The Wayland girls’ junior varsity basketball team lost 44-37 to Grand Rapids South Christian Thursday evening, lowering its season record to 9-4 overall.

The Wildcats did reasonably well in the early going, leading 10-7 at the end of the first quarter and 18-17 at intermission, but a 16-8 burst in the third period made all the difference for South Christian.
“We had a one-point lead at halftime, but the Sailors outscored us in the third and the we did not have the fire power  make up the difference,” coach Coralie Miller said.
Taryn Coughlin and Sam Shealy both had nine points to lead the ‘Cats offensively. Rylee Foster also had five rebounds.

“We need to work harder and smarter on the defensive end of the floor,” Miller said. “And we need to learn how to work as a team to score more points.
“We struggle to take care of the basketball. We average 23 turnovers a game. This is an area we talk about and work on every day. And while we are missing three players who would help in all areas of the game — we offer up no excuses. We have to buckle down and defend, rebound, and take care of the basketball better.”
Missing from the lineup Thursday were:

• Point guard Bethany Teunissen tore her ACL in the Ottawa Hills game last week and is done for the season.
• Hannah Sikkema, last year’s go-to post player, has been out all season with a knee injury.
• Guard Taylor Bell, who was averaging 7 points a game before she had a season-ending ankle injury.