Dutch finish their regular season play, head to crossover

The Manchester Flying Dutch varsity played Grass Lake last Monday and suffered a 66-38 loss.

“We struggled to shoot once again and Grass Lake really played well,” said coach Zach Neal. “We did get contributions from many different guys in the second half, and that will help us moving forward. We were led offensively by Aiden Kelly and Andrew Campbell.”

On Tuesday, the boys played a many-times rescheduled game against Napoleon, but the 85-53 score didn’t show how well the Dutch played in their final home game of the season.

“We played well, even though it didn’t show on the scoreboard,” Neal said. “Napoleon made 15 three-pointers as a team, with nine of them coming in the first half. Our perimeter defense will be a point of emphasis as we move forward into districts.”

The Dutchmen were led by Kelly’s career-high 30 points, while Jaxon McGuigan did a really good job defensively on Napoleon’s best player.

On Wednesday nigh vs Addison, the Dutch finally came up with one in the “W” column.

“We really needed this win,” Neal said. “We played well start to finish, leading 28-11 at halftime and really tried to keep the pedal down in the second half.”

Kelly once again led in scoring with 24 points, while Garrett Corwin played his best game of the year with 11 points and a really good interior defense. The final regular season game ended up as a 49-36 win for Manchester.

This week the Flying Dutchmen will play their crossover game vs the Big 8 conference on Wednesday, with opponent to be determined. They will follow that with districts at Columbia Central High School on March 7th.

Go Dutch!

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.