Aaron Saenz puts up a three-point shot against Sanford Meridian. Saenz would finish with 32 points in a 67-27 win.
Tom Gilchrist and Mike Gallagher
Advertiser Staff
SEBEWAING — Aaron Saenz spent Monday thinking about the late Robert C. Lesoski, who died Jan. 2 and was the father of his friend, Joshua Lesoski.
Then Saenz, a guard for the Unionville-Sebewaing Area basketball team, went out Monday night and scored a game-high 32 points to lead the Patriots to a 67-27 win over the Sanford Meridian Mustangs.
“I was playing for him at the beginning,” Saenz — who scored 20 of his points in the first half — said of the late Robert Lesoski of Gagetown.
“I was playing for him tonight, and I guess he helped me out,” said Saenz (pronounced “Signs”), a junior who connected on seven 3-point shots. As a team, the Patriots made 11 shots from beyond the 3-point arc. Brodie Wesolowski pitched in with nine points for USA, while Macklin Gettel scored seven.
Meridian failed to make a 3-point shot.
“We shot pretty well,” USA coach Mark Gainforth said after the win over Meridian, a team coached by Mitch Bohn, brother of USA assistant coach Steve Bohn. At times, two cousins — USA freshman Hunter Bohn and Meridian sophomore Brett Bohn — guarded each other during the game.
“Aaron got off to a really good start and we kind of fed off his outside shooting, but you can fall in love with it,” Gainforth said. “In the second half, we just wanted to get more kids involved, so we had a lot better balance in the second half, which is what I wanted to see.”
USA hadn’t played a game since Dec. 19. The Patriots moved to 4-0 overall with the win, and play their first Greater Thumb Conference West Division game on Friday at Laker High.
“I don’t know if the layoff hurt us, because I didn’t really like our intensity,” Gainforth said. “But it’s a Monday night game. I just felt like there was no energy in the gym.”
Josh Reiss led Meridian with seven points, while teammates Nick Lueder and Taylor Woodcock scored six apiece. Saenz scored 14 points in the first quarter — including a 3-pointer at the buzzer — to power the Patriots to a 17-4 lead at quarter’s end.
“Saenz played pretty well. He’s a good player,” Meridian coach Mitch Bohn said. “They played well and we played poorly.”
Bohn liked the play of Woodcock, a sophomore for the Mustangs, now 2-5 overall.
“That was his first game on varsity, so he showed some signs of being a varsity player, and that was the only positive,” Bohn said.
Gainforth and Mitch Bohn said they hope to arrange for USA’s boys basketball team to travel to Meridian, in Midland County, next season now that Meridian has traveled to play USA.
USA led 32-15 at halftime and held the Mustangs to only 12 second-half points.
“If you hold a team to 27 points in a game you should be happy, but I didn’t really think we did a good job communicating and I really thought our rebounding was average at best, so there are a lot of things to work on,” Gainforth said.
Kingston 64, Caseville 36: The Cardinals remained unbeaten in North Central Thumb League play with a win on the road over the Eagles on Monday. Travis Tucker scored 16 points, Aaron VanHorn scored 13 and Jared Koehler scored 10 points to lead Kingston, now 4-0 in the NCTL and hosting North Huron on Thursday. “We are looking to a tough game with North Huron,” said Kingston coach Dave Lester. Against Caseville, VanHorn made six steals and dished out five assists. The Cardinals raced to a 39-18 halftime lead, and also received boosts from Colin Smith and Kylan Pennington, who scored eight points each. Caseville (0-4, 0-3) was led by Zach Gerstenberger with nine points.
Akron Fairgrove 65, Burton Faith 30: The Vikings grabbed a non-conference victory Tuesday night over the Lions. Jeremy Verhelle scored a game-high 22 points for Akron-Fairgrove, while Austin Carter had 17, and David Polk chipped in 10. Every Viking player scored on the evening. Akron-Fairgrove (5-1, 0-1) will be back in conference action on Friday against Saginaw Arts & Science.
Flint International Academy 87, Owen-Gage 60: The Bulldogs dropped a conference game against the Phoenix on the roadTuesday night. Owen-Gage fell behind 29-14 after the first quarter, and was behind 45-31 at the half. F.I.A.’s balanced scoring attack that saw nine players score, was led by Damone Harper, who scored 20 points. Jacob Wright scored a game-high 21 points for the Bulldogs, and David Binder had 17 points. Dan Good chipped in 14 points. Owen-Gage (1-6, 0-3) will be on the road against Alba in non-conference action Friday night.