Morley Stanwood Comes To Town, Splits Wins

Morley Stanwood Comes To Town, Split Wins
Story and photos by Alexis Mercer


Girls: Newaygo 33 Morley Stanwood 63
Boys: Newaygo 64 Morley Stanwood 53


The girls game was a tale of two halves.


First half? Evenly matched play, evenly matched misses, evenly matched effort.


Maria Riddering of Newaygo found herself driving a wide open lane more than one time throughout the first quarters.


It wasn’t until the last second buzzer 3-point shot that Morley found themselves with a little gap in the lead.


Then came the second half. The Mohawks’ defense dominated. Newaygo wasn’t able to find a way to the basket and the outside shots weren’t falling.




Maria Riddering led the Lions with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals.  Amaya Lathrop, Kija Westbrook, Addison Goodin each chipped in 6 points.  Grace Painter had 3 points and 9 rebounds.


"Good effort from the girls tonight.  I thought we played a pretty good 1st half against a good Morley Stanwood team.  In the second half, we just gave up too many offensive rebounds and Morley took advantage of that,” said Coach Nate Thomasma.


Newaygo falls to 2-8 (1-4 in conference)


Morley improves to 7-2 (4-1 conference)

The boys game was a come from behind story for the Lions. It was also a story of 3 point shots.


Bryce Decker started Newaygo out with a 3 point shot. Morley answered with their own. Caris Nelson joined in on the pattern and drained one for the Lions.


Newaygo found themselves down by just 1 heading into the half, so this was going to be a battle to the buzzer. The teams were well matched and evenly effective at offense.


It ended up being Newaygo’s solid defense that led to their victory. Morley never gave up despite a relentless pursuit from behind the 3 point line the entire game from the Lions.


Newaygo was led by Bryce Decker with 29 points and 8 rebounds followed by Caris Nelson with 13 points and Josiah Long with 13 points and Grant Harkness pulled down 5 boards.


Newaygo moves to 6-4 overall (4-0 in the conference) and remains tied for first in the league.