By DOUG DONNELLY

Advance Editor

Jordan Bollin says his 4-0 Whiteford Bobcat basketball team is the deepest group of players he’s ever coached.

Blissfield coach David DeVantier is happy with the 4-2 start to the season and says his young Royal team is coming together nicely as they gain experience.

The two schools will square off Friday night in the marquee game of the first Advance New Year’s Basketball Bash, a four-team tournament hosted by Whiteford. Monroe Jefferson (4-2) takes on Ann Arbor Greenhills (3-3) in the first game at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The Bobcats and Royals play in the second game. The consolation game will be at 3 p.m. Saturday with the finals to follow.

The Advance is the tournament sponsor, providing trophies to the first place and runners-up teams as well as medals.

“It’s four really good teams,” Bollin said. “I think any team in it can win it. Blissfield provides a lot of challenges for us because they play hard and are well-prepared and well-coached. It’s a bit of a contrast in styles. They shoot the 3-point shot well. We don’t shoot a lot of threes typically. They like to get a lot of shots up.”

The Bobcats have won two non-conference games against Milan and Plymouth Christian and won both of its Tri-County Conference games. Bollin said the team has been playing 10-11 guys early and seeing who has the hot hand to play down the stretch.

“When we go to our bench, there is no drop off at all,” he said. “Sometimes we even get a bit of an uplift.”

Bollin said the team has a lot of similar players who do different things well.

“We have 10 team-first players,” Bollin said. “They are all unselfish and pretty good in their own right. It’s the deepest team I’ve ever coached. It’s not even close.”

Blissfield started 4-0, but have dropped tight Lenawee County Athletic Association games to Hillsdale and Onsted.

“We’re really young,” DeVantier said. “There is going to be a learning curve. I thought we started the year off pretty well, especially with not having a lot of varsity experience. We’ve been working really hard.

“A 4-2 start with the youth that we have – we’ve been starting a freshman, sophomore, junior, junior and senior. I’m pretty happy with that.”

Kaleb Stutzman has been an early season surprise and has provided a lift while the Royals waited for projected starter Skyler Kimple to return from an injury. Freshman point guard Cezar Casanova has reached double digits in four of his first six games, including a 21-point night against undefeated Onsted.

Casanova has made 17 3-pointers in six games and Stutzman 13. Noah Sills has also made 13 triples.

Greenhills has changed coaches since the start of the season. The Gryphons started three wins, including a forfeit victory, but have dropped three straight games. Jefferson has a 1,000-point scorer in Trey Oldenburg.

“He might be the best player in the county,” Bollin said.

DeVantier said the Royals are excited about the tournament.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” DeVantier said. “Sometimes we have a weird dead time during the break. Now, we get to play and it doesn’t seem like we are playing two different seasons.”

“They spread you out, run and shoot a lot of threes. If you catch them on the night where they are shooting

“Jefferson –

“He might be the best player in the county,” Bollin said.

“They get them up.”

“For us it will come down to taking care of the ball.”

17 turnover sagainst BD

In our last game, 56 pecent of scoring off be

“We’ve been playing 10 or 11 guys and going as deep as we can,” Bollin said. “We haven’t really played that really, really good game yet.

“The hard thing about coaching this team is

We try to get as many guys in as we can early and see who is playing well.”

Plymouth Christian win

“We talked about how great of win that was,” he said. “Being able to play in a tight game, against a big, physical team.

To execute shtat

“They ran one of those plays to perfection. It came at a good time.”

Kimple

He practiced on Wednesday and Thursday and played about 20 minutes on Friday. He will bring a lot more to us with his athleticism and defense. It’s good to have him back.”

We’ve got a big boost from Kaleb Stutzman. He started playing so well that we’ve kept him in the starting lineup. He’s had some big games and hit some big shots.

Our freshman PG has really stepped up

Carson has been rebounding well and scoring in the paint.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” DeVantier said. “Sometimes we have a weird dead time during the break. Now, we get to play.”

“There will be some really good teams.

“Jefferson has a 1,000-point scorer. There should be some good competition.”