FRUITPORT – For the first time since 2020, the Fruitport boys basketball team has won a district tournament game.
The cold spell came to an end on Monday night when the fired-up Trojans jumped out to an early lead and defeated Montague 48-35 in the opener of the Division 2 district tournament at Fruitport High School.
With the victory, the Trojans advance to host Whitehall on Wednesday in the district semifinal round at 7 p.m.
“It’s the first in a long time,” said sophomore Grade Anspach about getting a district victory. “It feels good. They knocked us out last year and ruined our Senior Night last year too, so it feels good.”
[1]The postseason win was a welcome fresh start for the Trojans, who are 14-9 but struggled toward the end of the regular season, losing three of their last five games.
Fruitport came out hungry and grabbed an 8-0 lead before Montague was forced to call a time out.
“That set the tone,” said Fruitport head coach Steve Erny about the fast start. “To get up early was really due to our execution and rebounding. Getting off to quick starts has been huge for us.”
Despite Montague scoring the next five points, Fruitport ended the first quarter with a solid 17-8 lead.
[2]Anspach, the younger brother of Fruitport’s leading scorer Bode Anspach, led the Trojans with six points on two three-pointers in the opening quarter.
In the second quarter, freshman DayDay Williams had eight of the Trojans’ 11 points as Fruitport extended the lead to 28-16.
Offense was limited in the third quarter as Fruitport outscored Montague 8-6 and took a 36-22 lead into the fourth.
Five different Trojan players had points in the fourth quarter, when Fruitport was outscored 13-12 but still cruised to the victory.
Grade Anspach led Fruitport with 12 points on the night while Williams and Andrew Spyke each added 10.
[3]Montague, which finished the season with a 12-11 record, was led by Owen Raeth and Cortland Schneider with seven points apiece.
The Wildcats turned the ball over 27 times in the game, and many of the miscues were forced by the fired-up Trojan defense.
“I think we played intense,” Erny said. “I feel like Montague has a couple guys who we knew could score and hurt us. But it was good to see our guys play really hard on that end. At this point in the year, if you’re not playing hard on the defensive end, you’re not going to win.”
The Trojans will try to get revenge on Wednesday against a Whitehall squad that beat then 58-48 in December.
It won’t be an easy task, because Whitehall, co-champion of the West Michigan Conference Rivers Division, is 17-5 and has won 13 of its last 14 games.
“We’re going to have to defend really well,” Coach Erny said. “We’ll also have to put the ball in the bucket more efficiently than we did tonight, because they have the tendency to score high numbers. We’ll have to really lay it all on the line defensively and see where the chips fall.”
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