Thumb Tailgater Sports witnessed a great girls basketball game with two undefeated teams facing off in the GTE! It was a packed house in Brown City as the Lady Greendevils hosted #1 State ranked, Sandusky Lady Redskins.
With the score 51-49 and 5.3 seconds left on the clock, Kristen Greene grabbed a rebound after a missed free throw by Sandusky and she darted up the court with a chance to score a basket form the inside left wing.
But Sandusky's Marissa Demott tap the ball slightly and it was enough to delay the attempt and
Demott ended up stealing the ball and hang on for the win for the Lady Redskins,
51-49.
It was close through out the whole game, with both teams having trouble with some turnovers in the first half. Brown City was also in major foul trouble in the by the late 3rd period putting themselves in the penalty phase. That put the good free throw shooting of the Sandusky Lady Redskins on the charity stripe and hold on to their slim lead. The Redskins did not lead by more than seven points at one point in the game, and Brown City was within two or one points but was never able to get a lead or to tie it at any point in the game.
Sandusky's defense was voracious on one key player for Brown City - Sarah Murray. Whenever open underneath the basket or in front of the glass at the low post, she was quickly double or triple teamed on defense by Sandusky. Murray was still able to get the majority of her shots up
but the ball would not fall through the net in her favor. Another point to add was that Sarah Murray
was playing injured based on the fact she had quite a large brace on her left leg I do believe.
Some Unofficial Stats:
Sandusky: Marissa Demott with 24 total points, three 3 pointers, and making 5 free throws. Lauren Krause had 8 points, Kelsey Jensen 5pt, Jenna Stauffer 4pt, Whitney Fox & Kellie Ruggles with 3pt. The team was 16-38, 42% shooting. A glaring stat was 3-12 in the second half, winning the game by shooting 23 points in free throws! 1st half shooting was 13-26, 50%.
Brown City: Kristen Greene lead with 16 points & 12 rebounds, Sarah Murray 10pt / 10 reb, Alena Sanson 9pt, Kari Burton 8pt, and Samantha Gierman 4pt. The team was 18-57, 31% shooting. 1st half shooting was 10-28, 35%; 2nd half 8-29, 29%.
Sandusky is now 13-0, while Brown City gets the first loss of the season at 11-1. The rematch should be an intense one that could
decide the GTE Title on February 18th in Sandusky, and later at the districts where both teams could potentially meet up for the third in a season -
HOWEVER!!
Let's not forget the nail biting end to the season last year where Harbor Beach & Deckerville girls team, came with upset wins that fell into Brown City's favor. That could very well happen as there is plenty of games to play with Marlette & Mayville making some "noise" on the hard court to that could cause some havoc in the GTE. And as every single coach would say -
one game at time!
** Another tidbit note to add - Sandusky Lady Redksins are currently ranked #1 in the State AP poll. But the #2 ranked
New Lothrop Lady Hornets have now beaten both Class C State Finalists from last season - tonight beating the defending Class C State Champion
Flint Hamady (#9) 38-26, and on the Hawks home court. The other big victory was the season opener against #5 ranked Morley-Stanwood, where the Lady Hornets won 64-47 in triple overtime.
New Lothrop will be in the Class Districts at Reese, where there is a anticipated match up with the #8 ranked Reese Lady Rockets who just lost to Sandusky a week ago Friday night. The winner of that District goes on in the Regionals at Genesee against the winner of the Brown City District which the current #1 ranked Sandusky Lady Redskins are involved in.
I think now based on those two big wins for the New Lothrop Lady Hornets, that they should be the new #1 State ranked team come next week. Sandusky could either be tied at #1, but I feel at a solid #2 spot. We will see if I am correct next week.
thumbtailgater@gmail.com
