Dansville at Pewamo-Westphalia – – CMAC Boys Game of the Week – – The Bleacher Denizen – – February 10, 2023 – – by Chuck Krafft

Tonight, your Bleacher Denizen is off to Pewamo-Westphalia to watch as the P-W Pirates host the Aggies from Dansville.

Frequently, the drive on Grange Road to Westphalia can be icy and challenging; your Bleacher Denizen had nice, dry roads tonight!

While we wait for the game to start, here is a video of my original country tune sung by an excellent country singer, Mark Wilcox! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PURLmxT_3Q

The Dansville Aggies are 5-3 in the CMAC and 8-7 overall. This is a bit misleading as five of their losses were in the first five games of the season. Since then, Dansville is 8-2.

Drew Frantz is a creative scorer who can figure out many ways to get the ball in the basket when he drives. He is also a strong three point shooter. Calvin vanHartesvelt is a tough defender in the post who blocks a lot of shots and rebounds well. He also has the height and post moves to score in the lane. Cody Ream is a fine ball handler and perimeter defender who can slash to the basket.

Elijah Neal and Zachary Sykes are strong defenders on the perimeter; both of them can slash to the basket and hit a three point shot. Dylan Ream is a versatile player with the height to defend in the post and the quickness to defend on the perimeter. He can score on three point shots or on slashes to the basket.

The Eklund brothers give Pewamo-Westphalia a lot of star power. Senior Jamison Eklund is considered one of the top one hundred high school players in Michigan by Mick McCabe from the Detroit Free Press. He is about 6’6″ and reminds me of the tall guys who used to send the Bleacher Denizen’s layups to the Great Airball in the Sky!!

He does all the excellent work you’d expect from a tall player his size in the post. He is a fine rebounder and defender in the lane. He scores well there. However, he also handles the ball as well as most guards and is a great shooter from the three point line as well. (P.S. I don’t think I’ve used the “Great Airball in the Sky” line since Brandon Johns graduated from East Lansing about five years ago, but Jamison Eklund is a fine player in his own right.)

Grady Eklund is a freshman point guard who is about 6’3″. He is very quick and uses his length to be a fine perimeter defender. He handles the ball and passes is well. He can either take the ball to the basket or hit three point shots. Luke Smith and Kash Pohl are fine perimeter defenders who have strong three point shots. Ben Smith is a “glue guy” who screens well, defends in the paint and rebounds well.

When I got to the gym, I learned that Jamison Eklund has 982 points in his career so far, so if he scores 18 tonight, he will have 1000 points! This makes for an exciting week for the Bleacher Denizen. In St. Ignace Monday night, he got to witness this historic performance by Engadine’s Leah French! https://thebleacherdenizen.com/2023/02/07/engadine-at-st-ignace-girls-basketball-the-bleacher-denizen-february-7-2023-by-chuck-krafft/

Hopefully there could be another big moment for The Bleacher Denizen blog to record tonight!

I got to the gym in time to see the second half of the JV game. At halftime, P-W held a 25-10 lead as they rolled to a 54-24 win.

Wyatt Mosley led the Dansville JVs with 14 points. Nathan Sherwood and Cole Hagelberger contributed 3 points. Quentin Mayes and Austin Hovey each scored 2 points.

Dominic Weber led the victorious Pewamo-Westphalia JVs with 9 points. Isaac Thelen and Mason Smith each chipped in with 8 points. Ty Thelen contributed 7 points. Cody Fox and Brayton Thelen each scored 6 points. Trevor Smith and Rylee Arthur each put in 4 points. Henrik Waltersdorf tallied 2 points.

The Pewamo-Westphalia pep band entertained before the game and did a fine job on a number of tunes that your Bleacher Denizen remembers from growing up in those ancient days called the 1960s! Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones and I Wanna Hold Your Hand by the Beatles were two of my favorites!

It is now time to look at the events of the varsity game through the occasionally clear lenses of an Aging Bleacher Denizen who was never able to escape church league when he attempted to play basketball in ancient times. Once the basketball powers that be refused to allow him to wear a rocket belt to aid his jumping, all his grand basketball plans were toast.

The opening tap is not fielded cleanly by either team, but Dansville finally ends up with the ball. The Aggies miss a three point shot from the wing. P-W drives the baseline, but misses a layup. Jamison Eklund pulls down the offensive rebound for the Pirates. P-W misses a layup. Luke Smith knocks the ball away from Dansville and a Pirate teammate picks it up. The Pirates miss a layup. Grady Eklund hits a putback to give P-W the first two points of the game.

Elijah Neal passes to Cody Ream, who tosses in a threeball from the wing for Dansville to give the Aggies a one point lead. P-W misses a three pointer from the side. Dansville misses a jump shot from the free throw elbow. P-W misfires on a triple try from the wing. Dansville misses a threeball from the top of the key. P-W misses a fast break layup. Dansville turns the ball over. Jamison Eklund hits a layup for P-W. He is fouled and hits his free throw to give the Pirates a 5-3 lead with 5:19 to go in the first quarter.

Grady Eklund steals the ball and hits a layup for P-W. Dansville throws a pass out of bounds. The Eklund connection establishes itself as Grady passes to Jamison, who is fouled on a layup and hits two free throws. With 4:36 remaining in the quarter, the P-W lead is up to 9-3.

Dansville misses a five foot shot in the lane. P-W misses a threeball from the wing. Dansville misses a threeball from the top of the key. P-W misses a threeball from the wing. Grady Eklund senses that the Bleacher Denizen wants to stop being stuck on missed threeballs, so he grabs the offensive rebound for the Pirates. P-W misses a layup. Dansville loses a pass out of bounds. P-W misses a layup. Drew Frantz gets into the lane and hits a six foot floater to trim the P-W lead to 9-5.

P-W misses a driving layup. Reece Thelen pulls down the offensive rebound for the Pirates. Ben Smith passes to Jamison Eklund, who hits a layup for the Pirates. Elijah Neal passes to Calvin VanHartesvelt for a Dansville layup. P-W misses a three pointer from the wing. The rebound goes out of bounds and Dansville takes possession. Reece Thelen gets a hand on the ball and knocks it out of bounds. Dansville retains possession. Drew Frantz throws in a threeball from the wing to cut the P-W lead to 11-10.

P-W misses a three point shot from the corner. Dansville misses a three point shot from the wing. Reece Thelen passes to Luke Smith, who hits a layup for the Pirates. The defensive Eklund connection manifests itself as Jamison knocks the ball away from the Aggies and Grady picks it up for the Pirates.

P-W misses a fast break dunk shot. Ben Smith snags the offensive rebound for the Pirates. P-W misses a three point shot near the top of the key. The rebound goes out of bounds and P-W gets the ball back. P-W commits a traveling violation with just a couple seconds to go in the quarter. Dansville misses a long heave as the first quarter buzzer lets us know it’s here.

After one quarter, Pewamo-Westphalia holds a 13-10 lead.

Dansville inbounds the ball to open the second quarter. Elijah Neal gets into the lane and hits an eight foot jump shot for the Aggies. Luke Smith drives and hits a layup for the Pirates. Jamison Eklund steals a Dansville pass. The Pirates miss a fast break layup. Dansville misses a ten foot jumper off the dribble from the side. Grady Eklund drives and banks in a six footer to give his Pirates a 17-12 lead.

Cody Ream passes to Camden Graf, who makes a great, tight spin and hits a layup for the Aggies. Trevor Smith hits a two point jump shot for the pirates. Dansville misses a threeball from the top of the key. Grady Eklund drives the baseline and hits a layup to push the Pirate lead to 21-14.

Jamison Eklund sends a Dansville layup to the Great Airball in the Sky. P-W misses a driving layup and fouls on the rebound. Lane Trierweiler draws a charging foul from the Aggies. P-W misfires on a triple try from the top of the key. Dansville fouls on the rebound. Jamison Eklund is fouled on a driving layup and makes one of his two free throws to give P-W a 22-14 lead with 4:07 to play in the second quarter.

A Dansville dribbler drags his foot when he tries to stop and the referee calls a traveling violation. P-W misses a reverse layup. Dansville misses a three point attempt from the side. Dylan Ream hits a putback for the Aggies. Grady Eklund drives and hits a layup for the Pirates. Kash Pohl draws a charging foul from the Aggies. Kash Pohl passes to Grady Eklund, who throws in a threeball from the top of the key for the Pirates. Drew Frantz response with a threeball from the top of the key for the Aggies to trim the P-W lead to 27-19.

P-W misses a driving layup. Grady Eklund hits a putback for P-W. Cody Ream is fouled on a driving layup and hits two free throws for Dansville. With 2:06 to play in the first half, the P-W lead is at 29-21.

The Pirates miss a fast break layup. Ben Smith knocks the ball away from Dansville and Jamison Eklund picks it up for P-W. Jamison Eklund passes to Kash Pohl, who hits a three point shot from the side for the Pirates. Dansville misses a three pointer from the side. P-W reciprocates and misses a three pointer from the side. Drew Frantz is fouled on a driving six foot banked shot and hits one of his two free throws to trim the Pirate lead to 32-22 with 1:01 to go in the first half.

Ben Smith passes to Jamison Eklund, who is fouled on a layup. Jamison Eklund hits one of his two free throws for P-W. Dansville misses a three point shot from the corner. A P-W dribbler in the lane loses the ball out of bounds. Dansville misses a forty footer from the wing as the second half buzzer enters the space.

At halftime, Pewamo-Westphalia holds a 33-22 lead.

Drew Frantz has 9 points and Cody Ream has 5 points to lead the Dansville scoring at halftime.

The Eklund Connection has 24 points at halftime. Grady has 15 of those points and Jamison has 9. (With just 9 more points, Jamison will be a 1000 point scorer!!)

Pewamo-Westphalia is having its ceremony to crown its Winterfest Queen and King at halftime. Brandon Goerge is named king and Emma Flanigan is named queen!

The P-W Pep Band fills up the rest of halftime with some more favorites. I particularly enjoyed the fine job they did with “Happy Together” by the Turtles!

And for those of you who are not at the game and can’t see the ceremony or hear the music, here is an old Western Classic tune from my You Tube Channel. (Yes, Country and Western were separate music styles at one time.) Hopefully my yodeling is reasonably good!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlPaiHsbOnA

P-W overcomes the shock of listening to The Bleacher Denizen yodel and inbounds the ball to start out the third quarter. There is another Eklund Connection eruption as Grady passes to Jamison, who hits a three ball for P-W (and scores his 994th career point!) Drew Frantz passes to Cody Ream, who hits a three point shot from the side for Dansville. Trevor Spitzley is fouled on a layup and hits one of his two free throws to boost P-W to a 37-25 lead with 7:14 to go in quarter number three.

Dansville misses a fast break layup. Jamison Eklund drives and hits a reverse layup for P-W (and scores his 996th career point.) Dylan Ream hits a three point shot from the corner for Dansville. P-W misses a threeball from the side. Elijah Neal drives and dishes the ball to Dylan Ream, who hits a layup to cut the Pirate lead to 39-30.

P-W misses a three point shot from the wing. Dylan Ream saves a loose ball to prevent an Aggie turnover. Dansville misses a three point shot from the top of the key. Dylan Ream pulls down the offensive rebound for the Aggies. Dansville misses a three pointer from the side. The rebound goes out of bounds and Dansville gets the ball back.

Jamison Eklund knocks the ball away from Dansville and Lane Trierweiler picks it up for P-W. P-W misses a layup. Lane Trierweiler gets the offensive rebound for the Pirates. P-W misses a layup. Drew Frantz drives and hits a layup to chop the Pirate lead down to 39-32.

P-W misfires on a threeball from the wing. Dansville misses a driving layup and fouls on the rebound. Luke Smith passes to Grady Eklund, who hits a layup for the Pirates. Dansville is fouled on a driving layup, but misses two free throws. With 3:36 to play in the third quarter, Pewamo-Westphalia has a 41-32 lead.

Grady Eklund passes to Jamison Eklund, who hits a three point shot from the side to score his 999th career point while boosting his Pirates to a twelve point lead. The Eklund connection comes through defensively as Jamison knocks the ball away from Dansville and Grady picks it up for P-W. Drew Frantz draws a charging foul from the Pirates. Jamison Eklund nearly steals the ball for the Pirates, but the Aggies are able to recover. Zachary Sykes passes the ball to Dylan Ream, who hits a layup for the Aggies to trim the P-W lead to 44-34.

A drum roll please!!!! (Mark Wilcox, who sang the first song I highlighted, is also a fine drummer. I wish he was here with his snare drum to provide the proper atmosphere for the moment!!)

Jamison Eklund drives and hits a layup to score his 1000th (and 1001st if we are being accurate) point!! He now leads the Bleacher Denizen in career scoring by a 1001 to 0 margin. (Just in case he feels that point belongs in his scrapbook!) Jamison Eklund is fouled on the play and makes his free throw for his 1002nd point! With 2:18 to play in the third quarter, the Pewamo-Westphalia lead is at 47-34.

Dansville loses a pass out of bounds. P-W misses a driving layup. Grady Eklund blocks a Dansville shot. Drew Frantz recovers the loose ball for the Aggies and hits a layup. He is fouled on the play and makes his free throw as well. P-W drives through the lane and travels. Drew Frantz uses a clever dribble to free himself. (He is a man of 1000 basketball tricks!!) drew Frantz hits a twelve foot shot from the side for Dansville to trim the P-W lead to 47-39.

Grady Eklund is fouled on a six foot shot from the baseline and hits two free throws for P-w with just 33.6 seconds remaining in quarter number three. Cody Ream bursts into the lane and hits an eight foot runner for Dansville. Grady Eklund drives, jumps, leans back and hits a six foot jumper in the lane for P-W. Dansville misses a heave as the buzzer announces the end of quarter number three.

After three quarters, Pewamo-Westphalia holds a 51-41 lead.

Dansville inbounds the ball to get the fourth quarter underway. Quinnton Burgett passes to Cody Ream, who throws in a threeball from the wing for the Aggies. Cody Ream draws a charging foul from the Pirates. Kash Pohl steals the ball for the Pirates. (If you are going to name your team the “Pirates” I would hope that you can steal something once in awhile!!)

Kash Pohl ignores the Bleacher Denizen’s semantic music and spins into the lane to hit a short jumper for P-W. He is fouled on the play, but misses his free throw. Kash Pohl grabs the offensive rebound, drives and hits a layup to give his Pirates a 55-44 lead.

Cody Ream hits a six foot shot in the lane for the Aggies. Dansville misses a driving layup. Elijah Neal drives the lane and dishes the ball to Dylan Ream, who hits a layup to trim the Pirate lead to 55-48.

P-W misses a fifteen foot shot from the baseline. Dansville misfires on a threeball from the corner. Drew Frantz catches an accidental elbow to the head and goes down hard. (After the game, I spoke with Mr. Frantz who said Drew will be OK!) Drew Frantz goes to the bench for the rest of the game; a foul is called on P-W. A teammate comes in to shoot Drew Frantz’ free throw, but misses the first shot of a one and one opportunity. With 5:03 left on the clock, the P-W lead remains at 55-48.

The Pirates miss a driving layup. Kash Pohl steals the ball and passes to Luke Smith, who is fouled on a layup and hits one of his two free throws for the Pirates. Trevor Spitzley snags the offensive rebound for P-W and passes to Luke Smith, who throws in a threeball from the wing to give his Pirates a 59-48 lead.

Dansville misses a three point shot from the side. P-W misses a three point shot from the side. Ben Smith hauls in the offensive rebound for the Pirates. P-W is whistled for a double dribble violation. Dansville misses a three point shot from the side. Calvin VanHartesvelt gets the offensive rebound for the Aggies. Dansville misses a layup. Grady Eklund drives and hits a layup to give his Pirates a 61-48 lead.

Dansville misfires on a threeball from the corner. Luke Smith passes to a Pirate teammate who is fouled on a fast break and misses both his free throws. Ben Smith grabs the offensive rebound for the Pirates. P-W misses a three point shot from the wing. Jamison Eklund is fouled on a putback and scores his 1003rd career point when he hits one of two free throws. With 2:15 to go, Pewamo-Westphalia has a 62-48 lead.

Dansville is fouled on a driving reverse layup, but misses two free throws. Cody Ream is fouled on a putback for Dansville and hits one of his two free throws to trim the Pirate lead to 62-49 with 1:57 to play.

Grady Eklund is fouled and hits two free throws for P-W. Cody Ream gets into the lane and hits an eight foot lean back shot for Dansville. He is fouled on the play, but misses his free throw. With 1:20 remaining, the Pirate lead is at 64-51.

P-W runs time off the clock until Grady Eklund is fouled with 34.5 seconds left. He hits one of his two free throws for the Pirates. Ben Smith gets the offensive rebound for the Pirates. Grady Eklund is fouled and hits two free throws for P-W. Grady Eklund knocks the ball away from Dansville and Ben Smith picks it up for P-W. The Pirates dribble out the clock.

Pewamo-Westphalia wins this CMAC league game by a 67-51 score.

Cody Ream led the Dansville scoring with 18 points. Drew Frantz contributed 16 points. Dylan Ream joined his teammates in double figures with 11 points. Elijah Neal, Calvin vanHartesvelt and Camden Graf each scored 2 points.

Grady Eklund led Pewamo-Westphalia’s scoring with 28 points. Jamison Eklund also had a fine game with 21 points including his 1000th point (as well as the 1001st, 1002nd and 1003rd) of his career!! Luke Smith totaled 8 points. Kash Pohl added 7 points and Trevor Spitzley had 3 points.