Basketball Preview- Girls

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.

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