Onekama routs Walkerville in home opener
By DYLAN SAVELA: Manistee News Advocate
Sports Writer
Published: Wednesday, December 9, 2009 12:06 AM
ONEKAMA — Onekama is accustomed to starting
games later than it did Tuesday night against Walkerville.
Perhaps the unordinary 6 p.m. tip-off was the reason the Portagers went
scoreless with the Wildcats for the first two and a half minutes.
But, once Onekama (2-0, 2-0 WMD) found the bottom of the net, it had no
trouble finding it again, and again, and again, en route to a 50-27 West
Michigan D League win.
“I told them they had to come out and play hard, and I thought they did
come out ready to play from the get-go, but at first, we missed our
shots,” said Portagers coach Nathan Bradford. “Then once we got going,
we did a pretty good job.”
After Walkerville sophomore Hayley Garrett
broke the scoring drought for both sides with the game’s first bucket,
Onekama took the early Wildcat lead away, and never gave it back.
The Portagers’ Taylor Hagen led the way with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“In the beginning, none of my shots were going in, but I started taking
my time and they started falling,” Hagen said. “None of us really care
who scores, we just want to work together to get the points. So, that’s
what we want to try to do every game — just work as a team out there.”
Also for Onekama, sophomore Jennica Mathieu had eight points which all
came in the first half, Diamond Kimpel had six, Sherece Revolt, Brooke
Sedelmaier, and Lindsay Nesburg each scored four, Jaylee Brown and Katie
Prielipp scored three apiece, while Emily Pomeroy, Danielle Ward and
Kelly Koon each added two.
Kimpel grabbed 10 boards for the Portagers and Ashley DeRooy had five,
while Brown led with six steals and Prielipp stole five to go along with
a team-high four assists.
Walkerville (1-2, 0-2 WMD) does not dress a JV squad, hence the early
start, which gave Onekama the chance to play junior varsity players.
Bradford put in an all-JV lineup for a majority of the fourth quarter,
allowing players like Nesburg, Pomeroy, Ward and Koon a chance to get on
the board with some varsity points.
“It worked out,” Bradford said. “I was hoping we could build a little
bit of a lead so we could get them in, and that happened. Everybody got
in and did a real good job.”
The Portagers built quite a lead early on with a 14-3 advantage after
the first quarter, a 29-6 halftime lead, and a 38-12 mark to end the
third. |
Onekama’s Katie Prielipp (5)
dribbles past Walkerville’s Briana Cruz (right) and Janie Fuentes on
Tuesday night. (Dylan Savela/News Advocate)
Onekama found most of its scoring either in
transition or down in the paint, while only attempting one shot from
beyond the arc.
“I knew (Walkerville) didn’t have as many
girls, so I told our team ‘let’s try to push the ball up the floor and
take what we can get that way, and just work the ball around on offense.
If something’s open, take the shot,’” Bradford said. “That’s pretty much
the game plan (this season). We want to do things that we’re in control
of — box out, rebound, take care of the ball on offense.”
As for the Wildcats, a rough night from the field couldn’t be turned
around with a 15-point fourth quarter comeback effort.
“We just had a little bit of a struggle getting the simple ones to get
in the basket,” Walkerville coach Ben Knizacky said. “We rebounded well
and we did a little bit better with moving the ball around, but we’ve
just got to convert those shots in the paint.
“We counted 11 (misses) in the paint in that first half, so that’s a
potential 22 points,” he added. “We’ve just got to convert those easy
ones.”
Walkerville was led by sophomore Cecelia Knowles with 10 points,
including six straight in the fourth quarter, while Garrett added eight.
With the win, the Portagers are off to a 2-0 start, both overall and in
the West Michigan D League.
“It’s a good start,” Bradford said. “We’d like to keep the streak
going.” |
