Basketball team starts with loss Tuesday

Ouch! That hurt. For the first time in three years, the Huron girls? basketball team lost its home opener, and it was to Boyne City, a team they have put away the past six times they?ve played. The Tuesday game left the Hurons at a loss, 59-33, and the Ramblers feeling pretty good about themselves.

?We?re all disappointed, but we?ll bounce back,? said coach Karl Grambau. ?We panicked against their freshmen a bit, we knew that was going to be a problem for us. We kind of let the game get away on us in the second quarter.?

The Hurons began the night down three points after the first quarter, 11-8, but were really hurting to the tune of 33-14 at the halftime buzzer. Although the Hurons came out in the third segment and showed what they are capable of doing, outscoring the Ramblers 11-7, it only brought the tally to a 40-25 deficit.

An aggressive Ashley Fleming took the bull by the horns in the final act, feeding the ball to teammates, and in the last minutes of the game, Heather LaLonde scored on a feed from Lindsay Fleming with 3:57 on the clock in a catch-up attempt to make the score 51-28.

MOMENTS LATER Samantha Hurst went in for two more on a Lindsay Fleming pass, 30-51. The momentum was short-lived, however, as Whitney Spaay dunked one for the Ramblers and spread the gap to 53-30. With 1:56 on the clock, Kristy Curtis went to the line and added a freebie leading to a recovery and two more by LaLonde (53-33), but that was all she wrote, as the saying goes.

The Ramblers finished up the game with no difficulty by sending six more points into the net within the last minute for the 59-33 win.

?The girls didn?t block out very well, and Boyne had better options than we did,? Grambau said of the loss.

?We didn?t handle the full court press very well. As the year goes on we?ll get used to it. ?We don?t know if our press break works or not , because we didn?t run it yet. We?ve got work to do, but I think we?ll be all right,? he added. Grambau said the goal is to be ready for districts which will be in Rogers City and to be ready to defend the home court.

?THIS IS just one game, and Boyne has a good team. W

e?ll see how we do Thursday against Rudyard,? Grambau said. Ashley Fleming led the Hurons with 15 points and had a few words to say following the game. ?We need to work on our boxing out and we need to play more together as a team — we were falling apart here and there, but we?ll work it out,? Ashley predicted.

IN THE JV game, the results also were disappointing as the Hurons lost to Boyne City 44-21. Although tied at the half 13-13, the Hurons went scoreless in the third segment, and there was no catching up after that. High for the Hurons were Tiffiny Krueger with six points and Kristen Lyon with five.

Both teams will meet the Rudyard Bulldogs on home court Thursday at 6 p.m.