 Photo by Jayson Robins Holton 39 Lakeview 33 The Red Devils were in a real catfight in their Tuesday night game in Lakeview as the hosts edged out to a 21-20 lead at intermission. The two teams battled down the stretch with the Devils able to edge out in front in the 4th and pull out the win. Coach Jordan: “ We only got one outside shot tonight and struggled to convert, but we shot the best we have all year from the free throw line going 15/22, biggest reason we won. “We were sluggish all night, but found a way to grind out another win. Our last 3 wins have been low scoring, ugly ones. We’re due to hit some shots soon.” Ryann Robins led the Devils in scoring knocking down 15 points to go with her 10 boards while Aubrey Goings hit for 11 and took 8 off the glass. Abbie Fowler dished out 5 assists to go with her 5 steals and 7 points. Holton (10-3, 3-3) will play their rivalry game against Hesperia (3-10, 0-7) Thursday. The RD’s held the Panthers to 4 points in their mid-December meeting. Friday Mason County Central 52 Holton 30 The D# 10th ranked Spartans are one of the best teams in the area and are in a dogfight with Hart for the Rivers Division title They possess a potent and explosive offense and have scored over 50 points 8 times going into this one. The Devils were coming off a pair of wins despite a bit of an offensive slump for the squad. Holton got off to a good start holding the Spartan scoring down and taking a 10-4 lead after one. Then MCC got it going and peeled off a 16-4 run to send the Devs to the locker room down 6. The Spartans enhanced their lead in the third going into the final frame up by 10. The Devils battled early in the quarter but the Spartans ran away late in the game for the win. Coach Jordan: “They are a really really good team and you have to be solid all night against them, if you’re not, they make you pay. We had our best quarter of the year in the first. We played physical and with intensity. We just turned the ball over 20 times and they got up about 20 more shots than us on the night. That was the difference. “Almost the same score as the first time we played but the game just felt different this time, we competed with them for about 80% of the game. Our goal was to be within striking distance in the 4th quarter, which we were, but credit to them on closing out the game with a nice run. They’re 10-2 for a reason.They have shooting, size and great balance.
0 Comments
Upcoming games to decide conference contenders It’s coming down to crunch time in the CSAA title race with a cluster of front running teams set to begin facing off, each with aspirations for a conference crown. White Cloud has been on fire and will come into their Friday trip to Newaygo with 9 straight wins under their belt. They are 5-1 in conference play with the sole loss coming at home against Big Rapids. Following Friday’s game they will host Morley Stanwood a week from Friday but it’s the following week’s schedule that would test any team. 3 games beginning with unbeaten North Muskegon followed by conference contenders Grant and Reed City. Newaygo is also 5-1 in league play and will begin their quest for the top spot Wednesday when they welcome in Reed City who sit alone atop the standings with a 7-0 mark. Friday will be the matchup with White Cloud and a win over the Coyotes would scramble the standings considerably. Grant is the third team sitting a game behind the Coyotes at 5-1. Last week they knocked off Big Rapids who are now 4-2 and looking up at 4 other teams. They have 4 league games left with the Cloud the only title contender on that slate. They will face off with the Packers next week when they take the familiar trip to Fremont. Good to see these teams continuing to keep the rivalry going despite no longer competing in the same conference. The conference race has been a good one and these next couple of weeks will see some serious separation given the upcoming schedule. High school basketball is the best show in town. White Cloud 66 Ravenna 51 Looking to extend their winning streak on the road in Ravenna Coach Jones’ team found themselves down early as the Bulldogs grabbed a 10-7 lead after one. The visitors turned up the defensive pressure and began seeing some shots fall as they hit intermission with a 23-21 edge. When the teams came out of the locker room the Cloud took charge and built the lead to a dozen points heading into the final frame. Coach Jones: “We definitely didn't play our best tonight, but we found a way to dig down and come away with our 9th win in a row. Give credit to Coach Kemp and his team. They played us tough all game. They’re a well coached team. Jayden Robinson led the scoring parade dropping 21 on the Dogs while Noah Robinson knocked down 19. KJ Strait (11), Coleson Cruzan (7) Jared Watson (5) and Jayson Ruether (3) all got into the book whieLandyn McGowen drew 3 charges and helped control the boards for WC. Newaygo 50 Fruitport 47 Newaygo and Fruitport faced off in a non-conference game at Fruitport High School on Tuesday night. The score remained close throughout the night with Newaygo eventually pulling out the win. Newaygo was led in scoring by Logan Klomp with 18 points followed by Josiah Long with 12 points and Blake Kerr with 9 points. Caris Nelson pulled down 9 rebounds and dished out 4 assists. Monday Belding 67 Grant 52 The Tigers struggled with putting the ball in the basket and after falling behind early, could not catch the Black Knights. Zaiden Phillips fired in 14 points to lead the Tigers with Lucas Swanson canning 13. Kyle Cook added 7 points for the visitors. Grant (8-4, 5-1) will face off with Fremont (7-8, 3-4) on Tuesday.    Newaygo 43 Whitehall 40 (OT) Not unlike an early season come from behind win over CM the Lions found their rhythm in the 4th quarter and erased a 14 point deficit to send the game into overtime. Down 3 points with just 7 ticks on the clock the Lions forced a turnover and got the ball in the hands of Amaya Lathrop who canned a triple at the buzzer to tie the game. The defense stepped up big in OT and the visitors scored enough to come away with the win. Naomi Schillman came up with the hot hand knocking down 13 of her team high 14 points in the final period plus overtime. Coach Thomasma:"Really happy for the girls tonight. To put it nicely, we had struggled to make shots the last two weeks and that continued for three quarters tonight. The lid came off of the bucket in the 4th and shots started to fall. Amaya made a heads up play to knock down that three at the buzzer and Naomi hit some big shots in the 4th as well. So happy for all of these girls. I also am lucky to have my assistant coach Gabi Jorde and JV coach Zenn Timmer. I was out of town this week attending a funeral and Gabi stepped up and ran practice on Sunday and did a tremendous job. The program is lucky to have her. Zenn does a great job with the JV and helping out whenever he is needed at practices or games. We have a tough one on Wednesday against Reed City so we'll have to be ready for that.” Lathrop finished with 11 points, 5 steals and 3 assists. The win snapped a 3 game losing skid for Newaygo (5-6, 1-4) who will return to conference play Wednesday when Reed City (5-6, 4-2) comes to town. Ravenna 31 White Cloud 28 (OT) The Bulldogs pulled out to a 7-5 edge after one and pushed the lead to 14-9 at intermission. The second half started with the visitors nudging their advantage to 7 entering the final frame. The 4th started with a Bulldog basket and the lead went to 9. Coach Wilk: “Then it happened. We started to make a run. Baker hit a clutch 3 to pull us within six. They then hit a contested layup to put it back up to 8. Holmes then picked up an offensive rebound and put in a nice shot to cut it back to a 6 point deficit. Ravenna answered right back with another contested layup. The lead was back to 8. Ringler split a pair at the freethrow line to get us within 7. We made a stop, and at the offensive end, Feldpausch fought for an offensive rebound and put it up to cut the lead to 5. After another strong defensive stop, Klammer hit a three to cut the lead to 2 points with time winding down. Ravenna was able to run off some time on their next possession, but eventually, there was a loose ball that Ringler sold out on the floor for, and we were able to get the ball back with 19 seconds left. After a short timeout, our inbounds play was thwarted, but we were able to retain possession, and we had another baseline out-of-bounds play coming. With about 8 seconds left, Feldpausch hit a short jump shot to tie the game. Ravenna wasn't able to get a shot off so we went into overtime.” Ravenna scored twice to go up 4 and the Cloud answered twice from the charity strip to get within a bucket. The Bulldogs split at the line to go up 3 and the hosts missed a final scoring opportunity. Coach Wilk: ”Overall our players played wonderfully at the end of the game to come back and compete like they did. My only gripe from tonight's game was that we were 4/13 at the freethrow line. All we needed was to make one more in regulation and we walk out with a hard-fought win. “We will bounce back and be ready to take on Newaygo Friday night for a tough CSAA conference matchup. I know Thomasma will have his group ready to go.” Anni Feldpausch scored 10 points, while Gracy Holmes put in eight points White Cloud (6-9, 2-4) travels to Newaygo Friday  Photos by Bobbi Cruzan Grant 46 Big Rapids 40 The Tigers have shown they can put a good team out on the floor. Their trouble has been getting them on the floor. When the Tigers headed north to Big Rapids for a Friday matchup with the Cardinals Coach DeLamater’s team had only played twice since before Christmas. Coach D. “The weather has played havoc on any type of rhythm we can get into. Both teams started the game cold last night. We hadn't scored a bucket at the three minute mark and with just over a minute to go in the first quarter, we had just scored once. Jocee Pleune hit two big 3's to give us some momentum going into the second. We played much better in the second quarter. We turned BR over and shot much better from the floor. “The second half was a completely different game. The game got much more physical and BR took advantage, turning us over 8 times. Big buckets from Julie Ashbaugh and Alexa Obenauf helped get us back on track. The fourth was more of the same. We struggled with their physical play and they hit some big shots to get the gap down to 4, 39-43 with a minute to go. Julie Ashbaugh and Bella Welch hit some huge free throws for us down the stretch to put the game away and deal with the BR pressure. “Overall Ashbaugh led us with 19 points and 9 rebounds, Bella Welch added 8 points and 4 steals, and Jocee Pleune and Alexa Obenauf added 6 each. We got a lot of solid minutes from different girls tonight. Alexa Obenauf had a solid game off the bench for us, and Lily Krepps had some great minutes while Bella Welch was in foul trouble. This was a great team win for us." Grant (6-3, 5-0) will visit Coopersville Wednesday. Kent City 44 White Cloud 11 The Cloud once again struggled with finding the basket Friday and the 11 points marked the 6th time this season they have scored under 20 points. Coach Wilk: “Unfortunately tonight our scoring woes continued. I liked our defensive intensity, but we were not able to match it on the offensive end. We have a game Monday so we need to regroup quickly.” Annie Feldpausch scored a team high 5 points. White Cloud (6-8, 2-4) welcomes in Ravenna on Monday.    Lions, Pack fall to unbeaten squads We’re coming down to crunchtime in the basketball schedule and the next couple weeks will see the logjam atop the CSAA begin to divide a bit. White Cloud and Grant continued their winning ways Friday with the Cloud romping over the Eagles and the Tigers battling a state ranked Cardinal team for an impressive OT win. The teams share second place in the CSAA with Newaygo, each of the three boasting a 5-1 record in conference play, a game behind 6-0 Reed City. White Cloud has the toughest road to a possible title.They have yet to play any of the top tier teams and finish their regular season play with a week that includes road games against Grant and D3 ranked North Muskegon and a home contest with the league leading Coyotes. The Tigers conference opponents down the stretch include three teams in the lower part of the standings and the home game with White Cloud. Newaygo had their 3 game winning streak snapped Thursday as Whitehall put on display why they are among the top teams in the D2 rankings. The Lions are heading for a big week with Reed City coming to town Wednesday and White Cloud paying a visit Friday. Over in the WMC Fremont is unlikely to challenge for the title but the Packers have been impressive after ending an early 6 game losing streak. Since then they have gone 6-2 with both losses coming at the hands of undefeated and state ranked teams, including the loss to NM Thursday. The schedule ahead isn’t easy but this team has shown a lot of resilience in shaking off that streak and grabbing some success on the court. Grant 68 Big Raids 63 (OT) The Tigers took state ranked Big Rapids into overtime on the Cardinal home court and came away with a gritty overtime win. The first half saw BR continuing to hold a slim lead but the Tigers roared back and held a 4 point edge heading into the 4th. The teams battled down the stretch and it looked like the hosts would seal the win in regulation as a late foul sent one of the Cardinal players to the free throw line with seconds remaining. Both shots failed to drop and the game was extended another period.. Zaden Phillips was a beast in the OT scoring some tough buckets while Blake Rider sealed the deal at the charity stripe going 6-6 when it mattered most. The win keeps the Tigers in what has become a scramble at the top of the conference with Newaygo, White Cloud and Grant all settled in a game in back of front runner Reed City and the Cardinals 2 games from the top. Phillips led the team in scoring as he dropped 26 on the Cards while Rider finished in double figures with 11. Kyle Cook hit for 9 points and Lucas Swanson scored 8. Grant (8-3, 5-1) will travel to Belding Monday for a non conference matchup with Belding. White Cloud 68 Kent City 39 Generated by a high powered offense that has averaged over 70 points a game since Christmas the Cloud just keeps on rolling as they notched their 8th straight win to remain a game behind league leading Reed City in the conference race. Coach Jones: “Very happy with our team play right now we are playing pretty good basketball.” Three WC players hit double figures led by KJ Strait's 16 points. Jared Watson and Jayden Robinsonn knocked down 15 apiece while Jayson Reuther hit for 8 and Noah Robinson 7. Next on tap for White Cloud (12-2, 5-1) is a non conference road trip to Ravenna (7-6, 4-3). Thursday Whitehall 66 Newaygo 47 The D2 ranked Vikings were coming off an emotional win over D1 ranked Cadillac but they showed no signs of a letdown in keeping their undefeated record intact with a convincing win over the host Lions. The visitors got off to a quick start and forced Newaygo to have to play from behind the rest of the way. The Lions trailed by 22 at halftime but came out of intermission to battle the Vikings in the second half, competing right up to the buzzer. Logan Klomp led the Lions with 13 points and Josiah Long finished with an even dozen. Caris Nelson worked the glass for 7 boards while dishing out 5 assists. Newaygo (8-5, 5-1) will travel to Fruitport Tuesday followed by a home contest with conference frontrunner Reed City Wednesday. North Muskegon 53 Fremont 39 The Norse came into this game undefeated, state ranked and firmly atop the Rivers Division of the WMC. The Packers got out to an early lead on the NM court but a cold shooting spell resulted in the visitors being down by 3 at intermission. The teams battled on inn the third but the hosts had the hot hands down the stretch and tallied their 13th straight win Coach Bowen: “We can take a lot of positives from this game against a very good team, but we know there are no moral victories, and we need to execute better offensively if we are going to beat quality opponents.” Chaz Miller paced the Pack with 13 points and added 6 rebounds. Ben Mellema hit for 11 while collecting 4 boards and Gavin Richards led the team on the glass with 10 rebounds.to go with his 6 points. Fremont (7-8, 3-4) will try to avenge an early season loss when Ludington comes to town on Friday  Grant 66 Tri County 26 It took the Tigers 8 minutes to get into their game, but once they found their footing the match up with the Vikings turned into a runaway. Held to a single basket in the first and looking up at a 3 point TC lead the visitors got into a groove offensively and took an 8 point lead into intermission. The second half saw the Tigers take control of the game and cruise to the conference win. Coach Delamater:”It was a slow start for us. We are still battling the rust from having a month off without a game. Our ball movement got better in the second quarter and we started to find the basket and pulled away. Overall, we still have a lot to work on. We are far from playing our best basketball and we have the heart of our conference games coming up.” Julie Ashbaugh stuffed the stat sheet once again finishing with 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 steals. Jocee Pleune also posted solid numbers knocking down 13 points white taking 5 off the glass and collecting 3 steals, and Reece Gragg pulled down 7 boards. Grant (5-3, 4-0) will welcome in Central Montcalm (4-6, 2-2) on Tuesday. Grant 62 Tri County 57 The Tigers escaped Tri County with a narrow win allowing them to keep pace in the CSAA race. Zaiden Phillips led the team in scoring with 13 points while Oakley Obenauf hit for 11 and Blake Rider also reached double figures finishing with 10. Grant (7-3, 3-1) will host Central Montcalm (3-9, 1-4) Fremont 53 Manistee 37 Coach Bowen: “The boys played with great effort, and we did a lot of positive things as a team. Our defense was very good, holding Manistee to only 13 first half points. I thought we did some good things on offense as well. We got out in transition and did a better job of moving and sharing the ball in the half court.” Chaz Miller had a huge night posting 16 points, 9 assists, 6 boards and 5 steals. Will DeBlake hit for a team high 17 points while pulling down 5 rebounds and Travis McDonald came off the bench to fire in 7 points to go with his 4 rebounds. Fremont (5-7, 2-4) will host Mason County Central (7-7, 4-3) on Tuesday.  Noah Robinson's hot hand scorches Warriors White Cloud 65 Chippewa Hills 39 The Cloud continues to hover near the top of the CSAA standings as they posted a convincing home win over the Warriors. Coach Jones: “We definitely had some rust after a little bit of a break from game action tonight and found ourselves down 9-8 to end the first quarter. We definitely got better as the game went on at the half we were up 24-22 and put the game away with a 24-6 third.” Noah Robinson dropped 30 on the visitors as he continues to be an offensive force for WC. KJ Strait hit for 11 while Coleson Cruzan knocked down 8 and Jayden Robinson scored 7. White Cloud (10-2, 3-1) continues conference play Tuesday when they visit Lakeview (0-5, 2-10).    Holmes comes up big for hosts Photos by Bobbi Cruzan White Cloud 42 Chippewa Hills 23 The hosts stifled the Warriors in the first half and got a big offensive game from Gracy Holmes to score their most points since the opener and pull even on the season with win number 6. Coach Wilk: “Tonight we had our best game yet despite being in foul trouble. We were able to start fast, and that worked well for us. Defensively we were able to hold Chippewa Hills to 2 points in the 1st half, and I was very happy with that. We led 17 to 2 at half and then extended our lead to 26 to 6 by the end of the third quarter. In the last 8 minutes both teams traded buckets back and forth. Gracy Holmes had a career night dropping in 15 points. Jaden Gomez added 8 points to go with 8 steals, and Broooklyn Foondle added 6 points. Brooke Ringler led us with 8 rebounds. Overall this was another game where everyone contributed in all facets of the game, and the girls are having a blast right now. We are going to use this game as momentum, and hopefully, we will continue to climb in the CSAA standings.” White Cloud (6-6, 2-2) will travel to Lakeview (4-4, 2-3) on Tuesday.
  Lions Roar Past ‘Cats Newaygo 64 Lakeview 43 The Lions got out of the gate early, pouring in 25 first quarter points with Josiah Long, Caris Nelson and Hunter Yearsovich finding net from beyond the arc. The teams played even in the second as the Lions got points from 6 different players in the quarter and the teams hit intermission with the hosts up 38-24. The teams exchanged scoring in the third and the Wildcats struck twice early in the 4th to pull within 11. The Lions responded as Blake Kerr scored followed by a 2 and 3 from Long and a Logan Klomp basket putting the game out of reach with a 20 point lead. Newaygo (8-4, 4-1) won their third in a row and has a chance to pull into a tie for the conference lead when they host Reed City (11-2, 6-0) on Tuesday. 
 
  Wildcat Sharpshooter Too Much For Lions Lakeview 36 Newaygo 32 Despite a hot start the Lion shooting woes continued in a conference loss to visiting Lakeview. Amaya Lathrop, Kija Schultz and Lillian Holmes scored and staked the hosts to a 6-0 lead before Wildcat Baylor Syrjala heated up big time. The junior, part of a youthful Lakeview team canned a pair of triples to help her team into an 8-8 tie after one. When the second began she promptly fired in another from distance giving the ‘Cats a lead they would hold until the final buzzer. Holmes led the Lions in scoring with a dozen points and also pulled down a team high 11 boards but it was on defense where the sophomore truly excelled, rejecting 6 shots while protecting the paint. Lathrop knocked down 11 points and pilfered 5 steals from the Wildcats. Schultz finished with 5 points. Syrjala finished with 21 for the Wildcats including 5 from distance. Newaygo (4-6, 1-4) will host Reed City (5-5, 4-1) on Tuesday.
   |
Archives
October 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed