Harbor Beach 60, Millington 54
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Battle of the Heavyweights: Round One Goes to Harbor Beach
February 10, 2025 /// Harbor Beach, Michigan
The two top teams of the Big Thumb Conference took it to the twelfth round to decide a winner and it was Harbor Beach to take the first of two regular season matchups, defeating Millington 60-54 on Monday, February 10, 2025.
Monday’s featured game saw six lead changes, including two in the fourth quarter, but the Harbor Beach Pirates led for over 27 minutes in total, including a double-digit lead in the second quarter, 25-14 with 1:14 remaining in the first half. Millington would cut their deficit down to seven before Dustin Emerick hit an NBA-range three-pointer before the buzzer to enter halftime leading by 10 points, 28-18. The Cardinals would outscore the Pirates in the third quarter, 21-15 to make it a four-point game entering the fourth quarter, 43-39 in favor of Harbor Beach.
Both teams would put together an 8-0 run in the final quarter, which allowed Millington to take the lead momentarily 47-46 with 3:19 remaining. Harbor Beach would go back ahead just 22 seconds later and begin their 8-0 run in just two minutes, a span in which Truk TerBush would be ejected from the game with back-to-back technical fouls. Harbor Beach would make two of the four resulting free throws and score on the next possession to lead 54-47 with less than a minute to play. Millington’s Brad Coleman would complete an old-fashioned three-point play to make it a four-point game with 53 seconds left, but Harbor Beach would break through the Cardinal full-court pressure, scoring three more times before the final buzzer.
Skiler Kruse would set the tone early for Harbor Beach, scoring 12 of his 21 points in just the first quarter; he would lead the Pirates in scoring for the second time this season. Benson Harper was close behind at 20 points. Millington was paced by their season-long scoring leader, Brad Coleman at 28 points. All other scorers finished the game in single digits.
Harbor Beach has now won 11 games in a row, their longest winning streak since starting out the 2013 season at 11-0. Millington’s win streak is ended at eight games for the second time this season. Each span was ended by an identical score, 60-54 (Bad Axe, Jan 15 and Harbor Beach, Feb 10). The two teams meet again in seven days, at Millington on February 17, 2025.