Portagers can’t get past Cougars

“They’re pretty good,” said Portagers coach Nathan Bradford. “We knew coming in, we’d have to contain those two, but they’re pretty tough to stay with.”

Both Cougars (7-1, 7-0 WMD) hurt Onekama by recording a double-double apiece as Balanda’s 18 points and 16 rebounds coupled with Thorne’s 18 and 12 helped lead CCA to a 47-38 West Michigan D League win, leaving the Cougars’ league record unblemished at 7-0.

“Thorne is a leader of ours,” said Cougars coach J.J. Eads of his point guard who also had six steals and four assists. “We trust her to handle the ball and make the decisions.

“And (Balanda) did a great job rebounding tonight,” he added of his center. “Especially offensively. We’re blessed with a girl like that who can crash the boards and finish.”

Despite the two-headed scoring threat Big Rapids presented, Onekama didn’t go away easy.

Onekama junior Taylor Hagen paced the Portagers with 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and five steals while sophomore Jaylee Brown had 13 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Also for Onekama, Sherece Revolt scored six points with four rebounds and four steals, Jennica Mathieu had five points and seven rebounds and senior point guard Katie Prielipp had four steals.

The Portagers (5-3, 5-2 WMD) played even with the Cougars for the majority of the game, but after a 9-9 first quarter, CCA outscored Onekama 18-7 in the second to take an 11-point lead they wouldn’t relinquish into halftime at 27-16.

“The second quarter was our let down, but other than that, we played pretty much even,” said Bradford. “We got a little tired and they had a little more energy than we did.

“For the most part they played hard, but during that little bit before halftime, we were standing a little too much on offense,” he added. “We need a little more movement and to work the ball around.”

Onekama made a third-quarter push with a 12-8 scoring run, cutting the Cougar lead to just five points twice.

The Portagers started the fourth quarter down 35-28 and with the first bucket, cut the lead to five again, but it proved to be as close as they’d get.

With the loss, Onekama is still one team short of their season goal to beat the West Michigan D League teams the senior class has yet to defeat, but they’ll have one more chance as the schools will meet again on Feb. 19 in Big Rapids.