BELLEVILLE — In the final seconds Friday night, his team’s victory secured, Hartland’s Spencer Bulthuis got the ball in front of the Hartland bench as his teammates mobbed him.
Bulthuis then began a victory stroll.
There was just one problem: The clock was still running.
“Honestly, I was so focused,” he said, “I was super-hyped and I didn’t know there was still time left on the clock. I just started walking with the ball. I was so excited.”
Traveling was the call with 2.3 seconds remaining, and the red-faced Eagles let Belleville take a final shot before celebrating their 55-46 win in earnest.
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Hartland (15-4) advanced to Tuesday’s KLAA championship game at Canton (15-4), which held off Dearborn 34-28 in the other semifinal.
It will be the third meeting of the season between the teams. Canton won the first two, a 47-43 overtime win at Hartland and a 61-24 blowout victory earlier this month at Canton.
“Revenge, baby,” Bulthuis said, grinning. “Everything was not going right for us that night, so it’s good to get a second shot.”
Hartland led for most of the game, but pulled away in the second half and led by as many as 14 before Belleville went to a trapping full-court press.
It worked at first, until Hartland coach Kevin Blouin implemented an idea his father Don, an assistant coach with the Eagles, had suggested during practice earlier in the week.
“He suggested that we put Carson (Conrad, who’s listed at 6-foot-5) at a guard, because he could see over the jump trap,” Kevin Blouin said.
At first, Conrad was trying to inbound the ball, but Belleville defenders got in the way of his intended receivers. Two inbounds plays later, it was Conrad who was receiving the inbounds passes, and the Eagles were able to break the press easily.
But the Tigers still had a run left in them, and it was Hartland that gave them the opportunity.
“There was a 2-3 minute stretch where we were trying to stall the game a little bit, because we were up by double digits,” Blouin said. That proved unsuccessful and Belleville got to within four, 49-45.
“Finally, we said we had to start scoring again,” Blouin said.
Bulthuis and Gannon Grundman, who were scoreless in the first half, provided a lift down the stretch.
Grundman hit for eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of 3s, and Bulthuis scored all eight of his points in the second half.
“I started hitting my shots,” Bulthuis said. “In the first half, I was rushing my shots. in the second half, I calmed down and started making my shots.”
Conrad led the Eagles with 13 points and Ryan Bohlen added 11. Da’Jon Johnson had 20 for Belleville (13-6).
“I htink we were just really ready to go,” Blouin said of his team’s performance. “We had a good scouting report and the guys came out and executed it really well. I think the key was being really ready for four quarters of basketball.”
