MUSKEGON — Anna Lundquist averages a double-double for Oakridge’s girls basketball team this season. She’s even reached the triple-double mark.
You might call the skilled 6-foot-2 senior a machine, and a seemingly indesctructible one at that.
Late in a 33-25 victory over Ravenna last week, Lundquist’s feet got tangled near midcourt and she took a hard fall with her face slamming into the floor. Later that night, after a three-hour wait in the emergency room, she got three stitches near her left eyebrow.
Three days later, Lundquist was back in action in a 40-38 victory at Montague in which she delivered 20 points, 18 rebounds, and six assists.
“She bounced right back. She didn’t shy away from contact. It didn’t seem to affect her in that way,” said Saxon Smith, who is in his first season as Oakridge’s head coach. “I’ve seen her throughout the last few years take a few of those tumbles and she seems to react the same way every time.”
On the season, Lundquist is averaging 12.6 points, 13.6 rebounds, 6.0 blocks, and 3.0 steals per game for an Eagles squad that has tried to find consistency all season, falling 51-42 at home to Manistee on senior night Tuesday.
Lundquist finished with nine points, 14 rebounds, and four blocks in the game, becoming Oakridge’s all-time leading rebounder with 870 in her career. She broke the rebounding record previously held by Jenny Keiser, who finished with 865 career boards in the early-1990s.
Oakridge (7-14 overall), which went 3-9 in the West Michigan Conference Lakes Division for sixth place, will face Whitehall (8-13, 6-6) in a Division 2 district opener at Fruitport at 7 p.m. next Monday.
Whitehall swept Oakridge in the regular season. The tournament is different, however, and when a team has a player like Lundquist, anything is possible.
Last season, Lundquist was voted the CatchMark SportsNet WMC Player of the Year after averaging 15.3 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.3 steals, 2.4 blocks, and 1.5 assists.
“I think she’s really talented. I feel like she can go really far,” Oakridge sophomore Cambria Guenthardt said about Lundquist, the 18-year-old daughter of Melissa and Anthony Lundquist. She’s one of seven children in the family, including younger sister Johanna Lundquist, who is a freshman on Oakridge’s girls varsity basketball team.
Anna Lundquist dreams of playing Division I or Division II basketball. On Monday, she visited Muskegon Community College to explore starting her collegiate basketball career there.
Versatility is the name of the game for Lundquist. Her range extends beyond the 3-point arc with games of four or five made triples, but she can also do damage in the paint as well as with her passing. She considers herself a point guard and her skills continue to develop.
“We lost Mal (Whipple), our starting point guard, the fourth or fifth game of the season so that required ball handling and Anna handled the ball a little more than expected going into the season,” Smith said. “That’s developed her ball handling a lot this year because we’ve had to rely on it.”
Photos by Scott DeCamp | CatchMark
Lundquist is a four-year varsity player and she’s a worker, according to Smith. She picked up basketball about seven years ago and began playing competitively in sixth grade.
Suiting up for the Hardwood Evolution travel squad has helped accelerate her abilities to the point where she impacts games in many ways.
“Every way, now. Her freshman year, you couldn’t say that, but now she’s developed her shot, put in the work,” Smith said. “She’s at everything. You name it, she’ll be there — travel ball, everything. She impacts (games) offensively, defensively — every way you can imagine. Her reach is crazy on defense and then her range on offense is almost unlimited.”
Smith recalls meeting Lundquist during her freshman year.
Oakridge hasn’t had a lot of height on its roster going back several years, but Lundquist brought some of it. She gets the height from her father, who stands 6-7.
“First impression was, ‘Wow, she’s tall,'” Smith chuckled. “She was that height (what she is now) as a freshman, I’m pretty certain. First thought was, ‘Finally some height in the program.'”
Lundquist is a solid student with a 3.2 GPA. Her favorite class is one that focuses on fashion design.
In the rarity of free time away from school and basketball, Lundquist enjoys writing and reading.
“(She’s) cool, calm, and collected,” said Smith, who spent the previous six years with Oakridge’s junior varsity team as head coach and an assistant. “Kind of like I am, for the most part. We kind of mesh pretty well in that way.”
Said Guenthardt: “She can be quiet sometimes, but on the team she’s outgoing and she can be really nice and we just have a really good time with her.”
