By Lenny Dale, Emerson Athletic Director and Physical Education Teacher
The Emerson boy’s basketball teams both won their home games against Ann Arbor Christian Tuesday, but in almost diametrically opposed fashion relative to each other.
The junior varsity dominated from the opening tip, getting eight players on the score sheet while holding their opponents without a field goal for the entire second half on the way to a 31-5 victory.
The varsity had a much tougher go of it, facing the only team to have beaten them this season. AACS got the lead early, and maintained it, holding a 16-10 edge as halftime neared. Emerson scored twice in the final minute of the half, closing to 16-14, then continued their pressure through most of the third quarter, resulting in an 18-3 run that saw a 6-point deficit turn into a 9-point lead. AACS was never able to recover from that 6-minute onslaught, and the game finished 36-31 in Emerson’s favor. Jaden Thomas and Nikhil Gunaratnam shared scoring honors for Emerson with 8 each, negating the 14 points of the AACS high scorer, and Emerson got scoring from 8 additional players, showing too much balance for the other 4 AACS players who got on the score sheet to overcome.