By John Raffel
MaxPreps.com
C.J. Paquin is off to a sizzling start for Cedarville's boys basketball team, which hopes to return to its state championship ways from the 2006-07 season.
Cedarville is off to a 4-0 start and Paquin is averaging 25 points a game.
“We've been able to shoot the ball well,” Cedarville coach Dave Duncan said. “We've had pretty balanced scoring. That's been the key. We play pretty good defense.”
Paquin has been the big scorer and had a game high of 37 points against another Upper Peninsula team, Pickford.
“He's 6-foot-3 but he can really shoot the ball. He hit seven 3-pointers the first game we played (against) St. Ignace. It's his third year playing a lot on the varsity,” Duncan said.
Taylor Smith has been helping Paquin in the scoring column with 20 points per game.
“He plays our No. 2 guard and has a nice jumper,” Duncan said. “We graduated some pretty good players off our team from last year. I knew even though we didn't have a lot of experienced players that we still had some with experience. Our JVs were 15-5 last year. We just have to keep getting better every day.”
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Western Michigan Christian and coach Jim Goorman enjoyed a Class D state championship last season and hopes to have enough talent to make another run this year.
“We had seven seniors last year. That helped. They played together for such a long time,” Goorman said. “So they really knew everybody, where they were. We were very long at every position. Our man-to-man was our bread and butter, but our half-court was the weapon we used when we needed it.”
WMC's top player grew four inches over the off-season, Goorman said. Evan Bruinsma is now 6-5.
“He was point guard last year on the varsity,” Goorman said. “He's so smart and so unselfish. He can lead the press. He's a ball handler. I just wish he was 25 pounds heavier. I guess you can't be greedy.”
Western Michigan Christian is off to a 3-0 start.
“We're playing very well right now,” Goorman said. “We've played three Class B schools. That's been a good thing. We're very quick. It's probably the quickest team I've ever had.”
Jeff Burris has scored 35 points in his last two games, proving to be a dangerous weapon for WMC.
Goorman thinks his team can make some noise this season and be the team to beat next year.
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He's a Division I football prospect and Christian Jessie is also leading the way for East Kentwood on the hardwood this season.
Jessie is a third-year senior player as is John Ford.
East Kentwood hopes to be the power from the Grand Rapids area and got off to a 4-0 start before suffering its first setback.
“I think we are playing very hard defensively,” Falcon coach Jeff Anama said. “We're trying to find ourselves offensively. We're not as efficient offensively as I'd like us to be. What we do defensively is pretty good as far as anybody we'd be playing in the state. Offensively, we have to learn to execute and pass the ball better.”
Jessie was a dangerous slot receiver and defensive back for the football team. Anama expects the two-way standout and Ford to help his team be league contenders in one of Michigan's toughest conferences.
“We're kind of in the meat blender part of our schedule. We got by Jenison without too much trouble. Next week we've got Rockford and Grand Haven. Those are teams that are thought to be up there. We're going to find out this week,” Anama said.
Detroit Basketball Notes
* In Detroit area sports this week, D'Anelo Hailey scored 28 points to lead Detroit Central past Livonia Clarenceville 55…Kyle Vinale had 36 points for North Farmington in a 66-61 win over Wayne…Marcus Jones had 24 points to lead Redford Thurston past Waterford Kettering 85-70…Jamar Ragland had a big game for Detroit Loyola with 29 points and 15 rebounds in a 62-57 topping of Detroit Western…Daniel Sutherlin had 28 points and 16 rebounds in leading Detroit Renaissance over Toledo Scott 68-52.
* Detroit-area girls hoops standouts this week included Jazmine Ateman, who scored 23 points for Detroit Northwestern in a 53-40 win over Inkster Cherry Hill Academy and Ashara Maxie who had 38 points and 14 rebounds in Detroit Consortium's 62-56 topping of Howell.
