Photos by Bobbi Cruzan
Big Rapids 74 White Cloud 65 Make no mistake about it, White Cloud has a team up there in our county seat. On Friday they traveled to take on a Big Rapids squad many have picked to be the team to beat for the conference crown. No they didn’t win but it took everything the Cardinals had in the tank to pull this one out as the Cloud rained down a host of triples on their hosts. WC took an early lead then after falling behind by double figures in the fourth they fought their way back in to pull within 3 with less than a minute to play. Coach Jones: “We left everything on the court but just couldn't get over the hump. From there we played the foul game which opened up their lead at the end. Moral victories are hard to swallow sometimes, especially when your team plays their heart out. I’m so proud of them.” Jared Watson finished with a game high 16 points including 4 from distance and Mason Ruether canned 5 from beyond the arc to finish with 15. Noah Robinson also tallied 15 including the late layup that pulled the visitors within 3. Kevin Strait, who Coach Jones called ‘an unstoppable force all night‘, also reached double figures with 10. Things don’t get easier for White Cloud (2-1, 4-2) next week as they head for Scottville Tuesday to take on the undefeated Spartans of Mason County Central before hosting Grant on Friday. Montague 57 Fremont 49 The Packers and Wildcats were knotted up at 12 after one but the hosts grabbed a little momentum to take a 5 point lead into intermission. Fremont battled to pull within a point of the ‘Cats entering the final frame but fell victim to too many turnovers down the stretch as Montague secured the WMC-Lakes win. Coach Bowen: “I thought we played hard but in the end we just made too many mistakes to win. Turnovers, missed free throws, and offensive rebounds killed us. We are a very young, inexperienced team and we knew there would be some growing pains. Our effort has been much improved lately but now we have to work on our execution. Our guys still haven’t quite adjusted to the speed and physicality at the varsity level. We will continue to work hard to try to improve.” Jordon McDonald paced the Packer point sheet finishing with 20.
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Story and photos by Mike Gesler Montague 42 Grant 41 If you are one of the Grant faithful, you knew going into tonight’s game was not going to be easy. The Tigers had a physical game against Sparta the night before in which they pulled off a 42-point second half come from behind victory. It’s also exactly the games that Coach Delamater wanted for his young squad. He wanted games that were going to test the mental and physical stamina of his team. He wanted games that were going to prepare his players for the more experienced CSAA teams. He wanted games that he could point back on in District play and say see how we competed then. Having Sparta and Montague back-to-back was certainly going to fill those challenges. The only question remaining was is there enough gas in the tank to compete against a Montague team that hasn’t played since December 20 and was on fresh and rested legs. “So, I really value games like this because conference-wise it doesn’t matter, but in terms of us getting better, it really helps us,” Coach Delamater said. “We talked about that before the game. Even without Kendall [Osborne], they’re a great basketball team. They’re going to play us hard. They play in a tough conference, and they battle every single night and have a winning tradition. So going out against them and playing hard is a big deal for us.” The first half gave little for Tiger fans to cheer over. It was apparent from the start that the game against Sparta the previous night had taken a toll on the Grant players. Couple that with the fact the Montague has some very athletic players who were eager to take home Tiger steaks, and one was just left hoping that tonight wasn’t going to be a complete butchering. While Ashbaugh had a couple trips to the line early in the first quarter which yielded the Tigers two points, it wouldn’t be until late in the first quarter that Emma Thompson would hit the first Tiger bucket for two. By then Montague had already put nine up. Thus, the first half went and as both teams headed into the locker room, the Tigers were trailing by thirteen. The Tigers came out of the locker room ready for the second half. Like the night before, they were going to have to dig deep and show their grit if they wanted to claim another victory. But dig deep they did, catching Montague completely off guard. Like the previous night, they dominated the second half putting up twenty-seven while holding their opponent to fourteen. With one minute left in the game, the Tigers had once again come from behind to even up the game at forty-one a piece. The Tigers controlled the ball for the next fifty-three seconds trying to get set up for that last minute game winning bucket before they were called for a double dribbling foul and giving Montague a seven second chance. AND THEN IT HAPPENED. If you were at this game, you know exactly to what I’m referring. As time expired, the Tigers were called on a foul. A foul that was not called the entire night. A foul that the officials had let the players play through all night. A horrible call that would affect the outcome of this game, and have ramifications for Friday’s game against Newaygo. I wish I could say I’m just being biased here. Unfortunately, I am not. As an official, you have got to expect that when you make a game deciding call, right or wrong, you are going to elicit an emotional response from players and coaches. You have to have the professionalism to take a deep breath, allow for the emotion, and then bring the sides under control. Coach Delamater reacted with such immediate emotion to the call. Mind you, the call. Not the official who made the call. Yet rather than receive professional grace so to speak, Delamater received a double technical. Montague now had three chances to hit a game winner. Senior Haylee Schwarz went to the line and on her second attempt gave the Montague Wildcats another notch in their win column. In a game that would have been fitting to end in a tie, the Tigers will need to find a way to set aside tonight’s game and prepare for their Friday game against near north rival Newaygo without Coach Delamater. “We didn’t have the fresh legs especially with a couple of our starters tonight and so it was nice to see the younger girls getting out there and getting after it. Really, Emma Thompson, Alexa Obenauf, and Reese Gragg really brought the comeback. They’re the legs that got us back into the basketball game and put a lot of pressure on. Kudos to those girls for going out there, playing hard, and doing what they need to do,” stated Delamater. “Youthful inexperience at the end of the game. We’ll get past that. When you have Sophomores out there on the floor in the last seconds of games that’s a tough thing.”
“Julie [Ashbaugh] played tough,’ explained Delamater. “I mean tons of minutes again with very little rest. Sprained her ankle right there at the beginning of the game, and then a minute in was like ‘let me get back out on the floor’. Teams are really starting to try different stuff with her so she’s got to learn how to play through that. I thought she did. I thought she did a better job of distributing the ball tonight to girls who were open with looks.” Leading in tonight’s heroic efforts was Julie Ashbaugh with fifteen. Jayci Hance also had double digits with ten. Jocee Pleune contributed five, Alexa Obenauf had four, and Emma Thompson put up three. Reese Gragg and Makayla Zerlaut each had two apiece. The Tigers will host the Lions of Newaygo on Friday evening. Game time is 6:00. Photos and story by Ken DeLaat Girls Fremont 46 Tri County 19 The Packers snapped a 4 game losing streak with a dominating win over the visiting Vikings. The game started slowly with turnovers and missed shots until Jessica Bennett canned a triple to start the scoring. After Khaila Nordyk split from the line Allison Johnson got TC on the board with a distance shot of her own and the hosts were up 4-3. It was the closest the Vikings would get all night. Riley Chase finished the first quarter with 6 straight points and the teams ended the period with Fremont holding a 10-4 lead, but it was in the second that the floodgates opened. The Packers, led by Lily VandenBerg’s 10 spot outscored the Vikes 20-5 to hit halftime with a 30-9 advantage. The teams returned from the locker room and Noordyk came out with the hot hand scoring Fremont's first 7. Mia Clemence went 2-2 from the stripe and Chase scorched a 3 pointer before the quarter ended and the teams went to the final frame with the Packers in command 42-17 Julianne Hernandez hit one of two free throws and Elise Pfeiffer canned a 3 for the only 4th quarter points for the hosts and a Johnson bucket was all TC could muster. Coach Zerlaut “Scoring points has been a challenge for us this year. I think our pressure defense helped us out on that tonight. It was good to see our players gaining some confidence to take the shots and drive the basket. The girls have been working hard. We had a good stretch of practices over Christmas break and it was good to see their effort rewarded tonight with a positive outcome. We took a big step forward tonight.” Fremont (0-2, 2-6) will look to get their first conference win Thursday when they visit Orchard View (0-3, 0-7) Boys Fremont 68 Tri County 41 The Packers came out strong as Jordon McDonald took a pass from William DeBlake for a bucket then stole a pass and drove the court for a layup to put the Pack up 4-0. After Brett Flintoff got the Vikes on the board splitting a pair of free throws Ben Mellema knocked one down from distance, Gavin Richards hit for 2 and Mellema again found the nets from beyond the arc. Add in another McDonald bucket with TC only managing another single point from the line and it was a 14-2 lead for Fremont. Flintoff stopped the drought by hitting the visitor’s first field goal then Chaz Miller scored Mellema scored and Miller dropped a basket and a pair of free throws and when the buzzer sounded the Pack were firmly in front 22-4. The teams played fairly even in the second and at intermission Fremont held a 38-18 edge. TC’s offense picked up some momentum in the second half but they could not stop the Packer scoring parade and failed to make a dent in the lead Jordon McDonald dropped 22 points to lead the Pack while Mellema fired in an even dozen and Miller also reached double figures with 10. Richards finished with 8 points and Travis McDonald came off the bench to bang in 7 including a three pointer. Fremont (1-1, 3-2) returns to conference play Friday when they visit the Montague Wildcats (1-2, 3-3) Lions Wrestlers Fall In Close Match to Big Rapids
4 January 2023 In a close match with Big Rapids, the Newaygo Lions fell with a team score of 42-33. This was one of only two home matches of the season for the Lions, so senior Toby VanRooyen was honored with his parents for his contribution to the team. The Lions would go on to beat Grant with a score of 48-22 in their second matchup of the evening. Pictured are the athletes for each of Newaygo’s weight classes who wrestled Wednesday evening against the Cardinals. Story and photos by Mike Gesler Grant 60 Sparta 45 Grant hasn’t played a game since December 16 as they start the new year with a three game week that started tonight against Sparta and ends with Newaygo on Friday. Sparta, on the other hand, last played on December 29, and while not the same powerhouse team that challenged Newaygo the last two years for the District title, they still cannot be taken lightly with dialed in Junior shooters Makayla Hatchew and Averi Peot. Hatchew from the start let the Tigers know that she would hurt them with any open look as she drained two threes within the first three and a half minutes to help put Sparta up by eight while Grant tried to knock off two and a half weeks of rust. “Obviously there was some rust at the beginning because of break. I mean it’s tough. You want to get practice time in, but you want to allow time with families and stuff like that. So, one of the things that we have been talking about is we are not going to be in our shape when we come out and it showed,” stated Coach Delamater. Then entered Julie Ashbaugh who apparently only needed three and a half minutes to knock off her rust. Julie would get the Tigers rolling with a seven point run of her own and put Grant right back into the game. That definitely helped change the dynamic of play as Grant’s pressure defense overwhelmed Sparta enough for the coach to change tactics on the floor telling his players to, “back off, they’re pressure is too much.” A two-and-one from Emma Thompson would tie the game, and two from Jayci Hance would see the Tigers take the lead. However, a buzzer shot from Sparta ended the first quarter in a 12-12 tie. Sparta gained control again in the second quarter holding the Tiger offense to a mere six points. And while the Tiger defense kept Hatchew to only one three pointer, that opened up the door for Peot who put up eight of Sparta’s thirteen second quarter points. Sparta hit the locker room with a seven point advantage at the half. “We weren’t where we needed to be in terms of getting up and down the floor and some of the pressure on defense, and it was extremely physical,” said Delamater. “We’ve talked about that from day one. Everyone is going to be very physical because we’re little. Morley was a great example of that, and that shocked us at first, that physicality, and it shocked us a little bit here at the beginning of this game. These girls are going to push us around. We talked about that at halftime. You’ve got to battle through that. You’ve got to continue to box out, and it’s going to have to be more rather than a foot from the rim, two foot from the rim, now you’re going to have to box out to make sure they are out of the lane.” Grant came out of the half a different team. The Tigers were not about to just roll over and let Sparta push them around. They stepped up their pressure closing down the lanes. They moved the ball down the court with speed. They picked up the tempo forcing Sparta to make questionable passes and rushed shots. In essence they flipped the table on Sparta and put up forty-two second half points while only yielding twenty points to the Spartans. “I don’t know if it was a product of they kind of got tired because of the tempo of the game. What I’ve seen of them is they haven’t been up and down as much as that. So, I don’t know if they were like hey let’s try to run with them,” stated Delamater. “I said to the girls at halftime, okay let’s run, let’s run some more. I said this before, it’s going to be deep into the season before we are where we need to be, and you could see that tonight. We’re eighteen points at halftime, and then forty-two points in the second half. When we go, we can go. We can get after it.” “Obviously, Julie really spearheads a lot of that,” continued Delamater. “But you have girls like Jayci Hance, Jocee Pleune, and Alexa [Obenauf] finally…and those girls can hit some shots. We’ve got other girls like Emma Thompson who's been out with an ankle injury, and she put in some quality time for us tonight. Reese [Gragg] started for us tonight and put in quality minutes…But man, they’re fun to coach because they battle. They will go out on the floor and just put it all out there and battle to the end. I know I said something about Jocee already, and it’s not going to show up in the stat book. She had nine points tonight, but she has to be considered one of the best on the ball defenders in the area. She can flat out guard anyone. If she was five-nine doing that, there’s nobody that could get by her and she’s a little five-two girl, maybe a hundred pounds on the floor guarding some of these big strong girls and doing a fantastic job.”
Julie Ashbaugh lit it up tonight and led the Tigers with 29 points. Jocee Pleune, as Coach Delamater stated, put up nine with Jayci Hance and Alexa Obenauf each adding seven. Emma Thompson and Madison Thompson had three a piece while Julie Horning shot for two. The Tigers will face another tough opponent tonight taking on the 3-3 Montague Wildcats at home. Game time is seven o’clock. A Roller Coaster Ride: Lions Crest Past Bulldogs Story and photos by Alexis Mercer Most roller coasters start at the bottom, take forever to get to the top and then whip down the first hill at lightning speed. Not this roller coaster ride. Tuesday night’s game featuring the Lions of Newaygo and the Bulldogs of Ravenna was the exact opposite. Within seconds the fun was happening. No waiting for the action. Instead, the Lions started off with 5 3-point baskets in the opening minutes. Ravenna had two of their own in that time. Add one free throw point for the Lions and they were up 16-6 in a hurry. Josiah Long drilled another 3 and Ravenna’s coach looked at his assistant and threw his hands in the air. Add to all the 3s that Newaygo was playing solid defense, and the game was quite one sided. The Lions finished the first quarter with a 22-13 lead. But alas, every roller coaster has to have a low spot. Physics and all. Remington Wells started the quarter off with a nice 2 point shot from just outside the key. That’s when the click-click-clicking of the machine trying to get the coaster back up the hill started. Everything Newaygo had going slowed to a crawl and Ravenna creeped their way back in. With only 11 points in the 2nd quarter, the Lions found themselves with only a 33-27 lead at the half. The third quarter the Lions fared the same. Slower feet than the first quarter, some turnovers, and less defensive stands. At the end of the 3rd quarter it was tied at 44. On to the 4th. Somehow, some way the Lions worked themselves back on the exciting side of the ride. The points were back and forth, back and forth. Wells drained a 3 followed shortly after by Jarryn Schmidt making a shot inside. Josiah Long crushed a 3 point shot from deep and Newaygo was up by 2. Not to be left out of the 3 point game, Grant Harkness nailed another 3 and it was all Lions after that.
Newaygo ended the 4th quarter with another 22 point effort, and beat the Bulldogs 66-55. From Coach Long: “Newaygo was led by Josiah Long with 16 points and 6 rebounds followed by Caris Nelson with 12 points and 9 assists and Bryce Decker with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Newaygo had a great team effort tonight.” Newaygo moves to 4-3 overall. By Ken DeLaat, N3 Sports You gotta love Lion Coach Dan Campbell. When he came on board he said “We're gonna kick you in the teeth, and when you punch us back we're gonna smile at you, and when you knock us down we're gonna get up, and on the way, we're gonna bite a kneecap off.” And while that first presser was met with some amused skepticism by many, he has created a team in his image and they have become a force on the field. When they were humbled by Carolina last week he said “It's awful. But man, it's the best thing that could happen to us because I think no matter who you are in whatever you do, some of your best work is when you get your face kicked in.” He has the Lions on the cusp of a possible playoff spot, an absolute improbability when they sat at 1-7. Ok, they might very well not make it. They have to beat the Packers and Aaron Rodgers in Lambeau, a formidable task anytime but the Pack have playoff aspirations as well, making it like a playoff game in itself. Oh and they need help from the Rams to beat the Seahawks which would be a fitting thank you for helping them win the Super Bowl. Trading Stafford gave the Rams the Super Bowl but has already delivered a bevy of good players and they still have upcoming draft picks from that trade. They let their starting tight end go to the Vikings earlier this year which allowed for some stellar performances by the guys who replaced him. This is a team that has been fun to watch and playoffs this year or not there isn’t likely to be a drought of post season appearances in the near future for Dan Campbell’s team. And make no mistake about it, this is Campbell’s team. While disappointing to see U-M lose it was a heckuva entertaining game and I will be rooting for the Horned Frogs to upset Georgia. They simply seemed to want this one more and played like a team possessed. The Wolves will be back. They’re stocked with good players coming back and a strong recruiting class but TCU is going into the game a 2 touchdown underdog and I am a sucker for a great Cinderella story. Baseball: The Tigers have been eerily quiet after last season's disappointing debacle of a season. They’ve made some minor moves and have a bunch of throwers who should be returning from injuries, but after a less than stellar foray into the free agent market last year that likely was the final blow to the Alex Avila reign not a lot of noise as the new head guy Scott Harris settles into his seat. Hard to tell how they will fare this season but given the resume Harris brings it will be an interesting one for sure and you have to believe some movin’ and shakin’ will be on the docket. High School Hoops returns this week. There are some interesting stories out there this season. A resurgence in White Cloud for both teams, Fremont measuring the competition in the WMC-Lakes and the Grant Girls team who might be the best in the area with Julie Ashbaugh having a monster season for the Tigers so far. While a lot of teams were reserving the Christmas/New Year interim for practice the Holton Red Devils schedule had them playing in the Reed City Holiday Invitational. The Ithaca Yellowjackets ended up taking home the hardware in both the Girls and Boys Divisions. In the Girls Division first round the host Coyotes hit their free throws down the stretch to hang on and defeat a tough Midland Baptist team 38-36. Meanwhile the Devs took it on the chin against eventual champion Ithaca 52-26. Coach Jordan “Ithaca is a good team with solid defense and length and didn't give us any easy look. We were competitive for 3 of the 4 quarters but a 21-4 2nd quarter put the game away. We played flat in the second and we just aren't the kind of team that’s built to come back from double digit deficits. We gotta grind it out and keep it close every quarter.” Aubrey Goyings hit for 9 points, took down 8 boards and grabbed 4 steals for the Devs. Abbie Fowler also nailed 9 points and 4 steals while dishing out 3 assists and Ryann Robins led the team on the glass with 9 rebounds to go with her 8 points. The Red Devils moved into the consolation game against the Kings and after seeing a double digit lead shrink they pulled out the win, 44-40. Coach Jordan: “This was a game that we had good control of in the second half until 3 of our starters fouled out and a 13 point lead ended up evaporating until we were tied at 40-40, Lexi Bart hit a huge shot to give us the lead with less that a minute left and Layla Cannady hit two huge free throw to ice the game. Aubrey Goyings also had a team season high in rebounds with 16. “We held them to 0 fG in the second and 2 in the 3rd quarter and only 9 in the entire game , but they got 30 (16 in 4th) plus free throw attempts and that kept them in the game . Our defense was a lot better from the day before, And that was the point of emphasis. If we don’t play good defense we aren’t gonna win many games.” Fowler finished with a team high 11 points with Goyings dropping 10. Robins and Cannady hit for 8 apiece. The RD’s are now 4-4 on the season with a 1-2 conference mark. They return to league play Thursday when they face Shelby on the Tiger home court. In the Boys Division the Coyotes advanced to the championship round with a 56-23 win over the Devils. Holton fell behind early and hit intermission staring at a 38-16 deficit. Coach Swanson: “ Reed City did a nice job tonight. Turnovers and poor shooting did us in. Our guys played hard but we need to do a better job taking care of the ball.” Brodrick Fialek led the Devs with 9 points and 7 boards, Carter Brant hit for 7 points and Gavin Wheeler grabbed a half dozen rebounds. That put Holton in the consolation game where a hot shooting Buckley squad took a 30 point lead by halftime and cruid=sed to the 77-35 win. Fialek and Brant each scored 9 for the Red Devils. Holton is idle until January 10 when they travel to Muskegon Catholic Central. |
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