One step forward, two steps back. It looked like that for coach Wes Hudson’s Wayland varsity girls’ basketball team Friday night.
The Lady Wildcats, who looked impressive with crisp passing and good ball distribution in their season-opening 50-37 win at Hastings, somehow fell back into old bad habits of telegraphed, lazy passes and failure to come out to meet the pass and Hudsonville showed no mercy in taking advantage.
The Eagles, a Class A outfit and perennial power in girls’ hoops, shot out to a 19-4 advantage in the first quarter and never looked back en route to a 65-30 nonleague triumph. Hudsonville last year was 18-7 overall and a district champion.
Wayland didn’t get many shots at the hoop in the first eight minutes because of the poor passing and resultant turnovers. Hudsonville senior co-captain guard Kasey DeSmit, a four-year starter, drilled four three-point shots early in the contest the visiting quintet was enjoying a 32-11 lead at intermission.
The Lady Wildcats’ awakened somewhat in the third period, as they scored as many points, four, in the first minute and 45 seconds as they did in the entire first quarter. Junior point guard Abby Omness and freshman inside player Stephanie Ainsworth had combined for a dozen points at that point and it appeared as though the final score might become respectable.
But it was not to be.
The Lady ‘Cats, who started with a whimper, ended that way as well, scoring only four points in the last eight minutes. About the only bright part of the fourth period was a couple of defensive plays by senior Macey Winger.
Senior pivot Samantha Nieuwkoop led Wayland with nine points and Omness and Ainsworth both had six.
DeSmith finished with 19 points, including five threes. Fellow senior backcourt performer Arinna King had 14 points and inside player Sidney Irish had eight.
The loss evened the Lady Wildcats’ record at 1-1. They will try again Tuesday night against another Class A team, at Caledonia.
COVER PHOTO: Stephanie Ainsworth finds the going tough against a double team and looks to pass the ball to either Abby Merice (4) or Sara VanderWeide (22).