anything to us,” said Ottawa Hills sophomore point guard Devon Ivy, who was instrumental in keying the Bengals’ fast break attack. “We came out, played together and did what we had to do on defense. When we do that we can beat anybody.”
Ottawa Hills' Devon Ivy (left) sizes up Wayland's Anthony Castaneda.
“He has the heart of a lion,” said Ottawa Hills coach Van Mayfield of Ivy, who paced Ottawa Hills with 11 points and four assists. “To be in the tenth grade and step up like he did tonight, Devon did a great job.”
He didn’t step up alone. In keeping with their offensive parity, half a dozen players scored six or more points for Ottawa Hills. Senior forward Kendrick Craig joined Ivy in double digits, scoring 10 points for the Bengals, while senior forward Willie Duke scored eight and snagged 10 rebounds.
Wednesday’s meeting was the third between Wayland and Ottawa Hills this season. The teams split the regular season at one win a piece, including a Wayland win just one week earlier, but Ottawa Hills won when it counted most, as their latest victory places them in a District Championship game against East Kentwood on Friday.
“I told the kids, once the tournament starts, your record means nothing,” said Mayfield. “This gives us new life. I take my hat off to the kids. I tell you what, I am so proud of them.”
Ottawa Hills led for virtually the entire game, and weathered a third-quarter Wayland run to hold on for the victory.
“We were a little sloppy at times,” lamented Mayfield, “we didn’t execute as well as we would have liked, but our guys played hard. And sometimes when you play hard you can persevere over all that stuff.”
Wayland's Alex Lyle shoots a reverse layup.
For Wayland, the loss signals the end of a great season. The Wildcats, accustomed to excelling from three-point range, simply struggled to make shots all night. They fought until the very end, but couldn’t overcome a dismal 3-21 performance from long distance.
Senior forward Alex Lyle was the biggest victim, making only one of his nine three-point attempts. Lyle, averaging 19 points per game for the Wildcats, was held to a mere 12 points on the night. Senior Kevin Farmer also scored 12, and junior guard Weston Hudson and senior forward Anthony Castaneda added 10 points each for the Wildcats.
“We just couldn’t get into the driver’s seat,” said Wayland coach Mike Hudson. “We had good, open looks, but they just weren’t going in. Credit to Ottawa Hills for the win, though. They do not play like an eight win basketball team.”
Come Friday, East Kentwood would do well to remember that.
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Top seeded? I must have missed something. When did they start seeding high school teams? What seed is Ottawa?
U know what they meant i mean Wayland was the favorite to win the distict everybody knows that. They just said top seed to make it seem like the march maddness tourney just something fun. Wayland was the top seed in the district, but its Ottawa and EK playing 2morrow everybody wants to see this game so its going to happen.
[...] Ivy started his ascension into the ranks of West Michigan’s elite guards (at, oh, about this time last year), Ottawa Hills has had the capability of beating any opponent. Their manic run-and-gun [...]