Photos and story by Mike Gesler Grant 44 Morley Stanwood 55 The Tigers were at home tonight in a non conference showdown of second place teams against the Morley Stanwood Mohawks. Grant is sitting second with a 7-2 (9-5) record behind near north rival Newaygo in the CSAA Gold conference while Morley Stanwood is sitting second with a 5-2 (11-3) record behind undefeated and State ranked Kent City in the CSAA Silver conference. “When you come in against a team that’s got three losses, two of them against an undefeated second in the State team and one of them against a one loss Lake City team, you know what you are in for,” stated Grant’s Coach, Josh Delamater. “We talked a lot about that. We’ve been talking a lot about these teams, where they’re at, why they’re there, and where we are at, and it is all of those little things that we have just got to get to get to that next level.” The Mohawks jumped to an early lead in the first quarter before the Tigers settled in and began playing their quick paced, tight pressure game that they have demonstrated all season. This frustrated Morley Stanwood as suddenly they weren’t able to get the shots they wanted nor move the ball down the court. Couple that with a three from Rider and another from Chase while limiting the Mohawks to just two more points before the end of the quarter, the Tigers found themselves with a comfortable eight point lead 16-8 During the second quarter, Grant continued to press Morley Stanwood and frustrate the shooting lanes, but Morley Stanwood made some quick adjustments that challenged Grant’s defense. The two teams were locked in a fairly equal battle with neither team conceding. When the dust settled at the horn for half, Grant headed into the locker room with that same eight point lead 26-18. The Tigers however were not quite prepared for the second half. Morley Stanwood came out of the locker room with little adjustments that would put Grant on their heels. The Mohawks frustrated Grant’s shooting with a 2-3 zone, and found unguarded players in the transitions that created numerous one-on-one and break away scoring opportunities. And while the Mohawks did manage to tie up the game in the third, the Tigers still found a way to narrowly hold on to the lead by three 35-32. The last quarter though solely belonged to Morley Stanwood. The Tigers were now clearly frustrated by the Mohawks adjustments. With the game tied up and six minutes to play, Grant lost sight of their game and began playing sloppy. In fact, Grant was so flustered that they put Morley Stanwood from Bonus into Double Bonus within ten seconds of play. Of the Mohawks’ twenty-three fourth quarter points, sixteen came from the line. With Ashbaugh, Chase, Rider, and Arends in foul trouble (Ashbaugh would foul-out with a minute remaining), the Tigers couldn’t pull it back together as they let a disappointing and tough fought game slip through their paws. “Morley did a great job of free throw shooting, taking care of the ball better in the second half, hitting some shots, taking advantage of some of our rotations when we weren’t getting back fast enough, and until we clean those things up, we’re just going to be in that second tier of teams,” stated Delamater. “We have a big stretch of games, five games coming up, and we have to win four out of the five to stay in second place. That’s going to be monumental … But again, we battle hard. You’ve seen it all season. We battle hard. We battle to the end. It’s just little things we need to clean up and take care of.”
Chloee Chase led in tonight’s efforts for the Tigers with sixteen. Julie Ashbaugh put up nine, and Jaycee Rider hit for eight. Also scoring tonight was Sara Arends with five, Jocee Pleune with four, and Jocelyn Kruitoff with two. The Tigers will find themselves in Tri County on Friday night to try to avenge one of their earlier losses before returning home next Tuesday to face Fremont.
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