BYRON CENTER, Mich. — South Christian won the regional championship last Wednesday at Vicksburg High School in boys basketball, but the Sailors lost sophomore Carson Vis to injury in the process.
"It's been an emotional fews days, it really has," South head coach Taylor Johnson said. "It was hard to celebrate that regional championship."
Vis went up for dunk in the first quarter of the regional championship game against Hamilton and was fouled by a Hamilton defender, when he landed, he broke both of his wrists.
Junior point guard Jake Vermaas scored 19 of his game-high 28 points in the third quarter as the Sailors went on to an 82-47 win.
"We have this selfless mindset we are always thinking about other people and that is kind of what happened when Carson went down," Johnson added. "We were so worried about him and his health and how he was doing that it was hard to focus on what we had just accomplished."
Tuesday night the Sailors head to the division two state quarterfinals against Unity Christian (18-9).
"We are just trying to rally around him," Johnson said of Vis. "Carson is in good spirits, he's been coming to practice, he's been trying to be like an assistant coach, it's been fun. All we can do is rally around each other and give it our all tomorrow night."
Division 1
Muskegon (24-2) meets East Lansing (16-9) in a state quarterfinal at Caledonia. The Big Reds are in the quarterfinals for the first time since 2015 and looking to get to the Breslin Center for the first time since winning the state championship in 2014.
Division 3
Pewamo-Westphalia (19-6) will take on Brandywine (24-2) on Portage Central. The Pirates upset Calvin Christian in the regional final on a buzzer-beating tip-in by Jamison Eklund. P-W lost to Schoolcraft in last season's state quarterfinal.
Division 4
Defending state champion Tri-Unity Christian (20-6) will play Kalamazoo Phoenix (17-2) at Gull Lake. The Defenders knocked off the Fury in the district opener last season, 58-44.
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