If you take away a really miserable first quarter, the Wayland girls’ basketball team Friday played a pretty good ballgame against Grand Rapids Christian.

Unfortunately, there are four rather than three quarters in the game, and the the Lady Wildcats came up short of a 49-41 score.

They fell behind 9-0 in the first two and a half minutes before they were even able to launch a shot at the basket. It was the old albatross of badly telegraphed passes that were stolen and turned into east scores by Christian.

Deesh Beck, sister of a star on the Christian boys’ state runner-up team last year, nailed a couple of threes in the first nine minutes, her team was running up a 21-7 advantage and it looked Wayland was going to victim of a laugher.

But the Lady Wildcats’ greatest asset, tenacious pressure defense, finally kicked in, and they refused to allow the Eagles to score a basket for the rest of the second quarter, limiting them to just three free throws, Meanwhile, with inside players Sam Nieuwkoop and Stephanie Ainsworth scoring three field goals apiece, they were able to cut their deficit to single digits, 24-15, at halftime.

But they yielded a couple of breakaway layups and a three-point play by Beck in the early part of the third period, and GR Christian once again threatened to turn it into a rout at 35-20.

Say what you want about the young, inexperienced Wayland girls, but don’t say they ever give up. Down by 15, they whittled the gap to eight points, 35-27, on a couple of free throws by Abby Merice.

Early in the fourth quarter, junior guard Mari Biondo took a long pass from point guard Abby Omness and laid the ball into the basket to bring the Lady ‘Cats to within seven, 40-33. Nieuwkoop scored a basket and then two free throws to narrow the deficit to five, 42-37, with 4:13 showing on the clock.

After Jaznae Randall scored a layup, Biondo scored on a putback with 1:30 remaining to creep to within three, 44-41.

But then Beck nailed a series of clutch free throws down the stretch and the Eagles scored a layup at the buzzer to make the final score a little more bloated than it really was.

Beck finished with 17 points, point guard Bri Cook added nine and freshman Madisyn Tillman, sister of all-state star and MSU cager Xavier Tillman, added eight.

Ainsworth, only a freshman, topped the Lady Wildcats offensively with 12 points, Nieuwkoop had 10 and Biondo seven.

Wayland now is 2-5 in the O-K Gold Conference and 3-11 overall.

COVER PHOTO: Freshman Stephanie Ainsworth

(Photos courtesy of Kenny Ritz)