Photos by Scott DeCamp | CatchMark
MONTAGUE — Injuries and illness factored heavily into Montague’s 31-point girls basketball loss at division-leading Ludington in December.
In Thursday night’s rematch, the Wildcats were feeling mighty fine.
Montague locked down visiting Ludington with a 2-3 zone defense and earned a 28-21 victory in the CatchMark SportsNet West Michigan Conference Game of the Week.
It was the first divisional loss for Ludington (11-5, 8-1 WMC Lakes), which had an opportunity to secure a share of the Lakes title.
When Montague (10-6, 7-2) lost 49-18 Dec. 13 at Ludington, the Wildcats were missing players because of injury and illness. It was Montague’s first game after standout junior Kendall Osborne was lost for the season with a knee injury.
Montague senior Haylee Schwarz was sick for the first meeting and didn’t make the trip to Ludington. On Thursday, the 5-foot-7 forward/post made a big difference by hustling for team highs of nine points and 11 rebounds en route to being named CatchMark SportsNet’s Player of the Game.
CatchMark produced a free livestream of the game. You can watch the replay here:
Here are more details and notables from the game followed by a highlights and reaction video:
- With three WMC Lakes Division games remaining, Ludington holds a one-game lead over Montague and two-game lead over Oakridge in the standings. Ludington has Whitehall, Manistee and Orchard View remaining. Montague has Fremont, Manistee and Oakridge remaining. Oakridge has Orchard View, Whitehall and Montague remaining.
- Montague countered Ludington’s height with athleticism and active hands operating out of the zone. The Wildcats held the Orioles to 20.8 percent shooting from the floor (10-of-48), including 8.7 percent from 3-point range (2-of-23).
- Montague senior Emma Peterson finished with six points, four assists and three rebounds.
- Montague sophomore Addison Pranger had six points, five rebounds and three assists.
- Ludington’s Keelyn Laird, a 6-foot-3 senior signed with Ferris State University, led all scorers with 13 points.
