Zander Woodruff was never focused on personal accolades.
Instead, the senior guard made it his priority this winter to help lead the Laingsburg boys basketball team to another strong season.
Woodruff knew elevating his game in all areas would be required to make that possible.
And he did just that, leading the Wolfpack to a second consecutive unbeaten regular season.
Woodruff’s role in that success set him up to headline the Michigan Associated Press Division 3 All-State team as the Player of the Year.
Woodruff earns the top honor after averaging 32.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.1 steals for Laingsburg, which finished 25-1 with the lone loss coming in the regional final.
“I knew coming into this year I was going to have to step up and be more of a scorer,” Woodruff said. “That’s what (I did). I put in a lot of work in the offseason.”
Woodruff, who helped Laingsburg finish the regular season ranked No. 1 in Division 3, set school records for points in a game (54), season (830) and career (1,789). That school-record scoring game came in a win over Division 2 state-ranked Freeland for Woodruff, who helped the Wolfpack compile a 50-2 record over his final two seasons.
Laingsburg coach Tim Beebe said Woodruff’s contributions in all areas were big as the Wolfpack were once again one of the state’s top teams in Division 3 this season. But Beebe was especially impressed by Woodruff’s consistent offensive production.
“To average over 30 points a game – that’s just an ungodly number if you really think about it,” Beebe said. “The consistency and obviously being the opponents’ focal point every night with the multiple different defenses that we saw – it was just really impressive (what he did). The way that he scored the ball, he didn’t really do it strictly as a 3-point shooter. He had a lot of drives. He had all three levels to his game. He could shoot the 3 when he needed to, but he also hit a lot of mid-range shots, which is kind of a lost art these days in basketball. That’s definitely the impressive thing is how he was able to do it with a variety of ways of putting the ball in the basket.”
Woodruff was joined on the AP All-State team by Pewamo-Westphalia sophomore Grady Eklund, McBain senior Evan Haverkamp, Iron Mountain junior Oskar Kangas, Niles Brandywine senior Jaremiah Palmer, Cass City senior Carter Patrick, Schoolcraft senior Shane Rykse, Riverview Gabriel Richard junior Nick Sobush, Detroit Old Redford sophomore JaQuan Stennis and Concord senior Mekhi Wingfield.
Nathan Knapp, who guided Niles Brandywine to its first state title in program history, was selected the coach of the year.
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More AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports