Warriors Go Cold at Orchard View

For three quarters Friday night, the Western Michigan Christian boys basketball team went cold as the weather outside the Orchard View High School gym.

The Warriors trailed the Cardinals, 34-20 going into the final period, but they heated up in the last quarter and put up 19 points to cut OV's lead to two points, before dropping a 46-39 decision.

WMC trailed 10-5 at the first stop and 28-14 at halftime.

Warrior Hayden Hubers hit a lay-up to cut the OV lead to 39-36 with 50 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but Dietrich Thornton canned two free throws to stretch the OV lead to 41-36. Hubers came back with a 3-pointer to reduce the lead to 41-39 with 37 seconds left, but that was as close as the Warriors got, as Thornton canned two more free throws and OV's Edmari Mitchell put down a lay-up to seal the win.

"We came back in the fourth quarter to get the game back to one possession," WMC coach Kurt Gruppen said.  "Orchard View was able to hit four-straight free throws at the end to seal the game. 

"We had a slow start to the game.  Orchard View did a nice job changing up their  defenses which really kept us out of rhythm.  We travel to Byron Center on Tuesday to play Zion Christian." 

The Warriors were led by their two freshmen, Owen Varnado and Kellen Mitchell with 13 and nine points, respectively.