The Wayland girls’ varsity basketball team Friday lifted its overall season record to 7-2 in a 63-39 triumph over Cedar Springs to launch its O-K Gold Conference season.
The Lady Wildcats were missing a couple of players, Ava Makowski who suffered a broken finger and and Liberty Laker, who was ill.
However, freshman Addi Sikorski took advantage of the opportunity and dropped in a team-high 19 points. Senior guard Maddy Terry and sophomore pivot Harmony Laker both scored 11. And junior forward Reese Coughlin chipped in nine and freshman Taylor Lyon eight.
Wayland will hit the road Tuesday evening to take on O-K Gold rival Middleville Thornapple Kellogg.
Viking girls hold Sparta to 25 points in victory
The Hopkins girls basketball team Friday night pushed its overall season record to 5-3 with a 37-25 victory over Sparta to open the season in the O-K Silver Conference.
Next on the Lady Vikings’ schedule is Granville Calvin Christian away Tuesday evening.
Martin bounces back after taking 1st loss
The Martin girls’ basketball team rebounded from its first defeat of the season last month by getting past Saugatuck, 39-32, Friday evening.
“I was very proud of the way we battled tonight against a very physical Saugatuck team,” said coach Ben Schipper. As usual, their team fought hard to the end and really made us earn that win.
“I was very pleased with the way we came out against their Triangle and 2. It’s something we’ve seen from them in the past and we were ready for it.”
Avery Jager and Marybeth Ritchie hit some outside shots in the quarter, which pulled the Trailblazers out of that defense.
“Offensively, I was happy with the looks our offense generated throughout the night and Makala Goddard and Cirsten Coburn handled the pressure and physicality on the perimeter very well,” Schipper said. “Lynsey Jager did a great job battling (Saugatuck star) Gustafson all night and held her in check very well with most of her 11 points coming from offensive rebounds, not really within their offense. Our ball screen defense was our focus leading up to this game and it really paid off. I can’t remember allowing a single point on their ball screen actions.”
The victory came on the heels of a one-point loss to Berrien Springs just before the Christmas break.
“We’re really going to have to clean some things up if we want to continue improving the way we feel we can,” the coach commented. “Giving up offensive rebounds has been a sore spot for us all season and we really need to fine tune some details, such as chinning the ball and being strong when we come down with rebounds as well as eliminating poor decisions with our passes in our half court offense. We continue to work hard in practice to reach our full potential.”
The Lady Clippers improved to 6-1 on the season while the Trailblazers fell to 3-3.