GRAND HAVEN – JT Gill literally could not miss.
The West Ottawa sophomore drained his first five 3-pointers in the first quarter and he had 17 of his 24 points in the opening period.
It helped West Ottawa beat Zeeland East 62-51 in a Division 1 district semifinal game on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at Grand Haven High School.
“JT was lighting it up, man,” teammate Quentin Edwards said. “I love to see it. Everything he’s worked on, it’s showing up now.”
The Panthers (12-11) advance to the district title game to play Grand Haven on Friday at 7 p.m. West Ottawa beat the Buccaneers (13-9) twice during the regular season.
“It’s nice when we can get out and run,” West Ottawa coach Jared Redell said. “In the second half, I just felt like our energy was off. The score doesn’t matter. We have to continue to play the same way the whole game.”
The Panthers had a commanding 29-16 lead after the first quarter and 46-29 at halftime. But Zeeland East went on a 14-7 run to start the second half and kept the game within 10 points for most of the second.
“The way we came out, the energy was high,” Edwards said. “We were pumped up to play. But down the stretch, our momentum went down a little bit.”
Gill finished with six 3-pointers and tied his career high with 24 points.
“It was great having my shot fall like that in the first quarter,” Gill said. “My teammates were looking to find me.”
Edwards finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, Sam Watson eight points and Darien Stewart had seven points and 9 blocked shots.
Will Drnek had a team-high 16 points and Josiah Norman led Zeeland East with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Holland falls to Grand Haven
It was a tough game for Holland from the start in a 72-48 loss to Grand Haven in the other district semifinal on Wednesday.
The Dutch trailed 22-8 after the first quarter and never got within striking distance.
“We got 11 wins,” Holland coach Andrew Meeuwsen said. “In the past two weeks, everyone got the flu. So I thought we could have had a few more wins. I’m very happy for these seniors. They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do.”
For the Dutch, (11-13) Keegan Hulst had a team-high 13 points, Luca Boerma scored 11, Andrew Legg had nine and Josiah Van Hekken added eight.
“They’ve been awesome,” Meeuwsen said of his seniors. “They are coaches on the floor. They all love each other and just love to compete. Those five dudes have been awesome this year.”
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: JT Gill heats up to lead West Ottawa boys basketball to district final; Chix, Holland out
Reporting by Lenny Padilla, Sentinel Contributor / The Holland Sentinel
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