The Wayland girls’ varsity basketball team Wednesday night earned a berth in Class B District finals by pummeling Grand River
Prep 67-15 in the semifinals at Wyoming Godwin Heights.
The Lady Wildcats , now 10-11 for the season overall, will face 20-2 Grand Rapids South Christian at 7 p.m. Friday for the district championship. The two teams met a year ago for the title, with Wayland prevailing, but times have chan
ged quite a lot since then, as the Sailors will enter the contest ranked No. 3 in the last state-wide Associated Press Class B poll.
The Lady Wildcats made quick work of Grand River Prep, a charter school that was listed as having a record of 3-10 overall. Their full-court press caused a string of turnovers and they enjoyed a 9-0 lead with the game barely two minutes old.
The Titans did not score until 4:30 in the first quarter and by that time they were down 13-2. Wayland in the second quarter scored 34
unanswered points to mount a 47-4 advantage at the half.
The rest of the ballgame was played with a running clock. It looked as though the Titans were a throwback to girls’ basketball teams of 40 years ago.
Senior guard Karli Warning led the Wayland offensive attack with 13 points, freshman guard Kennedy Helderop had a career-high 12, Sydney Ritz had 10 and freshman Mari Biondo eight.
All 11 Lady Wildcat players who dressed broke into the scoring column.
The game was the first for senior co-captain Ali Cutler, who has just returned from a severe ankle injury. She scored two points.
Charvellia Hancock had seven points and Bria Moore six for Grand River Prep.
PHOTO: Freshman guard Kennedy Helderop had a career-high dozen points for Wayland in the district semifinals. (Photo courtesy of Kenny Ritz)
