There weren’t many people who thought the Coopersville boys basketball team had a chance to beat powerful Grand Haven in the Division 1 district semifinals on Wednesday.

That wasn’t surprising, since Grand Haven came in with an 18-3 record while Coopersville was 14-7.

But the Broncos believed they could do it, and that self-confidence came into play in Coopersville’s stunning 57-50 victory over the Buccaneers at Muskegon High School.

Coopersville, which rallied to beat Grand Rapids Union on Monday in the first round of districts, now advances to play the Muskegon Big Reds on Friday at 7 p.m. for the district title.

“It was a good win for the kids tonight,” said Coopersville Coach Pete VanKampen. “It’s always a big win when people don’t think you’re good enough to beat somebody. We watched a lot of film on them, and we thought we could do things to hurt them. We’re a tough matchup for teams and our kids are fearless.”

Coopersville’s Travis Rosel, seen here in action earlier this season, was one of three Broncos to score in double figures against Grand Haven.

The game didn’t start out well for the Broncos, who trailed 16-7 after one quarter. But they pulled themselves together in the second quarter, outscoring Grand Haven 13-7 and only trailing 23-20 at halftime.

Grand Haven widened its lead to eight points early in the third quarter, but then Coopersville went on a big run and ended up outscoring the Bucs 21-12 in the third and led 41-35 headed into the fourth.

The Broncos had a 16-15 advantage in the fourth quarter. Grand Haven pulled to within three points, 50-47, down the stretch, but Coopersville nailed down the win with success from the free throw line.

Mark DeVries and Luke Sanford were each 4-for-4 from the line in the fourth quarter for the Broncos.

VanKampen believes his team was prepared for the tournament by the tough competition it faced all season in the very tough O-K Blue conference. Coopersville finished fourth in the league, but learned a lot of lessons and improved along the way.

“Our league is really good,” the coach said. “It’s one of the most talented leagues in the area. We finished behind three private schools, and we were very competitive all year. We got through some injury time, we’re healthy now and we’re excited.”

Sanford led Coopersville with 22 points, Travis Rosel added 15 and DeVries had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Bashir Neely scored 19 points for Grand Haven and Harrison Sorrelle added 11.