Zach Darmofal pulls up for a jumper against Hillsdale.
(Photo by Nicci Plummer)
The Mendon boys basketball team ran into a buzz saw in the opening round of the Class C district tournament, falling to Hillsdale on Monday night 85-60 at Bronson High School.
Mendon had a difficult time containing Hillsdale’s three-pronged attack, and was forced to give it a try without standout player Joe Gales on the court. Gales left school earlier in the day with flu-like symptoms and was not able to compete.
“I thought the guys fought hard tonight,” said Mendon coach Dave Swanwick, whose squad finished the year 15-4. “We were without Joe, which impacted us more than I hoped.”
Marcus Craft
Mendon fell behind by eight points after the first quarter of play, but stayed within arm’s reach of Hillsdale for the rest of the half. Hillsdale was able to run away in the third quarter, and slammed the door shut good and hard in the fourth quarter, when they outscored Mendon 25-12.
“We had too many defensive breakdowns and Hillsdale grabbed too many second-chance rebounds for easy buckets that just pushed the game out of reach,” Swanwick explained.
Zach Darmofal and Marcus Craft shouldered most of the offensive load for Mendon in the loss. Darmofal finished with 20 points while Craft added 17 points. Mendon wasn’t completely on point from long range, where they finished 6-for-22. Otherwise, they were 42 percent from the field overall.
Jordan Medich
Jordan Medich added nine points for Mendon while Erik Batten had six. Parker Cupp had three points and Kyle Wiswell and Elijah Klepper added two points each.
Darmofal said the team was optimistic even in the absence of Gales.
“We knew that we were missing a great player, but we had good faith that we could step up and get a win. We went kind of cold in the second half and they got too many second-chance points.”
Hillsdale did most of its heavy lifting with Branden Bisher, who led all scorers with 25 points. Andrew Wilcox had 19 points and Martin Peterson added 18. The trio finished with 62 of Hillsdale’s 85 points.
“Zach and Marcus had big games for us but it was just not enough,” Swanwick said. “This was a really fun year to be a coach. What a great group of young men … really proud of their development as players and young men this season.”