The Wayland girls’ varsity basketball team Tuesday evening dropped a nonleague 59-46 decision to a pretty good and young Hamilton quintet.
The Hawkeyes, who improved to 11-4 overall, have lost only to Class A West Ottawa, Class B power Grand Rapids Catholic Central, O-K Green leader Byron Center and Holland Christian.
The first and third quarters did in the Lady Wildcats. They came out flat from the opening tip and managed only one field goal in the first quarter, trailing 17-4. Hamilton got a big burst from freshman standout Bria Schrotenboer, who scored eight points in the first eight minutes.
Wayland then switched from its customarily effective zone defense to a man-to-man and was able to mount a challenge. Senior forward Hope Dollarhide ignited the comeback with a three and a three-point play.
The ‘Cats slowly but surely chipped away at the deficit and came to within just one point, 22-21, on a driving layup by senior guard Ali Martus with about two and a half minutes left in the first half.
But Hamilton’s burly senior inside player Abigail Ediger answered with a three-point play and the Lady Wildcats never came closer the rest of the evening. They were down 29-24 at intermission.
The Hawkeyes came out on fire in the third period with some key inside layups by sophomore Sarah Buresh and a couple of three-point goals by junior guard Joslyn Bronkhorst. They outscored Wayland 20-10 in the third quarter and were up by 15, thanks to their ability to come up with rebounds and loose balls and a pesky man-to-man defense.
Martus drew her fourth foul early in the third quarter and sat out most of the ballgame.
The other backcourt Ali, Cutler, and Karli Warning both hit a three in the fourth period to pull the Lady ‘Cats to within 10, but that’s as close as they would get.
Dollarhide had her best offensive performance of the season, scoring 15 points, Warning added 10 and Sydney Ritz collected eight. But Hamilton was able to hold the Alis in check, as both scored in single digits.
Schrotenboer netted 16 points for Hamilton and Brooklyn Groenheide had 15. Buresh had nine and Wolfram eight.
The Wildcats played without the services of guard Bethany Teunissen, who suffered a knee injury in the Lady Wildcats’ victory over Middleville Thornapple Kellogg.
PHOTOS: Hope Dollarhide Karli Warning (Photos courtesy of Kenny Ritz)
