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EDWARDSBURG — There was a great deal for Brody Schimpa and his Edwardsburg boys’ basketball team to celebrate Friday. 

Schimpa, the Eddies’ star 6-foot-3 senior, surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career in leading the Eddies to an easy 56-26 Wolverine Conference win at home over Vicksburg. On the girls side, the Eddies fell just short in a 33-29 loss to the Bulldogs. 

The Edwardsburg boys finish the regular season 9-5 in the Wolverine for third place and improves to 15-7 overall. The Eddies won eight of their last 10 games after enduring a mid-season four-game losing skid.

Revenge was on the minds of Schimpa and his Edwardsburg teammates as they took the floor on Senior Night. 

Vicksburg (7-7 5th in league, 10-12, had beaten Edwardsburg 58-40 back on Jan. 17. 

Schimpa and Edwardsburg weren’t about to repeat that earlier loss and proved it from the opening tip off. The Eddies jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and stretched its margin to 14-4 by the end of the first quarter and carried a comfortable 28-9 lead into halftime.

Schimpa scored 10 of his game-high 20 points in the third quarter and fueled a 19-8 Edwardsburg run that helped put the Eddies up 47-17. 

With 2:24 left in the third, Schimpa received a pass in the left corner in front of the Edwardsburg bench and he calmly drained one of his trio of three pointers to put him over the 1,000-point barrier. The game was stopped momentarily to commemorate the occasion with a photo of Schimpa and his teammates with a banner honoring the feat.

Both teams scored nine points during the fourth quarter. 

Schimpa, who played on the junior varsity squad his entire freshman year, reached his career milestone in just three varsity seasons.

“Getting to 1,000 points has been a goal of mine every since I started playing varsity. I’m relieved to have the pressure of reaching it off me now. There were times I didn’t think I would get there. Now I just want our team to keep winning,” Schimpa said.

“My work in the offseason with a trainer has helped me immensely. We’re looking forward to playing Niles again in districts. We just have to bring the intensity on defense like we did the last time we faced them.”

After a breakout junior year, Schimpa has boosted his scoring average to 18.3 points as a senior. He has scored in double figures in 20 of Edwardsburg’s 22 games this season.

Frick stated that Schimpa would be the first person to credit his teammates for his scoring success.

“We knew Brody was close, but we tried not to make too big a deal about it so he could stay focused on playing. If you were to ask him though he’d give much of the credit to his teammates for helping him get there. He’s a very selfless kid and we couldn’t be any happier for him. He deserves alot of credit for the hard work he’s put in these last three years,” Frick said. 

Schimpa also finished the contest with six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Matt Anders, the Eddies’ 6-5 senior forward and four-year starter, added 10 points and five rebounds. Connor Solarek added eight points for Edwardsburg, which finished 19-of-50 (38 percent) from the floor and 13-of-15 (87 percent) at the charity stripe.

Edwardsburg forced Vicksburg into 15 turnovers while committing just nine themselves.

“Our defensive intensity was pretty good. That might’ve been one of our best performances defensively all year. Holding them to nine points in the first half is great and just 26 in the game is good too. They handed us one of our worst losses of the season the first time so it was nice to see us get back on track and play like we know we can,” Frick said. 

Vicksburg was led in scoring by Austin Androsky with five points, while Jordan Diekman and Gage Scheidel added four points apiece for the Bulldogs, who made just 9-of-41 attempts from the field (22 percent) and 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) at the foul stripe.

“We just didn’t match Edwardsburg’s level of energy or intensity. All week we talked about that and like the story of our whole season, we just simply got outworked tonight. We missed a bunch of shots early, but if you don’t make those you have to buckle down on defense and we weren’t able to do that,” said Vicksburg head coach Randy Small. 

Edwardsburg now turns its attention to Monday’s 5:30 p.m. district quarterfinals game with Niles at Dowagiac. The two schools split their regular-season meetings. 

“We have kids of all ages starting to come together and play well for us at the right time. We split with Niles this year and as we go into the tournament we have guys that trust one another and we have a good rotation so we can keep people fresh. Our senior group really pushes this team into what we can be,” Frick said. 

Girls Game

Edwardsburg nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season against three-time defending conference champion Vicksburg. 

Scott Rodeslier’s Lady Eddies used a zone defense to keep the game tight the entire way against a much taller Vicksburg squad. 

Edwardsburg trailed its guests by six points. 25-19, early in the fourth quarter following a steal and layup by Vicksburg’s senior postplayer Hannah DeVries. 

The Lady Eddies fought back to within two points, 31-29, following a drive to the basket by senior guard Ella Zache with 41.5 seconds left. 

Edwardsburg forced a late Vicksburg turnover, but missed a three-point attempt from the corner in the waning seconds. The Bulldogs’ senior Kendra Cooley sealed the win by draining two free-throw attempts in the final seconds to preserve a 33-29 win. 

“I’m really proud of our girls and their effort. Vicksburg is a really good team. It just came down to a couple of big three pointers in the second half by Makayla (Allen) for them. We had a shot at the end, but we ended up turning the ball over. I’ll feel pretty good if we can play like this going into the last week of the regular season and on into the tournament,” Rodeslier said. 

Edwardsburg got 14 points from senior guard Maddie Pobuda. Zache added six points, while Kourtney Zarycki finished with four. 

The Eddies finished the night shooting 10-of-46 (22 percent) from the field and 5-of-10 (50 percent) at the foul stripe. 

Allen paced Vicksburg in scoring with 12 points, while DeVries contributed eight and Scarlet Hosmer added seven for the Bulldogs, who shot 10-of-42 (24 percent) from the field and 8-for-14 (57.1 percent) at the free-throw line. 

Edwardsburg (6-7 league in fourth place, 12-8) jumped out to a 10-7 advantage after the opening period thanks to five points from Pobuda, including a triple. 

The Lady Eddies stretched their lead to nine points, 16-7, with 4:01 left in the second quarter after Zarycki hit the second of two free-throw attempts. Vicksburg (12-1 league for first place, 18-2) capped off the half with a 7-0 run to pull within two, 16-14, entering halftime. 

Allen hit three consecutive triples to ignite Vicksburg’s third-quarter scoring. The Bulldogs grabbed a 23-19 advantage entering the fourth quarter. 

Vicksburg head coach Tim Kirby breathed a sigh of relief following the closely contested game. 

“We have a target on our back. It was Edwardsburg’s Senior Night. Everyone brings their best effort because we’ve been the team to beat the last three seasons. They gave us a great effort the entire way. To be honest that was an effective zone defense they put on us. You can practice against it but you can’t simulate it until you actually go against it. They had us out of sorts offensively in the first half,” Kirby said. 

“Makayla hit some big threes for us in the second half to start the second half and I don’t think we ever trailed after that. We want to be aggressive and get turnovers. I think our experience helps us the most out there. We killed some clock and didn’t force anything.”