Both the Martin and Wayland girls’ varsity basketball teams will play at 7 p.m. Friday in the finals of the post-season district tournament.

Martin will play Byron Center Zion Christian at the Tri-Unity Christian gym. The Lady Clippers, 20-1 for the season overall and SAC Lakeshore Division champions, have been ranked among the top 10 Division 4 teams all season. They beat Zion Christian last month in a non-league contest 59-33.

Martin earned the right to advance to the finals with a 51-38 victory over host Tri-Unity Christian Wednesday evening. Zion Christian edged Potter’s House in the other district semifinal.

Wayland, now 14-8 overall, defeated Kelloggsville 45-33 Wednesday evening to earn a third try at upending home-standing South Christian Friday evening in the finals. The Lady Wildcats lost twice to the Sailors, but they twice beat a Kelloggsville team that went 16-5 for its overall campaign.

South Christian sports a 12-10 overall record and has defeated Grand River Prep and West Michigan Aviation Academy in district contests thus far.

In Martin’s win, Faith Guritz scored 13 points, Jaclyn Hildebrand 11, Gracie Shettler 9 and Bri Warner 7.

“We game out of the gates extremely well,” coach Ben Schipper said. “I believe we scored the game’s first 16 points. Our defense was great and our offense was effective. Unfortunately, the second quarter was a different story for us and Tri-Unity climbed back into the game. We had a good talk at half time and came out and executed much better in the third quarter.
“Down the stretch in the fourth quarter with Tri-Unity fouling us, we hit clutch free throws going 9/14 in the quarter. We had a lot of good contributions from multiple girls. Gracie came off the bench with Bri in foul trouble and had 7 first quarter points. Jodyn Seiser came in and gave very good minutes grabbing some big rebounds.
“Bri gave us a great second half effort after picking up two fouls in the games first few minutes. Defensively, we switched her onto Eerdmans and she did a great job on her.”

(Wayland photo courtesy of Terry Ellis)

Post your comment

Discover more from

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading