On Tuesday, March 3 the varsity boys basketball team fell to Fort Zumwalt South in the second round of the district tournament.The final score in this game was 43-71. Fort Zumwalt South was lead by Preston Whitfield and Marshawn Blackmon. Those two have a combined average of 42.6 points per game, and they are in

the top 15 scorers in the area. Even with the immense obstacle in front of them, the Knights fought to the final buzzer, as they had done many times before. Even when the coach put the backups in the game with under a minute left, they seemed to fight even harder. Freshman Rizwan Hyder pulled up for a long three with under ten seconds to excite the Howell North crowd as well as the bench.

This loss capped off a very challenging season for the Knights. The Knights finished the regular season with a less than stellar 7-18 record. They finished the regular season on a 10 game losing streak that stretched from the end of January to the beginning of March. What hurt even more is that in most of those games, they lost by an average of five points.

Despite this decline, the team hit a very high note in their first game of district play. They beat their rivals, the FHC Spartans, at Howell Central, by a score of 55-46. This was truly a tremendous accomplishment due to the Spartans talent, depth, and the fact that they had beaten the Knights in both regular season meetings. The Knights, lead by seniors Calvin Wellmaker and Gabe Grote, were able to overcome this adversity and get the Knights their first win in over a month.

Grote and Wellmaker, as well as fellow seniors Elliot Montgomery and Corey Willis, have lead the team in scoring, rebounds, assists, and steals all season. It will be interesting to see how next years team can make up for Willis’ speed, Montgomery’s ferocity on the ball, Wellmaker’s size, and Grote’s leadership.