Adams Dominates; Black Bears Overcome Cougars

PERKINS---Keenen Adams scored 31 points and the Big Bay deNoc Black Bears overcame an early challenge from the Superior Central Cougars, 73-60, in a Class D district tournament game Wednesday night at the Mid Peninsula High School Gym.

Superior Central put a "box-and-one" defense in play to shut down Big Bay leading scorer James Casey, and it worked. But it also opened up play underneath for the aggressive Adams, and Casey still contributed with ten rebounds and six assists.

"I knew James was gonna be guarded tonight. I knew someone had to step up, so I just did that," said Adams, who also had 15 rebounds in the game. "I had a lot of people in the crowd yelling at me, too, to get into the post."

Superior Central had lost both regular season meetings, including the last one in which the Cougars gave up 93 points. The Cougars entered the game with a 3-17 record. But....

This time, Coach Matt Blondeau had a game plan to not only shut down Casey, but to play aggressively on the offensive end. It worked for a half.

The Cougars led by five points late in the second quarter, and held a 31-30 lead at halftime, with Casey finally getting his first points for Big Bay at the second quarter buzzer. Cougar senior Greg Seppanen had eleven of his team-high 20 points in the first half, giving his team thoughts of pulling the latest U.P. district tournament upset.

Blondeau had even invoked memories of the 1981 Eben High School basketball team that lost every single regular season game, but somehow won the district championship.

But Big Bay made adjustments at the break, and overwhelmed the Cougars in the third quarter, outscoring them, 21-10. And it was Adams in "beast mode" with ten points.

"It was pretty nice, actually, because I got to join James," Adams said. "He's gotten a lot of the spotlight. He's done really good and he's had a great season and I'm happy for him for that, too. But it's nice to be there with him a little bit."

"We knew that he (Blondeau) likes to change defenses a lot, and we were trying to be prepared for it," Big Bay Coach Bob Pederson said. "We didn't adjust right away, and started taking open (jump) shots instead of looking in the paint, and not taking advantage of our height. He (Adams) should have had 40, actually."

Freshman Beau Blondeau had 16 points and sophomore Levi Charlebois added 13 for Superior Central. Big BaydeNoc got 15 points from Erik Johnson and 11 from Lucas Sundling, to go along with the 31 big points from Adams.

Big Bay deNoc (11-10) will face Mid Peninsula in the district championship game Friday night. The game will be broadcast live on WGKL-FM (105.5), WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com. Tip-off is 7:00, with the pre-game show at 6:45.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to hear replays and interviews, and to see photos, videos taken by Nate Bellville.