Lakers roll past Portagers

Manistee News Advocate Staff Report
December 21, 2011

ONEKAMA — The Bear Lake boys basketball team will take an unbeaten West Michigan D League record into 2012 with a 71-32 win at Onekama on Tuesday night.

Christian Novak scored 21 points and grabbed 19 rebounds to lead the Lakers (4-1, 2-0 WMD), Stephen Verrett had 10 points and 10 rebounds while Alex Ringel and Cody Knight scored 10 apiece. Tyler Groenwald chipped in six points, seven assists and four steals.

“It’s nice even scoring — I like that,” said Bear Lake coach Bryan Groenwald. “I got good contributions from the bench. … I really believe I’ve got the best bench in the league. The guys come in and contribute hard.”

Kyle Acker paced Onekama (0-3, 0-3 WMD) with 13 points and 14 rebounds while Quinn Matthews had nine points and four steals as the Portagers shot just 25 percent from the floor.

“We went long stretches without scoring,” said Onekama coach Jim Hunter.

Bear Lake led by just five at 14-9 after the first quarter but increased its lead to 33-16 at halftime while cruising in the second half. Onekama attempted just four free throws while committing 29 turnovers.

“We just weren’t aggressive enough,” Hunter said. “When the shots weren’t falling, the rest of the game kind of went with it. We talked a little bit about that — you have nights when it’s not happening, your shot’s not dropping and there’s lots of other things you can do on the floor to help your team win other than score. It just kind of snowballed on us.”

The Portagers will look for their first win on Jan. 5 when they host Walkerville.

“We’ve got some things to work on,” Hunter said, “there’s not question about it.”

“We’ve got a little time to heal up and work on some stuff we’ve wanted to work on,” Groenwald said. “It’s a good thing.”