Lopsided losses have Posen looking at a fresh start

Early season frustrations have turned into new beginnings for the Posen girls? basketball squad. The season started on a positive note with convincing victories against Fairview and Hale, but after lopsided losses to Mio last Thursday, 55-36, and Cedarville Tuesday, 64-42, two of northern Michigan?s premiere girls programs, coach Tom Schellie was ready to start over Wednesday in practice. ?We are a .500 team right now, but it is a long season,? said Schellie Tuesday, following a lengthy post-game locker room talk with his players. ?We?ll be firing on all cylinders at the end of the season.? In both losses, the Vikings played reasonably well in the first half, Schellie said, but failed to answer the bell in the third quarter. ?They are both quality teams, and they both have quality programs, but we did not handle the pressure very well at all,? said Schellie. ?We needed to take care of the ball tonight, but we didn?t.?

CEDARVILLE AND POSEN played even into the early minutes of the second quarter with the score tied at 15-all when the Trojans started to pull away with a 7-0 run that ended on senior Lauren Johnson?s jumper from outside. Cedarville took an eight-point lead into halftime, 28-20. Posen showed a spark in the early minutes and started moving the ball around to set up plays. A pair of free throws by senior Roxann Hincka and a jumper by Jenny Ciarkowski put the Vikings within four, 30-26. That was about the time Trojan sophomore Jessica Duncan heated up from outside. She scored seven straight points for Cedarville and took the comeback steam right out of the Vikings. Posen freshman Janice Ciarkowski cut the Trojan?s lead to 10, 38-28, midway through the third quarter, before Cedarville blew the game wide open with a 14-0 run into the fourth. The Trojans outscored the Vikings 20-8 in the third quarter.

CEDARVILLE CENTER Emily Feldhake had a game-high 26, while Hincka led the Posen attack with 19 points and 15 boards. Duncan, who scored nine points for the Trojans in the third quarter, ended up with 19 points. Jenny Ciarkowski scored seven points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Mary Calhoun finished with seven. Up next on the sche

dule is a road contest tonight against Atlanta. They will host Rogers City Tuesday. Last Thursday, Posen suffered their first loss of the season at Mio. Kemmi Breaugh led the three-point-shooting-happy Thunderbolt team with 26 points. Mio came out smoking from downtown to bury the visitors. The loss puts the Vikings in a position to win the rest of their league games if they have any thoughts of earning back-to-back league titles. Calhoun and Hincka both had 11 at Mio. The girls don?t have to wait long to get their second shot at Mio and Cedarville. The Vikes travel to Cedarville September 26 and host Mio October 5.

THE JV HAS had a tough stretch as well, dropping three in a row, after opening up at home with a win against Fairview. The games have been close. Losses have come by an average point margin of four points. The girls dropped Tuesday?s Cedarville game 35-28 and last Thursday?s game against Mio, 47-44. Nicole Purol led the Vikings against Cedarville with seven, while Julia Lewandowski had nine against Mio.

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