A veritable plethora of turnovers was fatal for the Wayland girls’ varsity basketball team Thursday afternoon in a 54-32 loss to Grand Rapids Catholic Central at the Cornerstone Holiday Tournament.

The official scorer had the Lady Wildcats as guilty of 35 miscues, but the unofficial count was more than 40, with about two dozen occurring in the first half alone. Catholic Central’s strategy of aggressive defense and trapping the ball proved to be wildly successful, as Wayland struggled to make simple passes to teammates.

The Wildcats were victims of interceptions about as often as Detroit Lions quarterbacks in bygone days.

Because of the failure to take care of the basketball, Cougar guards Shonyah Hawkins and Jakarri Alven were able to take advantage for easy breakaway layups.

Wayland didn’t get on the scoreboard until more than five minutes into the game when sophomore guard Parrish Hudson hit sophomore pivot Stephanie Ainsworth inside for a layup. Hudson later canned a three and Macy Beck drilled two treys from the outside, but once again the offensive for the most part was dependent on getting the ball inside to Ainsworth.

Wayland settled down in the third period and suffered through only five turnovers. The ‘Cats crept to win six points, 30-24, but the Cougars had another burst in the fourth quarter among another plague of turnovers.

Catholic Central double teamed Ainsworth inside to minimize her scoring prowess, which resulted in 27 points against Rockford in the tournament’s opening round. She still finished with 15 points.

Sara VanderWeide collected nine rebounds and Beck added seven as the Lady Wildcats enjoyed a huge advantage, 43 to 16, in that department. However, that advantage was more than nullified by turnovers.

Hawkins finished with 19 points to lead the Cougars and Alven chipped in 14. Hawkins and Ainsworth both were selected to the all-tournament team.

The loss dropped Wayland’s overall season record to 0-4.