TRAVERSE CITY — Traverse City Christian slowed down the Harless twins just enough to claim a 57-47 win Friday.
The senior Laker standouts combined for 29 points in Friday’s nonconference boys basketball game at TC Christian, but Garrett Schultz stepped up, taking over as the Sabres’ main facilitator in the absence of starting point guard Asher Coates.
Coates is getting an MRI done Sunday to see the injury’s extent and how much time he’ll miss.
“Hopefully he can be back, definitely for big game against Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart (Jan. 19),” said Schultz, who committed to playing golf at Cornerstone University, where his brother Levi plays basketball. “We have to go down there in a couple weeks, and I hope he’s back for that. He brings a lot to the team and a lot of energy, and he’s our main point guard, so it’d be nice to have him back.”
TC Christian jumped out early, leading 11-3 six minutes into the game and 13-8 after a quarter.
The Sabre lead would be as much as 14 after a Sam Bigger third-quarter drive. The Lakers chipped into that with a 5-0 spurt to end the third quarter, drawing within eight on a pair of Grady Harless free throws and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Spencer Mallison.
TC Christian’s biggest lead was 15 on a pair of Schultz free throws for a 52-37 advantage, a play saw Grady Harless foul out with 3:46 remaining. Bear Lake would still cut the lead back to single digits in the final minutes, on a Myles Harless 3-pointer and an Easton Nowak spinning layup.
“All of our guys have stepped up in practice, and they’ve worked really hard,” Schultz said. “We can all trust them with the ball. Ethan Johns, Isaac Torbet, they can bring up the ball with pressure, and they can handle it fine. My teammates trusted me with shots and driving, dishing to them and drawing fouls.”
Schultz led the Sabres with 21 points, with Sam Bigger adding 13 and Ethan Johns 12.
“Points are great, but I want to know who’s playing defense, who’s getting rebounds,” Sabres head coach Rene LaFreniere said. “Christian Brower, he’s a dog out there. He just sets screens and takes all the punishment from everybody else. That’s what wins your games, right there.”
Grady Harless produced 15 points and five rebounds, while Myles Harless put up 14 points and 14 rebounds.
“Everything runs through them, whether it’s the guy running the point or they’re swinging around looking for the other guy, either on the block or or for an open look,” LaFreniere said. “If it does deviate and go to one of the other guys, they’re immediately looking to go back to one of them. So we just really keyed on them. They still had 14 and 15. They’re good athletes, good players. They’re going to get their points.”
Nowak chipped in nine points and three rebounds, Mallison added a half dozen points, Jacob Farsing had three points and three rebounds, Myles Hallead grabbed four rebounds and Caleb Forward had two assists.
The Sabres threw a triangle-and-two defense at the Lakers in the third quarter to change things up from a 3-2 zone.
“We prepared for them,” Schultz said. “They came out with a lot of energy, and they’re fast, they’re good shooters. We came out with a good plan, with a little triangle and two on them, and I feel like we locked them down pretty well.”
TC Christian remained undefeated at 9-0.
“We just played our game,” Lakers head coach Christian Novak said. “This is how we should play every night, and we’ve gone through a couple games where we haven’t and we’ve learned from it. Most teams are keying on Grady and Myles. So other guys have to step up. They did tonight. If we don’t miss 18 to 20 points that where the bunnies, we win the game.”
Bear Lake (6-4, 2-1 West Michigan D League) travels Monday to Brethren.
“It just prepares us,” Nowak said. “They’re obviously a good team. Now we turn around and we have another non conference (game), but then we get to Baldwin, who is on top of the conference right now, so we have to handle that. We have a couple of games coming up that we have to handle. This is good training for that.”