The Martin girls’ basketball team suffered its first loss in Southwest Athletic Conference action Friday night, 45-38 to Gobles.
Meanwhile, the Wayland girls’ basketball squad cruised to a 61-31 triumph over Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills to boost its second place league record to 6-2 and 10-6 overall.
Hopkins has a much tougher than expected tussle at Wyoming Godwin Heights, winning 50-43 in overtime. The Lady Vikings, now 6-7 overall, beat Godwin by a much larger margin last month, 54-27.
The Lady Clippers, after a slow start in the opening period, overtook the host Tigers to lead 23-18 at the half and then extended their lead to 10 points, 34-24 at the end of the third quarter.
Then came an alarming collapse in the final eight minutes, during which time Martin was outscored 21-4.
The Clippers, now 10-2 overall, defeated Gobles 47-38 last month. The Tigers now are 9-4 overall.
Coach Ben Schipper commented, “We started slow and ended slow tonight ending with a fourth quarter collapse. After a first quarter, where we didn’t seem in rhythm at all, we buckled down defensively and didn’t allow a basket in the second quarter.
He said Avery Jager carried Martin in the third quarter with all 11 of its points. Jager finished with 15 points, including four threes. Makala Goddard hit a pair of threes and had six points. Macy Thorne and Torryn Harris also had six points apiece.
“Gobles ratcheted up the pressure and we didn’t respond,” Schipper said. “We lost our composure, didn’t get into our offense, and took poor shots given the situations. Defensively we had a lot of fouls which is very uncharacteristic of our team.”
Gobles shot 28 free throws to Martin’s 8.
“I’m confident we’ll use this as a learning experience and grow from it,” the coach promised.
Wayland coach Wes Hudson emptied his bench for much of the game against Ottawa Hills.
Sophomore Addy Sikorski led the Lady Wildcats with 13 points, senior Reese Coughlin netted 12 and junior Harmony Laker was “held” to nine. Freshman Marissa Ainsworth collected eight points and sophomore Laney Wolf seven.
