Cougars pull away from Portagers

Posted by Bob Allan, Pioneer News Network
January 5, 2011

BIG RAPIDS — Onekama girls basketball coach Nathan Bradford could pinpoint the exact moment where the game got away from his team.

The Portagers’ Jennica Mathieu got a bucket and a free throw to tie the game at 19-19 early in the third quarter. But the senior picked up two fouls in the early stages of the frame and had to sit with four fouls.

In the next five minutes, the Cougars went on an 11-2 run to bust the game open and go on to record a 44-32 victory over Onekama at Crossroads Charter Academy.

The Cougars are now 4-1 on the season and 2-1 in the West Michigan D League. The Portagers fall to 0-5 overall and 0-4 in the league.

Mathieu was a dominant player in the post for Onekama, drawing constant double teams from the Crossroads defense. But when she left the game due to foul trouble, it changed the course of the contest.

“They got some momentum, going up eight or nine points and we couldn’t get over the hump,” Bradford said.

Mathieu finished with a team-high 13 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Getting Mathieu into foul trouble was part of the plan in the second half, according to Crossroads Charter Academy coach JJ Eads. During halftime, Eads told the team to take it at Mathieu whenever possible.

“She’s a scoring threat or drawing fouls on our post players,” Eads said. “We tried to take it at her whenever we could.

“Mathieu is one of the best post players in the league,” he continued. “Lucky for us, she got into foul trouble.”

Adding the run for the Cougars was a full court man press than at times flustered the Onekama ball handlers. The Portagers would not record another field goal until six minutes remained in the contest, by Mathieu.

“We wanted them to handle the ball for 90 feet and stick to our defensive principles,” Eads said. “We thought we could have success if we did that.”

Crossroads would lead by as many as 13 points early in the fourth quarter before settling on the final score. The Cougars were paced by Malory Carlson with 20 points and 17 rebounds.

The game began sluggishly for both sides, who were playing for the first time since the Christmas break. Crossroads led 11-8 at the end of the first quarter and 19-16 at halftime.

“We came out flat and we didn’t have that extra gear,” Bradford said. “We couldn’t seem to get a couple of baskets in a row and get going offensively. There were times where we would do some good things and times where we would take two steps back. Hopefully, we’ll get things clicking.”