Friday Hoop Roundup

Boys: Cloud Remains Undefeated, Coyotes Clip Tigers
Girls; Tigers Triumph, Hornets Sting WC, Panthers Tamed By Tigers

Photos by Bobbi Cruzan
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BOYS

White Cloud 66 Central Montcalm 50
White Cloud continued its winning ways as they blasted the visiting Hornets taking a 17 point lead by the half then entering the 4th up by 24.
Coach Jones: “We started a little slow tonight but found our rhythm midway through the 1st. This was another totally team victory,with nine of the ten players that played scoring. 
It seems like every night someone else leads us or has a big night off the bench.We keep this up and we’re going to be a tough team to play.”
KJ Strait had a game high 21 points, Jared Watson dropped in 15, Dominick Burkhart hit for 9 and Noah Robinson added 7.
White Cloud (2-0, 4-0) will head to Baldwin Monday to face another undefeated team in the 4-0 Panthers.
 
Reed City 53 Grant 43
Down by 15 at the half the Tigers battled back to pull within  6 points with 2 minutes left but they couldn’t inch any closer and the Coyotes held them off for the conference win.
A cold shooting night was the issue Friday night as the Tigers scored more than 20 points below their early season average.
Oakley Obenauf paced the scoring for the visitors with 16 points with Austin Whitney hit for 9.
Reed City’s Xavier Allen led all scorers with 23.
Grant (1-1, 3-2) will be idle until a January 3rd trip to Sparta.

GIRLS

Grant 51 Reed City 44
Down by 9 after one, the Tigers found their groove and racked up a 24 point second quarter to take a one point lead to the locker room.
Coach Delamater: “These young ladies have a lot of grit. It was a terrible drive up and we arrived late. They literally got dressed and we walked onto the court with no pregame and just the 15 minutes of warm-up. RC started hot, hitting 2 3's on the first 2 possessions and just like that we were scrambling to get our wits about us. The second quarter was much better with Jayci Hance getting hot scoring 9 in the quarter. After the half, both teams played aggressive, hard nose defense resulting in two low scoring quarters for both teams. Ultimately, we made our free throws down the stretch to seal the game.”
Julie Ashbaugh once again paced the Tiger attack dropping 17 on the Coyotes while Jaycee Hance knocked down 15 and Jocee Pleune hit for 9.
Grant (2-1, 3-2) will welcome in Holton on Tuesday.

Central Montcalm 61 White Cloud 38
After 4 straight wins to begin the season the Cloud has now dropped two in a row.
Coach Wilk: “After our last game we wanted to see heart and toughness from our girls, and I felt like they did a great job tonight even though the score was not in our favor. Most nights we are going to be the smaller team, so we need to make up for it with hustle and speed. Unfortunately Central Montcalm brought too much size tonight, and they dominated the boards. In the first quarter Central Montcalm took an early lead 11-0, but our girls made a few minor defensive adjustments that helped us stay in the game for most of the night. We were able to end the first quarter down 8 to 16, and then we outscored them by one in the 2nd. The score at halftime was 19 to 26. The third frame was pretty even with them outscoring us 16 to 13. Going into the fourth quarter down ten we had to switch up our defense, and they were able to get a few easy buckets to extend their lead. The final score shows a 23 point difference, but the game was much closer than that. The Hornets were 18 for 23 at the free throw line, so that really helped their case tonight. We were 9 for 19 from the charity stripe. 
“Gaby Reeve led us tonight with 16 points, and Jaden  Gomez added 10 points as well. Annie Feldpausch contributed 6 points, Kiara Edwards had 4 points, and Brooke Ringler added a pair of free throws to round out our scoring. 
“I’m glad we have a couple of days off before our next game. The injury bug hit us this week, and we had half our team feeling under the weather the last couple of days as well. We need a few days to regroup and get healthy before our last game before break. I am very happy with how hard these girls worked the last couple of days, and I hope we get to play Central Montcalm again later in the season."
White Cloud (1-1, 4-2) will welcome in the Falcons of Pentwater on Tuesday.

Shelby 55 Hesperia 25
The Tigers took a 13-9 edge after one then held the visiting Panthers to a single second period bucket by Isabel Valdes as they built the lead to a 28-11 lead by intermission then cruised to the win.Mia Milner led the Panthers with 10 points and Samy Logana added 8.
Hesperia (0-3, 1-6) is idle until January 5th when they take on Ravenna in a conference battle.