Friday Basketball Roundup

Packers Win A Pair, Panthers Lose A Pair, Red Devil Girls Drop Cloud
Photos by Renee Hanshue
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Boys

Fremont 66 Central Montcalm 24
Coach Bowen:
“We had great energy from the start against a short-handed Central Montcalm team.  Our defense was outstanding, and we were very aggressive on both ends.  When we play with that kind of effort, we are a dangerous team.  Logan Nelson spearheaded our attack with his best all around game of the season, finishing with 8 points, 4 assists, and 5 steals.  Jordon McDonald led the team with 14 points and also added 6 rebounds and 4 blocks.  Chaz Miller chipped in with 5 points, 5 assists, and 4 steals in his first varsity game.  It was a great team win and hopefully something we can build on.’

 Lakeview 49 Hesperia 37
The Wildcats took a 31-21 lead into the locker room then held back the Panthers to post a 14-2 advantage in the 3rd to ice the conference win.
Coach Worcester: Discipline on our press break, turnovers, and depth on our bench certainly hurt us tonight. The second and third quarter’s we experienced quite a bit of matchup issues. However, I was certainly impressed with our two freshmen's abilities to step in and fill in and own their roles. My hats off to Coach Perez and his team.’
Zach Glenn led the Panther scoring with 13.
Hesperia (0-2, 1-3)  will resume play after the break with a visit to Kent City.

Holton & White Cloud Postponed due to COVID concerns

Girls

Fremont 45 Central Montcalm 32 
Fremont hosted Central Montcalm on Friday night and picked up the win 45-32. An 18 point opening quarter put Fremont in front 18-13. They then extended that lead to 30-18 at the half. The second half saw less scoring with the Packers holding an 8-3 advantage in the third quarter, before Central Montcalm set the final score with an 11-7 advantage in the fourth quarter. 
Haley Zerlaut led the Packers' early scoring with 9 first quarter points, and finished with 17 points and 3 assists. Mia Witte added 10 points and 7 rebounds. Jessica Bennett tallied 8 points and 8 rebounds, while Lily VandenBerg also chipped in 8 points. The Hornets were led by Courtney Guelzo's 13 points. 
Coach Zerlaut: "What a difference it makes when the ball goes in the basket. The girls played hard tonight, but the biggest difference tonight was that they made shots. We have been struggling to make shots, even close ones. We were 14-30 in the first half tonight, including 11-17 in the paint. We did a great job of getting those shots and the girls made them." 
The Packers (1-1, 1-4) host Sparta on Tuesday before the holiday break. 

Holton 44 White Cloud  37
The Red Devils snapped a 3 game win streak by the Cloud and evened their conference mark in a come from behind road win. 
Coach Jordan: “We got down 8 in the first but had a 10-2 2nd quarter.  This was a big win for us, Holton hasn’t beaten White cloud at the varsity level in 5 years.
So many girls stepped up for us tonight, ryann Robins who has been our foundation offensively was in foul trouble all night and picked up her 4th 1 min into the 3rd quarter and sat on bench until 6 minutes left in 4th
"Layla Cannady came off the bench and filled in for her very well in our zone for never running that position before.
"Very happy for June Newell. She has been struggling to hit her shots so far this year, but she came up with 2 huge 3's late in the 4th, as well as a couple.  I've been telling her all week to just keep shooting and that they will eventually fall, tonight they did 
Courtney Boes had 9 rebounds, but Abby Fowler really paced us well on both ends of the floor and had her best game of the year so far. She made a bunch of great passes tonight and set her teammates up well. She has been doing that all season to be honest.
"I've been preaching growth all season and this game we gutted it out, it was an intense game with high emotions."
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Coach Wilk:
This was a tough loss for sure, but I am proud of my team for fighting. Tonight a lot of our shots did not fall. Gaby Reeve had a huge game for us by scoring 22. Some positives to take away from the game was our free throw percentage was 80%, and our defensive intensity. We travel up to Reed City on Tuesday. 

 Lakeview 37 Hesperia 36
The Panthers came close to their first win clawing thorn way back in a road game but came up just short in the conference matchup.
Coach Grodus: Down 13-2 at the end of the first quarter and 19-8 at halftime we played a furious second half and had a 3 point lead with a minute to play. Lakeview hit the winning free throw with 2 seconds left. Our team never gave up. That will pay off as we gain experience. 
Emmet Tinkham hit for 16 points to go with her team high 9 boards while Emma Joppich connected for 14 points.
Hesperia (0-2, 0-3)n return to action after the break at Kent City

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