Girls Basketball- So Far…

By Ken DeLaat

It’s only the end of the first quarter when it comes to the basketball season, but by now coaches have a pretty good idea what they have on the court and on the bench. The Packers and Tigers both had a lot of returnees but thus far they aren’t going in the same direction. The Lions have put together a 6 pack of rugged wins with well balanced scoring and a scrappy defense. White Cloud hopes their often absent offense will start showing up on a more regular basis.

Fremont (6-1, 3-0 WMC Lakes)
Coach Pete Zerfas leads a team looking to defend their Lakes Division Championship and with the talent on hand it looks like the title goes through Packerland. Manistee currently shares the top spot at this early point of the season but they have yet to win against a team with a winning record and will be facing three tough division opponents before hosting the Packers mid month. The Packers are a team with strong offensive weaponry averaging nearly 60 points a game during their 5 game win streak. Clemence can hit from anywhere, DeKuiper is all over the court and Chase and Barnhart are strong on the glass.
Upcoming games include home matchups with Oakridge on Tuesday and Whitehall Friday.
​
Newaygo (6-1, 3-0 CSAA Red)
The Lions sit atop the Red Division along with Big Rapids. They have peeled off 6 wins in a row and Coach Thomasma is finding success by going long on his bench. Holmes has been a beast on the boards Arney, Schillman, Shultz and Andres provide a consistent scoring attack and don’t go to sleep on Hughes who seems to get better each game. They are still looking to get back to full strength after the break.
They will need it. Their first couple of outings are road games against co-leader Big Rapids and White Division co-leader Kent City.  Both good teams, both tough places for visiting teams. 

Grant (2-4, 1-1 CSAA Red) 
Coach Delamater’s team has faced a pretty rugged schedule early on beginning the season with a loss to the Hovey-led Hart squad. They notched a pair of wins over struggling TC and Lakeview then saw their offense come apart in a 20+ point loss to Newaygo. They played fairly well in losses to Kent City and Cedar and there is a lot of season left for the Tigers to find themselves. Grant lost a lot of points to graduation but there is a solid core of variety experience on this team with Pleune, Gragg, Thompson and Obenauf. Bouwkamp is a player and Gee has the makings of a sharpshooter They begin the new year with a visit from Spring Lake (the only team to beat Fremont thus far) then take on Reed City and Central Montcalm. They need a couple wins to right the ship.

White Cloud (2-5, 0-2 CSAA White)
The Cloud notched their second win of the season in the runner-up game at the Holton Holiday tourney. For the second time (both wins) the team’s offense stretched beyond Vincent. Well, actually she canned more than half of her team’s total output, but Cook and Foondle also reached double figures and we understand Shockley and Cook provided some crucial post play.
They return against White Division co-leader Kent City, a team that has had WC’s number for quite a string of games. Coach Wilk will need to see the kind of production the team put out in that last game if they’re to have a shot. WC needs a couple of shooters to help Vincent and they seem to have them. When an offense is struggling players need the confidence to keep putting it up after a few misfires. If you're a shooter, the shots will begin to drop.