Photos by Scott DeCamp | CatchMark
MONTAGUE — It took Fremont’s girls basketball team a few minutes to shake off the nerves in its Division 2 district opener against Newaygo Monday night at Montague High School.
Once the Packers got in their groove, the Lions had no answers.
Fremont leaned on its pressure defense and rolled to a 46-29 victory over Newaygo, earning a third matchup against West Michigan Conference Lakes Division foe Montague this season.
Fremont (9-14) advance to Wednesday’s 7 p.m. district semifinal against host Montague (15-7). The teams split their regular-season matchups — Montague winning at home (37-34) on Jan. 6 and Fremont victorious on its own court (31-22) on Feb. 7.
Newaygo finishes the season with a 6-16 record.
Here are more details and notables from Monday’s Fremont-Newaygo game:
- Newaygo jumped out to a 9-4 lead to start the game. Fremont answered with a 15-3 run, tying up the game at 10 by the end of the first quarter and leading 19-12 late in the half. The Packers took a 20-16 lead into the halftime break. Fremont led 35-22 through three quarters.
- Fremont’s Jessica Bennett, a 5-foot-11 1/2 junior, led all scorers with 16 points. She scored half of those points in the third quarter, when the Packers outscored the Lions 15-6 and took control of the game.
- Fremont sophomore Mia Clemence finished with nine points.
- Fremont freshman Eliana VandenBerg added six points.
- Newaygo senior Barbara Toth led her team with eight points.
- Newaygo senior Grace Painter scored six points.
- Newaygo junior Maria Riddering and sophomore Naomi Schillman added five points apiece.
