Yooper Girls Shut Down Packers

Tourney run ends for Fremont

Photos by Matthew Zerfas
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​Gladstone 49 Fremont 31
A successful season that included a second straight conference championship  and a second straight District title came to an end in Houghton Lake Wednesday night.The Gladstone Braves behind an epic performance from their all state star Lillie Johnson held the Pack to less than half their season point average and punched their ticket to the quarterfinals.
The Red and White kept it close in the first half down by just a point after one and still within reach at the break with the Braves leading 22-16. But the second half continued to see  the Packer offense sputter behind missed shots
Coach Zerfas ” We picked a bad night to have a bad shooting night.  Gladstone played a good half court man to man defense but we had good looks and missed shot after shot.  I thought our defense was good early, we just could not find a rhythm at any point in the game.  We also could not speed them up.  Our full court defense has been great all year but they were able to keep the tempo slow.”
Taylor DeKuiper accounted for nearly half of Fremont’s points finishing with 15 while taking an equal number off the glass and Mia Clemence pulled down 10 boards to go with her 8 points but on this night it proved to be not enough.
The Packers end the year with an impressive 23-3 mark matching the school record for wins while adding a couple of pieces to the school’s trophy case.