Boys Newaygo at Big Rapids The Lions have won twice. Those teams have a combined record of 0-8 Big Rapids has lost twice. Those teams have a record of 10-0. They’re in BR, the Cards have a very strong starting 5 and don’t lose a lot with the first few off the bench. Newaygo will give it all they’ve got, but it is going to be an uphill battle trying to contain the speed and firepower the Cardinals possess. Central Montcalm at Fremont The Hornets have faced one team with a winning record and that was 3 days ago when Morley took them down in Stanton by a 16 point margin. Granted the ‘Hawks are a good team but so are the Packers. Add to that the visit to the Packer home court. Few places can match the crowds that fill the gym on game nights and the boisterous student section makes their presence known with authority. Look for the hosts to come out using their speed and stifling defense to grab an early lead and if any of their sharpshooters are hitting it will be tough for the Hornets to put any sting into their game. Grant at Chippewa Hills The Tigers need a win. They have knocked on the door in their first 3 without a win then after taking down Reed City they went south to face a couple of strong OK teams losing big to a D-1 Chix team and falling a bit short against the Falcons of WC. This might be the game they need to get back in the W column. None of the three teams the Warriors have lost to possess a winning record and only once have they been within 20 points. The Tigers as we have said, are a better team than their record indicates and this is the third of 5 road games in a row before facing Newaygo at home a week from next Tuesday. Holton at White Cloud The Red Devils have looked strong in the early part of the season. Though their 3 wins came against squads with losing records they have been most impressive in the games they have lost holding leads and staying close to 3 teams with a combined record of 17-0. Finishing has been an issue in those games. Tonight they visit White Cloud, a team that has improved a good deal but doesn't look to have the horses to keep up with the Devils. Holton is averaging over 10 points a game more than the Cloud who struggle on the offensive end and the RD’s have played a rougher schedule going in. Not saying WC can’t pull one out on their home court but a lot would likely have to go their way. Hesperia at Lakeview One team will get off the schneid as both sit at 0-5 thus far. The Wildcats don’t score much but the Panthers average under 30 a game including managing just 13 points at Newaygo earlier this week. Morley Stanwood at Kent City A battle for early Silver supremacy. The ‘Hawks have torn through their schedule thus far but that schedule has been easier than the path KC has taken. While they look to be pretty even going in the Eagles are at home and the two losses before the break came against high quality teams with postseason aspirations. Should be a really good one. Tri County at Reed City The good news is the Vikes have won 2 in a row making them undefeated against teams who are winless. The not so good news? Against the better teams on the schedule the results were not so good as MS and BR each won handily. The other good news? They play another winless team tonight. The other not so good news? They play at Reed City, traditionally a tough place for visiting teams. Girls Newaygo at Big Rapids The Lions have a chance to step up on the road when they face a Cardinal team possessing a good defense and a sporadic but occasionally prolific offense. The Lions also can slap an in-your-face defense on opponents and can score in spurts so it could well be a back and forth battle. With as many as 5 teams in contention for the title this one looms large for both teams. It’s on the Cardinal court but the road doesn’t seem to trouble the Lions. They have a toughness to them and when the offense is clicking they are tough to beat. Central Montcalm at Fremont Two more teams who will battle for the top spot in the Gold. The Packers were impressive in the way they clawed back against the Cardinals and grinded out a low scoring win with defense and sheer resilience. The Hornets have filled in their graduation gaps pretty well and while not the powerhouse of last year they know how to win and staved off a serious late run by the Lions. While the comeback against BR was admirable the Pack needs to score early tonight or CM will creep ahead and suddenly be up 10 points and game management is one of the Hornet strengths. Grant at Chippewa Hills As always the Tigers are having another enigmatic season with the lone win coming against a formidable Hornet squad. Three of their losses saw them in the game until the end and the other two were to teams with a combined 12-1 mark. The Warriors have trouble scoring and Grant has a good defense. If the Tigers can spread their scoring around they should be able to put up enough points to have a good shot at a win. Holton at White Cloud The Cloud has a bevy of scorers and can press a team into submission if they grab an early lead.They beat a pretty good Shelby squad earlier this week and we saw them take it to Kent City before the Eagles began raining home threes. The Red Devils don’t possess the scoring power to match WC and haven’t the defense to contain them. Hesperia at Lakeview The Panthers have yet to score less than 30. The Wildcats have yet to score 30 though they came close against Kent City and still lost by 53 points. Morley Stanwood at Kent City Two undefeated teams and while the ‘Hawks have a pretty tough defense it would be mind boggling if they could hold down the Eagle scoring machine, a team able to fire from distance with astounding accuracy. Morley can score as well and they will definitely have to if they want to stay close enough to pull out a win. Tri County at Reed City The Vikes have lost twice to teams with a combined 12-1 mark. They have beaten three teams with a combined 4-17 record. Reed City is 0-5
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Newaygo 68 Hesperia 13 The Panthers are struggling to be sure. They’re not scoring much and they’re giving up a lot of points. Tuesday they faced the Lions. They hit a season low in scoring while yielding more than in any game thus far as they fell for the 5th straight time. The Lions took control early and never let go despite emptying the bench early. Wyatt Mortensen led the team in scoring with 16 all in the first quarter. David Gonzales finished with 9 and Carlos Magana grabbed a half dozen boards and fired in 10 points. Coach Barrette: “A good team win. We did a good job of sharing the ball tonight.” Newaygo (1-1, 2-3) faces another Silver team Wednesday when they travel to Morley Stanwood to face the undefeated ‘Hawks. The Panthers (0-2, 0-5) will visit Lakeview (0-3, 0-5) on Friday. Holton 61 Wyoming Lee 35 Coach Houseman: “Everyone got minutes and it was a nice team win.” Nathan Slowik hit for 23 points, Aidan Poling drained 21, and Lukas Ramaekers also finished in double figures with 10. The Red Devils (1-1, 3-3) return to Silver action Friday when they visit White Cloud. Girls Holton 49 Wyoming Lee 16 The Devils picked up win number 2 defeating the Rebs on the road. By N3 Sports
An abbreviated return to the court for area teams Monday with the Lions traveling south to Kenowa Hills to take on the Knights and the Panthers heading north to face the Spartans. Newaygo- 47 Kenowa Hills 15 After edging out to a 12-10 lead entering the second quarter the Lions shook off the rust from their holiday layoff and ran away from their hosts going 35-5 the rest of the way to nab the non conference win. Jaylee Long led the Lions with 12 points, 7 assists and 5 steals. Emmerson Goodin had 8 points and 9 rebounds. Coach Thomasma: "Happy to get the win coming out of Christmas Break. The girls played hard against a well coached Kenowa Hills team." Newaygo improves to 4-2 on the year while Kenowa Hills drops to 3-.3. The Lions return to league action Friday when they visit the Cardinals of Big Rapids Mason County Central 40 Hesperia 32 Both teams came into the game hoping to grab win number 2 on the season and despite a late comeback by the visitors the Spartans kheld on for the non-con victory. Emmi Tinkham contines to work the glass for the Panthers snaring a dozen boards and Emily Bayle notched 16 points to go with her 3 steals. Coach Grodus:”This was a very physical game. We cut the lead to 2 points in 4th quarter but we ran out of gas.” Hesperia (1-1, 1-5) looks to add to the W column when they resume conference play Friday with a visit to Lakeview to take on the Wildcats (0-2, 0-6). By N3 Sports
The Gold Fremont 5-0, 2-0 The Packers are a good team. A really good team. The way they wrested control of the game from Big Rapids and triumphed over a very physical Oriole squad gives their fans a taste of things to come this season as they strive to match last seasons undefeated run to the Gold crown. Their other wins were against less impressive teams but gave the entire bench significant playing time without missing a beat. Try to shut down McDonald? No problem. Give the shooting sign to Zerfas, Kennedy, Moon Miller, et.al. There are numerous weapons on the floor and on the bench for this group of Packers and they are clearly the team to beat in the Gold. Newaygo 1-1, 1-3 The Lions got slammed by graduation and have a lot of new faces in their starting lineup. They are not going to matchup talent-wise with the best in the conference but Coach Barrette will get the most out of his players and Magana, Gonzales, Mortenson, etc. are scrappers Teams that go up against the Lions, particularly in the Den, will know they’re in a game. They return with a trio of tough road games against teams with a combined 11-1 record. Grant 1-1, 1-5 The Tigers are a better team than their record indicates. N3 Contributor Mike Gesler: “Coming off the break the Tigers just need to grow comfortable with each other as a team, and cannot rely on Chase and Schuitema to carry them.. When they distribute the ball and take it inside, they are a tough team as shown against Reed City.” Their schedule has been brutal with a bevy of teams deep in talent delivering a few lumps along the way but outside of a runaway by the Chix of ZE they have been in every game. They travel to Chip Hills and Tri County this week before heading a bit west to face the Packers.Their next home game isn’t for another 2 weeks when Newaygo makes the short trip south. Central Montcalm 2-0, 3-0 The Hornets have continued the success they had on the gridiron to the court with a trio of wins to start the season but they haven’t beaten anyone with a winning record yet and will face the MS ‘Hawks, The Packers and the Cards to start the new year. Those games should tell the tale of CM going forward Big Rapids 1-1, 1-2 Coach Ingels team will likely have an eye on their early February rematch with the Packers on the Cardinal court but in the meantime they look to be able to do some damage along the way. They have some talent, some strong bench players and while a bit streaky can run away from teams when things are clicking. Tri County 1-1, 1-2 The Vikes beat the Warriors but so has everyone else so far. They were out of the game early against BR and Morley handled them without a lot of trouble.TC resumes play against 2 teams without a win then play Newaygo and Grant who have 2 wins between them. Reed City 0-2, 0-4 Averaging less than 40 points a game is not going to translate into success on the court. It’s early but the ‘Yotes might be in for a long season. Chip Hills 0-2, 0-3 The Warriors will win some games. But likely not a lot of them. The Silver White Cloud 1-1, 2-2 The Cloud has a few players with lengthy varsity experience in Holt, Venema and Foster and a few newcomers as well. While they are unlikely to challenge the ‘Hawks and Eagles for the Silver crown they have a chance to win more games than the past couple of years and build a bit on that success. Holton 1-1, 2-3 A good team that has been close in early season losses to very good teams. The Devs might be looking up at the aforementioned KC and MS but they won’t be looking up too far and a win over either of those squads would not be a huge surprise. Holton will be in the winning column more often than not this season. Hesperia 0-2, 0-4 32 points a game won’t get you a lot of W’s but the Panthers went without a win throughout the regular season last year then made a nice run at tourney time. They face Lakeview in their first game back and this could be their best shot at breaking into the left side of the standings since the Wildcats are also struggling on offense. Morley Stanwood 2-0, 4-0 Tough defensive play has kept opponents under 50 a game and forged an early win streak.They return with 2 cross conference games against the Lions and Hornets before their faceoff with Kent City. Kent City 2-0, 3-1 The Eagles will battle MS for the Silver title once again and they have a tough non-con schedule which should help come tourney time. Hudson and Carlson can score but the defensive play of the Eagles that impresses the most. Lakeview 0-3, 0-4 The Cats are going to struggle. They are yielding over 30 points a game more than they are scoring. Granted, those were all pretty tough teams but 30 is a lot of points. None of their next 6 opponents have a winning record thus far so maybe things will turn around. But man, 30 is a lot of points. Boys
Ravenna 58 Holton 48 Coach Houseman: “ It was a tight game all the way with a number of lead changes but I felt we ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. Ravenna did a good job of getting the ball inside and we didn’t execute well defensively. My kids played tough. We are very close to becoming a very good team. Our 3 losses have been to Sparta who has not lost and we led for a lot of that game, Morley Stanwood who is undefeated and where we led by as much as 12 or 14 but couldn’t finish it out and now tonight. “We have to get in better shape, have a couple of guys off the bench step up and give us a few solid minutes. We will continue to fine tune everything and by March we will be a very solid team. I am excited to see our progress each day in practice and every game we play. Ravenna has a nice team and I hope we get another shot at them in the districts.” Lukas Ramaekers scored 14 points, Nathan Slowik had 12, Aidan Poling had 9. Girls Manistee 37 Grant 31 By N3 Sports
The Gold Fremont 2-0, 3-3 Three losses. A squeaker to undefeated Montague, a puzzling defeat at the hands of Spring Lake and a blowout loss to a Ludington team that would also be undefeated if not for scheduling Reeths Puffer and Ms. Basketball candidate Lauren Ross. We didn’t see the other 2 wins but we caught the come from behind win over Big Rapids and this is a team that will likely be in the hunt for the Gold title. They are true battlers who possess a never say die attitude on the court. Vandenberg is an absolute force and efforts to stop her open it up for Miller, Shriver, and Jamieson. Bennett has shown to be a clutch performer who kept her team close enough to pull off the win against the previously unbeaten Cardinals and other role players make up a solid squad They return to the court next Friday when they begin a 3 game homestand by facing the defending champs of Central Montcalm. Should be a good one. Grant 2-0, 2-4 The Tigers fell a point short in their opener against White Cloud then were handled easily by two quality teams in Kent City and Cedar Springs. Since then they edged the Hornets dropped a heartbreaker to Sparta and outlasted Reed City to remain undefeated in league play and without a win out of conference. Teams know that stopping Throop is a must and the strategy worked early on but when Rider, Doornbos, Arends and Longcore are hitting the strategy weakens considerably. They visit Manistee during the break and should collect non league win number one before hitting the road for 3 conference matchups beginning with a struggling Chip Hills team. Newaygo 3-2, 1-1 The Lions will be garnishing their share of wins this season particularly if the offense can consistently put up the points they are capable of. The Long sisters can score in bunches and Goodin has developed a strong game on both ends of the court while Frisbie and Mathis display an intensity on defense that creates problems for opposing teams. Other players in the mix provide the Lions with one of their deepest teams in years. A 10 point loss to a good Cedar Springs team and a down to the wire defeat at the hands of a relentless CM squad constitute the stats on the right column of the record but the Lions will be making some serious noise this season. They need to be road warriors as the team heads to Kenowa Hills Monday before returning to league play at BR Friday and the schedule has them at home just once in their next 7 games. Big Rapids 1-1, 5-1 The loss to Fremont notwithstanding this is a team that will be among the 5 possible teams battling for a title. Their only loss saw a double digit lead evaporate against an unwilling-to-lose Packer squad. Central Montcalm 1-1, 4-1 The defending champs lost a lot to graduation but they are coming on strong and while they might not have the scoring power of last season they still play a rugged defense. Onlyb the Lions have put more than 40 on the board against them. Tri County 1-1, 2-2 Two wins over teams that are struggling and two losses against teams who are not. The coming week should provide a pair of games to help give the offense the traction they will need as they face a brutal seven game run after those two matchups.. Chip Hills, 0-2, 2-4 They have two wins but adding to those could be tough for awhile. They haven’t been in contention the past 3 games against quality opponents. Reed City 0-2, 0-5 Better than the record indicates perhaps but not likely to be a factor in the conference race. The Silver White Cloud 1-1, 3-3 We caught the Cloud against the cream of the conference when Kent City came to town. The Eagles are one of the best teams in the area with a prolific scoring ability and the WC squad of scrappers held them to nearly 30 points less than the 70+ points they have averaged against other teams. Strait, Bowman and Watson are gamers who can score and no opposing player wants to match up with Scarlavai who seems to have a never ending supply of energy and a keen sense for the ball. While KC and Morley look to rule the Silver do not count the Cloud out yet. They are still adjusting to life without Hannah Brown and those three losses came against teams who are 13-4 thus far Hesperia 1-1, 1-4 Bayle, Castillo and Romero can certainly score while Tinkham has become tougher on the glass with each passing game. The Panthers will likely still be looking up at the Eagles, ‘Hawks and likely WC but there is some weaponry on hand in Hesperia and they open with a trio of winnable games on the schedule as they enter the new year. Holton 0-2, 1-4 We haven’t watched the RDs play yet but a season opening overtime win gave them one more than all of last year and a matchup with a winless Wyoming Lee on Tuesday gives them an opportunity to grab number 2. Still it is a rebuilding year for the program under a new coach and while the Devils should add to their victory total as the season progresses the W’s look to be hard to come by-particularly in the conference. Kent City 2-0, 6-0 A really, really good team with sharpshooters, rebounding, good defense and of course Bowers who is the proverbial straw that stirs the drink. And she, as well as Harrison, Geers and others, each have another year or two before they depart. Morley Stanwood 2-0, 6-0 Can the Mohawks overcome the dominance of Kent City in the Silver? Well, they are 6-0 to start the season but none of the teams they have beaten have a winning mark and the combined record of those teams is 6-24. We’ll likely know more after a rare Saturday game next week when they pay a visit to the Eagle Aerie Lakeview 0-2, 0-6 Averaging under 20 points a game which does not translate into many wins. |
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