Panthers Clinch First League Title Since 2020

The Stockbridge boys’ basketball team clinched its first league title since 2020 with a 61-38 win over Union City Friday night.

The win gave the Panthers the Big 8 title in Stockbridge’s inaugural season in the conference with the Panthers last title coming in the former GLAC conference.

The Panthers started slowly trailing 5-4 early, but took a 7-5 lead in a low scoring first quarter.

The offense caught fire in the second with the Panthers outscoring the Chargers 18-8 to take a 25-13 lead into the break.

Stockbridge opened the second half with a 15-2 run to take command with a 40-15 lead.

Union City closed the third with a 9-3 run and hit the first basket of the fourth to cut the lad to seventeen 43-26, but that is as close as they would get as the Panthers cruised to the league title.

The one-two punch of Shannon Henderson and Brock Rochow were nearly unstoppable inside for the Panthers with both recording double-doubles on the night.

Henderson finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and five blocks.

Rochow added 23 points and 13 rebounds.

Jacob Daulton ran the offense with eight assists, five steals and finished with five points. Zac Rogozinski added three points, five assists, and five rebounds and Noah Sandecki, three points, five assists, three steals, and Brendan Cordero two points.

The Panthers improved to 16-4 overall and 11-1 in the Big 8.

Stockbridge has two more regular season games this week and will open D3 district play at Dansville against the winner of host Dansville and Charyl Stockwell Prep. Leslie and Springport are also competing in the district.