ELK RAPIDS — A band competition on the same day as a district basketball final made parking a hassle, but once the final horn sounded, it was all music to Elk Rapids’ ears.
Elk Rapids rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to defeat Glen Lake 61-58 in Friday’s Division 3 boys basketball district championship game at Elk Rapids.
Multiple police cars with lights on directed traffic around Elk Rapids High School, as the main parking lots overflowed due to a major band competition held at the same time. Elk Rapids had shuttle buses moving people back and forth to other lots.
Inside, traffic under the rim was just as intense, as 6-foot-5 Caden Schlicker and 6-3 Jake Moore battled all night with Lakers 6-6 star center Jacob Plamondon.
“We came into this as the underdogs,” Moore said. “Everybody thought Glen Lake was going to win, so it’s just really nice to get the dub. We started the season with them, and we beat them, but they didn’t have Plamondon. Everybody said it was a fake win, but now we played them with Plamondon and we got the dub.”
Elk Rapids won an early-season meeting 64-44 with Plamondon out due to an injury.
“It’s so much bigger,” Elks senior guard Jayden Hresko said. “He’s going GVSU, and he’s a great player. We had to double team him and put a lot of pressure on him to get this win. A win is a win. We gritted it out.”
The victory clinched just the second 20-win season in Elks program history, joining the 1990 team that went 20-0 in the regular season and advanced to the regional finals, finishing 23-1.
Glen Lake ended Elk Rapids’ season six times since 2013, with the Elks’ only postseason win against the Lakers in that span coming in 2022 and Friday night.
“The sky’s the limit now,” Moore said. “I feel like we’ve always had a boundary, which is Glen Lake, at the end of the season. We broke through that. Sky’s the limit right now.”
The Elks (20-3) take on 22-2 East Jordan in Tuesday’s regional at Charlevoix in a matchup of conference champions.
It’s the Elks’ fourth district title this century — with the others coming in 2011, 2018 and 2024 — and seventh in program history.
“I can’t thank our community enough,” Elk Rapids head coach Kevin Ball said, getting emotional. “It’s pretty cool. I’ve never seen a gym like that before.”
Glen Lake led by 13 with 1:37 left in the third quarter, going up 52-39 on Max Lamerson’s right-wing 3-pointer.
“We weren’t scared,” Hresko said. “We had to push the pace, and that’s exactly what we did. We knew they were tired out. They don’t really have a rotation, and we’re pretty deep, so we could just keep running them. That was the plan.”
Hresko scored eight consecutive Elks points to pull his team within seven to start the fourth, including draining all three free throws after being fouled shooting a 3-pointer, then hitting a three with 11 ticks left.
“We tried to emphasize amping up our full-court pressure,” Ball said. “Tried to value our possessions a little better, try to get downhill a bit more and create some more movement offensively, see if we could get some easier looks. Then, of course, we try to focus more on Plamondon, because he was starting to get to us there down the stretch, too.”
Another Hresko three pulled the Elks within a single point, 56-55, with 4:33 remaining, and Moore’s putback with 1:55 left gave Elk Rapids its first lead since 3-2 on a Caden Schlicker baseline 3-pointer.
Cam Kerfoot split free throws with 49.4 seconds left and then drained a pair with 14.5 ticks remaining to give the Elks a 60-56 advantage. Plamondon scored on a putback with 6.6 seconds left to get within a bucket and Mason Cannon hit the second of two free throws with 2.6 on the clock for a 61-58 lead.
“We had three goals this season — win conference, play as hard as we can throughout every game and this one,” Hresko said. “This win is huge. It’s huge.”
A Gabe Hazelton drive and a Lamerson triple — both in the third quarter — were the only second-half Laker points not coming from Plamondon.
“He’s probably one of the best big fellas I’ve seen in northern Michigan in a long time that I’ve even had to coach against,” Ball said of Plamondon. “The whole team, they’re all good. It’s a tough group, but just really proud of our guys. We told them to believe in themselves and come out here and give everything we had. We knew Glen Lake would make runs, and we just told them it was going to be about how we react to the runs.”
Lamerson scored 19 of his 22 points in the first half, with the Lakers holding a 41-30 lead. Plamondon scored 12 points in both halves.
“We had to minimize Plamondon and let him shoot and test them, see if they made them,” Hresko said. “Credit to (Lamerson), he knocked down some shots and we had to step out a little bit.”
Plamondon did his damage with 24 points, but Schlicker and Moore were able to prevent the Grand Valley State University commit from completely taking over the game.
“They were awesome,” Ball said of his two bigs. “It’s probably the best I’ve seen them play a big guy this year. They finally just battled. It was really good to see them rise to the occasion to fight with him. We knew he was going to get his and it was just how many that we could limit.”
Hresko led the Elks with 19 points and three steals, with Kerfoot adding 15 points and three thefts, Tyler Standfest pitching in 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists and Moore contributing 11 points and five boards.
Outside of the 46 points between Lamerson and Plamondon, senior guard Breckin Nerg scored five points. The Lakers graduate three seniors — Plamondon, Nerg and Fletcher Middleton, who missed the game with a concussion.
“They hit their shots,” said Glen Lake head coach Jason Bradford, who pulled a muscle in his leg coaching on the sideline. “It seemed like the ball was always rolling the other way. It was one of those nights. It’s hard for those seniors, playing their hearts out.”