NORTH MUSKEGON – The North Muskegon boys basketball team can be a pretty dangerous opponent, particularly when junior guard Troy McManus gets hot.
Monday’s district tournament opener against Western Michigan Christian was a perfect example.
The Norse trailed by five points after three quarters, then exploded for 26 points in the fourth to steal a 56-49 victory and advance to Wednesday’s semifinals.
McManus led the late surge with 12 points, including a triple and five clutch free throws in the fourth.
“It was an exciting game,” said McManus, who finished with a game-high 24 points. “It came at the right time, that’s for sure.”
[1]McManus’ scoring binges don’t always guarantee victory, but they always make a big difference for the Norse.
A good example came earlier this season in a home game against Ravenna, when McManus only scored five points in the first half and North Muskegon trailed by 15 midway through the third quarter.
Then he caught fire, scoring 20 points in the second half, and North Muskegon actually led in the final minutes before falling 58-53.
The North Muskegon gym was rocking with screaming fans during the comeback, and McManus created the stir.
“He definitely gets us going in that way,” North Muskegon Coach Chuck Rypstra said about McManus. “He’s still a junior, but he makes some really big plays out there for us.
“We’ve had some real good crowds this year at home and a great atmosphere, and he’s a big part of that, just by making shots and doing the stuff that he does.”
[2]McManus, a 6-foot guard, broke into varsity last season as a sophomore, playing with his older brother, Brennan McManus, who was a senior.
He started out slow, only scoring a handful of points in his first couple of games, and Rypstra thinks he might have been a little tentative while playing with his brother, who was also a big scorer.
But he found his range as the season got going and ended up being one of the leading scorers on the team, along with Brennan.
“He was only a sophomore and his brother was a senior, and I think there was a little bit of deferring to his brother,” Rypstra said. “He had to figure out his role. He was playing with guys two years older than him.
“The first two games of the year I think he had two points and four points, then he kind of settled in, and by the end of the year we could see it was really coming. He was right there with his brother.”
McManus admits he got off to a slow start, but said it didn’t take long for him to find his confidence.
[3]“My brother already had a year (of varsity) under his belt, and I wasn’t quite feeling it in the beginning,” he said. “By the end of the year I wanted the ball in my hands. I thought we played really well together.”
McManus hit his scoring pace right away this season, totaling 18 points in a season-opening win against Muskegon Catholic.
He’s had several other very big games – 20 points in a win over Shelby, 18 points in a win over Montague, 19 points in a loss to Whitehall and 18 in another loss to Whitehall.
Sometimes he does his damage in diverse ways. In a victory over Oakridge, for example, he scored 14 points and snagged 11 rebounds and had four steals.
In the most recent MuskegonSports.com leader board, McManus was averaging 15.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.
“He’s really done a good job this year,” Rypstra said. “He was honorable mention All-Sonference as a sophomore, and we knew he would probably take a big step this year. He can score in a lot of ways, particularly from the outside, but he gets to the basket, too. He has good quickness and shooting ability.
“He’s become the (defensive) focus of everybody, too, which makes it harder, but he still does a ton for us. His scoring average is about 3 ½ points higher than last year.”
[4]McManus insists that he’s far from being the only weapon on the team. He points to other scorers like Jason Bogue, Brandon Rypstra, Sam Gallo, James Young and other teammates who have had big games.
“Some teams only have one good scorer, but when I’m not feeling it Sam or Jason can score in the paint, or Brandon or James can make a move,” he said. “I don’t carry it all. We score about 50 points per game, and I only get about 15 of those.”
North Muskegon has had a good season, with a 13-8 overall record, but the going was tough in the very balanced West Michigan Conference, where just about any team could beat any team, and often did.
The Norse finished tied for third with Montague with an 8-6 record, and they welcomed the arrival of districts so they could have a fresh start. That worked last year, when they won a district title and advanced to the regional finals, and they’re hoping for similar success this season.
North Muskegon will play Shelby on Wednesday night in a semifinal game at Western Michigan Christian High School, with the winner advancing to Friday’s title game. The Norse and Tigers split a pair of close games during the regular season.
“It’s a mix of excitement and nervousness,” McManus said about the Shelby game. “We have to just remember what we did against Shelby the first time (when North Muskegon won). It will be a big moment if we do well.”
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