The Wayland girls’ varsity basketball team Thursday night bounced back from a one-point overtime loss 24 hours earlier by more than doubling up O-K Gold Conference opponent Forest Hills Eastern.
Meanwhile, the Hopkins and Martin girls won as well, Hopkins capturing its third straight win with a 59-10 shellacking of Kelloggsville and Martin edging Galesburg-Augusta to lift its overall season record to 7-1.
The Lady Wildcats Wednesday night lost 61-60 in OT, but this time took no prisoners against Forest Hills in a 70-32 romp. Star junior forward Harmony Laker outscored the entire Hawks’ outfit with 34 points. She canned five three-point field goals during the night and recorded her second straight game with more than 30 points.
Senior center Reese Coughlin dropped in 12 points, also nailing a couple of threes. Izzy Johnson had seven points, Marissa Ainsworth had a three, as did Dacey.
The victory evened Wayland’s overall record at 5-5 and 2-1 in the the league.
Martin gutted out a close win after having a 12-point lead in the third quarter while scoring 20 points in that frame.
“Our shooting woes continued tonight, but I was happy with the looks we were generating,” said coach Ben Schipper. “We executed our fast break extremely well, especially in the third quarter. Our offense looked great against GA’s zone at times when our ball movement was where we wanted it and our posts were being active.
“But when those two things weren’t happening, our offense was very stale and ineffective. We have to find a way to execute more consistently. I was happy with the way we executed some adjustments to our zone after halftime as we held GA scoreless until the 3:30 mark, but then our execution slipped and we gave up three threes to end the quarter.
“We learned some good lessons in this game to hopefully help us grow as we progress throughout the season. We continue to figure out how to play with a lead and I look forward to doing more situational sessions in practice.”
Macy Thorne led the Clippers with 12 points. Torryn Harris had 9 points with some aggressive drives and finishes.
“Alley Bacon played a very good game for us and I was very pleased with her minutes,” Schipper said.
Avery Jager had 6 points. Liz Reinke contributed solid defense and Makala Goddard played good defense and pushed the fast break all night.
Hopkins’ victory not only was its third in a row, but the Lady Vikings now own a 3-0 record in the O-K Silver Conference after a rocky 0-5 start in December.
All three games were played Thursday night instead of Friday because a strong wither storm was expected to close schools.
