On a night when Macomb High boy’s head basketball coach Jeremy Anderson was honored on becoming the winningest head coach in the program’s history, the Bombers went out and presented Anderson with another victory following a hard-fought 53-49 non-conference win over Canton Tuesday evening at The Hangar.
The win was a measure of revenge for MHS after dropping a 47-44 decision to the Little Giants in the third place game of the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament last month.
And like their first meeting, the Bombers found themselves falling behind early on as Canton led throughout the opening quarter.
Junior guard Sivante Stokes scored the first six points for the Little Giants, who would lead by as many as nine at 16-7 before MHS closed to within 19-11 heading into the second quarter.
The Bombers’ defense came to life and the MHS offense capitalized as junior guard Carter Havens erupted for eight points in the quarter including a 3-pointer with 3:50 left to bring the Bombers back to within 21-18.
MHS trailed 24-23 before junior center Zeke Gandy scored inside right before halftime to send Canton into the locker room with a 26-23 lead.
Senior Nolan Hoge brought MHS to within 26-25 to start the third quarter before the Little Giants went on a 12-3 run. Stokes had nine points during that stretch to give Canton its largest lead of the game at 38-28 with just under four minutes remaining in the period.
The Bombers responded immediately as Hoge scored seven consecutive points to ignite an 11-0 run to finish the quarter.
MHS took its first lead of the night when Drew Watson scored with only one second left to put MHS up 39-38.
Hoge would score again to open the fourth quarter and extend the run to 13-0 and give the Bombers a 41-38 advantage.
Defense was the name of the game down the stretch as MHS was held to only one field goal over the final six minutes, but Canton could manage only a pair of field goals including a trey by junior Easton Lusk with 20 seconds to go to bring the visitors to within 52-49.
Havens hit one of two free throws with 11 seconds left to seal the win.
MHS converted on just 8-of-16 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, but it was enough to improve the Bombers record to 13-7 for the season.
For the night, MHS shot 64 percent (16-of-25) from the foul line.
Havens led a trio of MHS players in double figures with 15 points while Hoge and Watson had 14 and 12 points respectively.
Isaac Leinbach
Other Bombers in the scoring column were Isaac Leinbach with six points, Nick Elbe had four and Cooper Hobson added two points.
“He’s been outstanding the entire season,” said Anderson referring to Havens. “Carter draws the toughest defensive assignment every game and looks forward to it and takes pride in it. Offensively now, he’s gained a lot of confidence so he’s starting to get better scoring games which will open up a lot more options for everybody else.”
Stokes led all scorers with 24 points as Canton fell to 13-7 overall.
The victory capped a special evening for Anderson who became the program’s all-time winningest head coach after the Bombers defeated Geneseo 63-52 on December 2. At the time, that gave Anderson his 226th victory at MHS and prior to the contest, Anderson was awarded an inscribed ceremonial basketball to commemorate the achievement.
“We’ve been really, really fortunate to have some good groups of guys here that were willing to lay it on the line and sacrifice for the good of the group,” said Anderson of the record. “I think that’s maybe just a sign that I’ve been here a long time.”
In the sophomore game, Canton broke away from a 32-32 deadlock after three quarters to edge past MHS 49-41.
Luke Chapla led the Bombers with 17 points, including three treys, while Cameron Keene finished with 13.
Levi Helling added six points and Corey Robinson had five points to round out the MHS scoring.
MHS will face Prairieland Conference rival Illini West for the third time this season on Friday night with each team winning once thus far.
The Bombers defeated the Chargers 48-44 at the Spartan Tip-Off Classic in early December before Illini West came back to down MHS 46-43 in the semifinals of the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament on December 30.
“We told the guys downstairs to enjoy this and rest and be ready to do the exact same thing on Friday,” said Anderson.
Macomb’s Cooper Hobson and Canton’s Braxton Rock. Photos by Andrea Ratermann
