It’s been a long time since Hopkins has had this kind of success in girls’ basketball.
The Lady Vikings, under the guidance of first-year coach and former point guard Kennedy Helderop, turned back South Haven 50-29 Wednesday night to win the district tournament semifinals. They now are scheduled to test their mettle against an impressive Otsego quintet in the finals at 7 p.m. Friday at Hamilton High School. A district championship is the prize.
Otsego has lost only twice this season (18-2) and is the Wolverine Conference champion. Hopkins now is 19-4 overall and is the O-K Silver Conference co-champion.
Holland Christian girls 59 Wayland 56
A promising Wayland girls’ basketball season somehow slipped away over the last couple of months.
The Lady Wildcats were fast out of the gate, winning their first seven ballgames, but then they went 6-8 the rest of the way. Even worse was that three opponents the ‘Cats beat earlier this season came back to turn the tables. Examples were Middleville Thornapple Kellogg, Wyoming and the latest was Holland Christian Wednesday night in the district semifinals.
The Maroons lost to Wayland 51-44 in December, but came out on top Wednesday night, 59-56.
Freshman Jordan Grevenstuk led the Wildcats with a career-high 17 points. Marissa Ainsworth dropped in 14 points, including a couple of threes, but leading scorer Addie Sikorski was held to just one field goal and five points.
Wayland finished the campaign with a 13-8 record. Holland Christian, 16-6, has the unenviable task of trying to stop undefeated and top-ranked South Christian in the finals Friday night.
Battle Creek St. Philip girls 53 Martin 47
With humble and sincere apologies to the late Yogi Berra, “It was deja vu all over again.”
It happened Wednesday night to the Martin girls’ basketball team in the semifinals of the post-season district tournament. The Lady Clippers lost 55-47 last Thursday night in the regular season finale against Battle Creek St. Philip. Then they lost to the very same opponent in the district semis, eerily by nearly the same score, 53-47.
The loss dropped Martin’s final season record to 10-11. Battle Creek St. Phil moves on to the district finals Friday night with a record of 14-8.
