 Photos by Bobbie Cruzan White Cloud 44 Morley Stanwood 42 White Cloud prevailed in a seesaw battle between these two White Division competitors once again relying on their strong defense to keep the visitors in check. Morley jumped out to an early lead finishing the first quarter up 14-8, but the Cloud rallied to cut the lead to one at intermission. The Mohawks inched ahead in the third and the teams went to the final frame with WC down by 2. The fourth saw the teams exchanging blows and the lead. Down the stretch they matched buckets with the hosts holding a single digit edge . With time running out, Jayden Robinson was sent to the stripe where he split the pair. Down 2 with the game on the line Morley took a shot at a game winner from distance but it didn’t connect and WC opened conference play with a win. Coach Jones: “Proud of the grit this team has shown. That’s 4 in a row that we have held opponents under 45 points and offensively we are starting to figure things out.” Coleson Cruzan fired in 15 points, Robinson scored 10 and David Higgs tallied 5. Reece Hewitt and Jayden Graves provided much needed spark and valuable minutes for WC. White Cloud (1-0, 3-1) hosts Tri County in a cross conference matchup on Tuesday. Hart 74 Fremont 50 The Pirates took charge early and never looked back as the Packers lost their fourth straight game. Fremont (0-1, 1-4 will continue Lake Division play Tuesday when they host Oakridge.
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  Tiger defense tames Lions Photos by Amanda Louck-Booth Story by Ken DeLaat Grant 78 Newaygo 37 The Tigers came to the Lion home court and ran away from their hosts blowing open a 10-6 lead early in the first with an 11-0 run to the end of the quarter and doubled up their hosts by halftime with a 42 -21 lead. In addition to a plethora of turnovers the Lions were unable to get shots to fall. Meanwhile the Tigers were banging it in with regularity led by Zaiden Phillips and Ethan DeLong who both tallied double figures by halftime. The Tigers dominated every aspect of the game and never let their rivals get into any kind of rhythm. Ethan DeLong led the Tigers with 23 points with Zaiden Phillips adding 21 and Sincere Hatch finishing with 16. DeLong, Phillips, Blake Rider and Owen Cheseboro each hit from distance. "I thought DeLong played a great game, scoring, unselfish passing, rebounding, and pushing the ball on the break," said Coach Dan George. Newaygo was led in scoring by Ethan Reyburn with 11 points followed by Isaiah Miedema and Hunter Yearsovich with 9 points apiece. In their 4 wins to open the season the high octane Tigers have outscored their opponents by 151 points. Newaygo (1-1, 2-3) will try to shake this one off when they travel to Lakeview Tuesday. Grant (2-0, 4-0) will look to keep their streak alive when they head for Kent City Tuesday.
  Tigers never get traction in Red Division loss Story and photos by Ken DeLaat Newaygo 42 Grant 20 Make it 4 in a row for the Lions. Grant came to town coming off a pair of wins but a swarming Newaygo defense produced a number of turnovers while making it hard for the Tigers to find many good shots at the hoop. Naomi Schillman canned a triple to start the game and the Tigers answered with Alexa Obenauf sending a pass to Emma Thompson for 2. It was the closest Grant would get for the remainder of the game. The Lions took control as Kija Schultz banged a couple in and added a free throw, Ruby Hughes grabbed a steal and scored and Lillian Holmes rejected a couple of shots on the defensive end and added a basket.The 10-0 run was finally stopped by a Jocee Pleune basket and when Reese Gragg scored for the visitors to keep the Lions within single figures with the first quarter winding down, Morgan Andres fired in a three at the buzzer and the 1st ended at 17-6 for the hosts. The second saw Andres scorch a couple more from distance with Hughes, Schultz and Gabi Arney getting in the book as well. By halftime the Lions held a 29-10 lead. The teams played even in the third and the fourth was more than halfway finished before Schultz moved the scoreboard with a basket. Lillian Gee hit a couple of late buckets for Grant and Kaelyn Stephens popped one in from distance to finish off the Lion scoring. Coach Thomasma: “I thought it was a good effort by the girls tonight. We handled their press really well and took care of the ball better than we did Tuesday. We talked about how if we could just not turn it over and make them earn it on defense we were going to be tough to beat.” Andres and Schultz led the Lions with 10 points apiece with Andres picking up 5 steals and Schultz getting 5 steals and 7 rebounds. Hughes added 8 points, 5 steals and 5 boards and Holmes took 8 off the glass and rejected 4 Tiger attempts to go with her 4 points. Newaygo (2-0, 4-1) stays at home Tuesday for a game against Lakeview. Grant (1-1, 2-2) will host Kent City.      Mystery ref at his side job judging free throw contests Rivalry games in the Red and White Divisions and the Pack hope to sink the Pirates
Grant at Newaygo 7pm Who will be the team to challenge Big Rapids for the title? This game might give us a few hints even if we’ve just scratched the surface of the season. They both possess good athletes. The Lions have Kerr, Reyburn and Yearsovich who can put up points and the Tigers counter with Phillips, Rider and DeLong as well as Hatch all of whom will fill it up if given the chance. This will likely be a fast paced, high scoring game and whichever squad gets hot late will notch the win. Morley Stanwood at White Cloud 7pm White Cloud has a strong defense that has delivered a pair of wins but their loss to Reed City revealed some issues on the offensive end. Morley isn’t a powerhouse team but they are going to score and unless the WC shooters find the range or Coach Jones finds a hot hand they will be in trouble. 60 should do it for the Cloud, but they haven’t gotten close to that number yet. Hart at Fremont 7pm The Packers are Varsity young after seeing an exodus of seniors who filled the starting lineup and key bench roles. They’re going to have their struggles and really need to find a couple of shooters to step forward. Hart may be 3-1 but those wins are against teams who have had a hard time putting up points. Like the Packers.  Mystery ref back for yet another season wearing the striped shirt Friday night games include a pair of old rivalries while Packers and Panthers host home openers
Grant at Newaygo 5:30pm It’s always a lot of fun watching this rivalry unfold its latest version on the court. And this should be a good one. The Tigers and Lions both dropped their openers but have looked strong since against a couple of good teams. The Lions have a lot of players who can score with seniors Naomi Schillman and Kija Schultz provided big buckets. Amaya Lathrop is strong on both ends of the court and you’d best not forget about Ruby Hughes who has a nose for rebounds and can also deliver on the scoring end. Tiger 4th year varsity standout Jocee Pleune is a defensive wizard along with her ballhandling skills and ability to find net. She’s also tough. In the last game she was sent to the sidelines with a bloody nose early on but returned to knock down a dozen and help secure the win. Emma Thompson is a strong defender and collects rebounds along with paint partner Reese Gragg. Payton Bouwkamp is another scoring threat for the Tigers. Though early in the season both want this Red Division victory to keep pace with early favorite Big Rapids. As I said, should be a good one. See you there. Morley Stanwood at White Cloud 5:30pm Morley has been pretty impressive with a pair of wins and a tight loss to a good Newaygo team. Coach Wilk is still looking for more offense from his squad. A lot more. Andi Vincent can put numbers up but she needs help in the way of scoring or teams will begin to smother her. They already had a cancellation and only have 2 under their belt so we’ll see if the rust shakes off a little but the Cloud needs to double their scoring average to stay in this one. Anything under 40 against the Mohawks is likely to be a loss. Hart at Fremont 5:30pm Haven’t had a chance to see Pete Zerfas’ team in action yet. After losing their opener to that pressure defense of Spring Lake they have collected a pair of wins.The Pirates will be a good test for the defending Lakes Division champs. Mia Clemence, Riley Chase and Taylor Dekuiper are starters on any team in the region and will be difficult to contain.Hovey and Porter can light it up for the Pirates if either gets a hot hand. North Muskegon at Hesperia 7pm The Panthers are in trouble if they don’t get some offense after being held to a dozen points in their opener. The Norse haven’t shown a lot yet but they will put up 30 or 40 and the hosts need to match those numbers. The question is whether they have the shooters to do it.
Tigers, Lions, Pack prevail while Cloud comeback falls short. WC Photos by Brent Foondle Reed City 34 White Cloud 28 Both teams came into this one looking to post their first W of the infant season. The Coyotes opened with close losses to Ludington and Newaygo while their hosts have been limited to one game falling to a highly regarded Ravenna squad. The visitors edged out to an 8-5 lead after one and hit intermission up 18-12. Coach Wilk: “In the first half we missed six easy shots that we should have made. During halftime we talked about cleaning up some of our mistakes and keeping our effort at a high level.” Entering the second half Reed City stretched their lead a bit early on but WC fought back aided by 7 3rd quarter points from Andi Vincent to keep the game within reach at 28-21 Coach W: "We were able to come out in the 4th and make a couple baskets, and Brooklyn Foondle hit some clutch free throws. We were within two points in the final minute, and we just could not get the ball back. “Overall, I was extremely happy with our rebounding and defense tonight. The girls were working hard; we just needed to make a few more buckets.” Vincent finished with 15 points to go with her 5 steals and Foondle hit for 6. White Cloud (0-0, 0-2) will open White Division play when they host Morley Stanwood (1-0,2-1) on Friday. Newaygo 52 Morley Stanwood 47 The Lions picked up their 3rd straight win (all of them on the road) but it didn’t come easy. The visitors took a 31-24 lead into the halftime break and extended their advantage to 11 heading into the final frame. But Morley wasn’t done. The Mohawks made a charge in the 4th to narrow the margin and the Lions were able to hold them off to secure the win. Coach Thomasma: "Really proud of the girls tonight. Morley is a good team and Raven does a great job coaching them. I thought Naomi hit some big shots for us tonight and Ruby really battled down low on the glass. We must continue to get better at taking care of the ball. If we can do that, we can be competitive." Gabi Arney fired in 15 points to go with her 5 steals and 3 rebounds to lead the Lions. Naomi Schillman hit for a dozen points while Kija Schultz tallied 10 points, 4 steals and 4 rebounds. Ruby Hughes took down a team high 11 off the glass and added 8 points . Newaygo (1-0, 3-1) returns to Red Division play Friday when they welcome in Grant (1-0, 2-1). The game will begin at 5:30pm Grant 45 Lakeview 39 The Tigers were able to pick up the road win over a rugged Wildcat squad. Coach Delamater: “Tonight's game is going to be the story of our season. Will we be able to withstand the physical play that teams will use against us? It got to us early in this game. Lakeview is young and athletic and extremely physical. Jocee Pleune had to leave the game with a pretty significant bloody nose after a play on the basketball from the Lakeview defense. Alexa Obenauf stepped up on the scoring end to keep the game within reach as we worked to get Jocee back on the court. Once we took the lead in the second quarter, we didn't relinquish it. Alexa led us in scoring with 17 points and Jocee added 12 including 6 big free throws down the stretch to ice the game. Emma Thompson had some big rebounds for us and Addison Green gave us some significant minutes off the bench when we ran into foul trouble.” Grant (1-0, 2-1) will travel 5 miles north to face traditional rival Newaygo in a Red Division showdown. Fremont 59 Ludington 43 The Packers won their Lakes Division opener up in Oriole country with three players finishing in double figures. Riley Chase led the way knocking down 19 points, Mia Clemence hit for 18 to go with her 10 boards and half dozen dimes and Taylor DeKuiper filled the book with 13 points,5 steals, 5 assists while taking 9 off the glass. Fremont (1-0, 2-1) will make their home debut Friday when the Pirates of Hart sail into town.
 Lions, Tigers post wins while Pack and Cloud go down
Newaygo 61 Morley Stanwood 54 After falling short in their first 2 contests the Lions have now won two in a row and evened their season record with a scrappy win over visiting Morley Stanwood. The Mohawks jumped out to an early lead but the hosts fought their way back and held a one point lead at halftime. The second half saw the lead go back and forth with the Lions able to hold off MS for the win. Blake Kerr dropped 20 points on the visitors while Hunter Yearsovich and Ethan Reyburn each scored a dozen. Newaygo (1-0, 2-2) will resume Red Division play Friday when they host Grant (1-0, 3-0) in the latest episode of this longstanding rivalry. Grant 68 Lakeview 18 The Tigers made it three in a row as they dominated the Wildcats allowing Coach Dan George to empty the bench with all 12 Tiger cagers seeing floor time and 11 getting into the book. Coach G: "I was most pleased with our defensive effort and our unselfish play," Zaiden Phillips led the scoring attack finishing with 19 points. Grant (1-0,3-0) will look to keep the streak alive when they visit Newaygo on Friday Reed City 40 White Cloud 33 Coach Bob Jones has expressed a bit of concern with his offense despite the Cloud going 2-0 entering the matchup with the Coyotes. Turns out he had a lot to be concerned about. His team was ice cold in the first half managing just 8 points while keeping the Coyotes within reach by holding them to 19. In the second half the visitors started to find their range but they could not make much ground on their hosts and took the loss. Coach Jones: “We are playing great on defense, we are just offensively challenged right now. We could have packed it in but to their credit they just continued to fight.” Jacob Zimmer paced the scoring for WC hitting for 10 points while Coleson Cruzan scored 8, Jayden Robinson 6nDavid Higgs 5 and Reece Hewitt 4 White Cloud (0-0, 2-1) will open White Division play Friday when they host Morley Stanwood (1-0, 1-2). North Muskegon 67 Fremont 42. The Norse blew open the game when they came out of intermission with a 20-2 outburst that put the game out of reach for the hosts. It was the third loss in a row for the Packers after an opening win over Shelby. Joey Mansfield led the Packers in scoring with an even dozen and Mossen Green hit for 9. Fremont (0-1, 1-3) will be back in action Friday when they host Hart.  Photos by Jennifer Espinoza The Tigers took to the mat Saturday at the Dave Fleming Memorial Tournament taking 3 out of their 5 matches.. They opened the tourney with a loss to the Hudsonville B squad (26-49), but came back to post three straight over GR Union (54-25), Grandville B (48-28) and host Kelloggsville (54-30). In their final contest the Tigers battled the Coopersville team before falling 30-45. Antonio Santana, Alex Russo and Kashton Atwood went undefeated finishing 5-0. Santana and Russo each collected three pins and Atwood tallied a pair. Cameron Espinoza also notched three pins on his way to a 4-1 mark and Hayden Kass finished 3-2. Malachi Dawe, Logan Hall, Rico Robinson, Landon Wing, Leonard Osborn and Kaleb Paige each picked up a pair of wins on the day. The Tigers are 4-2 having collected a win over Kenowa Hills earlier in the week. This Saturday the team is scheduled to head for Hart for the Mark Bosse Memorial Tournament.  Getting ready  Tigers romp over Vikes, Lions clip Coyotes, Cloud edges Tigers Packers stuffed by Spartans Photos by Brent Foondle Grant 86 Tri County 44 The Tigers nearly doubled up their Viking visitors as four Grant players notched double figures in scoring in the conference opener for both teams. Zaiden Phillips again led Grant with 21 points. Blake Rider contributed 18 points and solid leadership at the point position. Ethan DeLong with 17 and Sincere Hatch with 15 rounded out Grant's balanced scoring attack. Coach George: “I'm happy with the amount of points we are scoring, but my guys know we still have a lot of work to do. We just have to keep getting better than we were the day before." Newaygo 81 Reed City 65 In another conference opener the Lions went up to Coyote Country and picked up the win pulling away from the hosts late in the game. Hunter Yearsovich led the Lions in scoring in the fast paced contest, dropping 21 on the Yotes. Ethan Reyburn hit for 18, Isaiah Meidema chalked up 16 and Blake Kerr finished with 15. Coach Long: “The team played very well together tonight and played very hard." Newaygo (1-0, 1-2) will host Morley Stanwood (1-0, 1-1)on Tuesday. White Cloud 30 Shelby 26 The Cloud won their home opener to notch win # 2 on the season but Coach Jones seemed a bit underwhelmed by his team’s performance “{This) was a hard one to watch to say the least. We will chalk this one up to not having practice due to weather and move on. We struggle to find any offensive rhythm . Played pretty good on defense. We have a lot to work on and we could be in for a lot of games like this. “ Jayden Robinson paced the scoring as he hit for 13 points. Colson Cruzan scored 8, Kaleb Canning 4 and Jacob Zimmer 3. “Reece Hewitt gave us much needed energy and physical presence..” Coach Jones added. White Cloud (0-0, 2-0) will head to Reed City on Tuesday. Sparta 94 Fremont 49 The Spartans took control early and sent the Packers to their second straight loss. Redick Powell and Gabe Hulst each scored 13 for the visitors. Fremont (0-1, 1-2) will host North Muskegon on Tuesday.
Tigers, Lions and Packers notch victories
Grant 47 Tri County 34 Grant picked up the win in the conference opener for both teams. The Tigers were on fire early scorching the nets for a 17-3 lead after one and hit intermission up 27-10. The second half was a different story as the Tiger offense cooled a bit Coach Delamater: “For as hot as we were in the first quarter, we couldn't buy a bucket the rest of the game. I would say the opposite was true for TC. Weird bounces and loose balls seemed to find their way to TC players all night. We did a really good job on the glass. Our bigs Emma Thompson, Reese Gragg, and Alexa Obenauf came up with some big rebounds. Jocee Pleune had a great defensive game and led us with 16 points. It was great to see her get going tonight and really control the game. Junior Payton Bouwkamp had another good scoring game with 10 points.” Grant (1-0, 1-1) resumes play Tuesday when they travel to Lakeview. Newaygo 35 Reed City 27 After a cold start that saw the Coyotes grab a 7-0 lead the Lions clawed back and took a 2 point lead at the end of one and held a 21-14 advantage at the half. The hosts fought back to pull within 4 entering the final frame but Newaygo held them off to come away with the conference win. Coach Thomasma: "Impressive win for the team tonight. The girls had a great practice yesterday and it translated to the game. Reed City is a good team and they are going to win some games this year so to get the W up at their place is tough to do. Proud of how the girls kept their composure and matched the physicality of Reed City. Good start to the conference season and we'll enjoy it tonight but have two tough opponents to get ready for next week." Amaya Lathrop knocked down a dozen points while swiping 5 steals and grabbing a pair of boards. Morgan Andres took 4 off the glass and matched it with 4 steals to go with her 6 points and Gabby Arney hit for 5 points and notched 3 steals. Lily Holmes led the Lions with 8 rebounds while adding 4 points. Newaygo (1-0, 2-1) will visit Morley Stanwood on Thursday. Fremont 54 Sparta 12. The Packers took apart the Spartans reaching intermission with a 30-6 lead. Mia Clemence fired in 15 points while grabbing 8 rebounds for the visiting Pack. Riley Chase scored nine points and pulled down seven rebounds, Brynna Barnhart had eight points and seven rebounds and Taylor Johnson chipped in seven points, five rebounds and five steals. Taylor DeKuiper added six points, seven rebounds and six steals. Fremont (0-0, 1-1) will open conference play Tuesday when they travel to Ludington to face the Orioles. |
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