East Grand Rapids, with its 16-3 overall record, brought an effective full-court press to Wayland to subdue the Lady Wildcats Tuesday night, 60-43.

The Pioneers, who have lost in the league only to Grand Rapids Christian, took advantage of Wayland’s nasty habit of not coming out to meet the pass and turned the steals into too many easy fast-break layups.

Though the Lady ‘Cats battled them fairly evenly over the first eight minutes, 14-11, East GR rode the heavy scoring of Niki Ezeh to an 18-6 run in the second quarter and took a 32-17 cushion into intermission. By that time, Ezeh had 14 points.

In the third period it was Matilda Ivey who did most of the damage, scoring a dozen points in the eight minutes, and the Pioneers turned the contest into a 55-24 rout by the start of the last quarter.

Wayland enjoyed a 19-5 burst the rest of the way, but happened while the Pioneer starters were resting on the bench.

Three Lady Wildcats, sophomores Abby Omness and Grace Dollarhide and junior center Samantha Nieuwkoop, scored in double figures. Nieuwkoop led the way with 13 points, mostly on driving layups inside. Dollarhide came up with 11 points, including three three-pointers, and Omness canned a couple of triples en route to tallying 10 points.

Wayland, 1-18 overall for the season, will close out the regular season at home Friday evening by entertaining Forest Hills Eastern, a team with an 8-10 overall record, but only 4-7 in the O-K Gold. The Hawks defeated Middleville Thornapple Kellogg Tuesday, 32-24.

The Lady ‘Cats will open Class B district tournament play Monday at Hopkins against Allegan.

PHOTOS: (All courtesy of Kenny Ritz)

Sam Nieuwkoop

Grace Dollarhide

Abby Omness