By Greg Chrapek
WKTV Contributor
greer@wktv.org
Heading into Tuesday’s OK Gold game against Thornapple Kellogg, South Christian girls basketball Coach Erika Brown was looking for her team to take things up another level on the defensive end. The Sailors ended up doing that and more as South turned in a defensive gem in beating TK 55-25.
“There’s been things that we’ve been specifically working on in practice and we really wanted to put it into the game and see how we could adjust and make those adjustments,” Brown said. “We just need to clean up our defense and slides and positioning and some of our schemes on defense. Just really getting after knowing where we are together as a team in the movement part of it on defense.”
South Christian wasted little time in showing the dividends of the work it put in on defense during recent practices. The Sailor defense was aggressive and on point right from the opening tipoff against the Trojans. With the combination of stingy defense and balance on offense, South Christian took a 12-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Sailor offense was paced in the opening quarter by juniors Lizzie Wolthuis and Sophia Prins who both connected on three-point shots.
“We did get off to a good start,” Brown said. “That’s what we talk a lot about. Our team identifies as defense and transition, so we’ve been really working on those two things.”
South Christian took its defense to another level in the second quarter. Turning up the defensive intensity even more, the Sailors kept TK off the scoreboard for the entire quarter while building a 25-7 halftime lead.
With a double-digit lead heading into the second half, the Sailors maintained their aggressiveness on the defensive end while sharpening their skills on the offensive side of the floor. South Christian outscored TK 17-11 during the third quarter as it built a 42-18 lead.
South Christian closed out the game by outscoring the Trojans 13-7 in the fourth quarter.
Prins led the way for South Christian with 23 points highlighted by 3 three-point baskets.
“Our point guard Sophia (Prins) had an amazing game,” Brown said. “She is our floor general and director. She is doing a lot better in her talking and getting people where they need to be. I was very proud of her tonight.”
Wolthuis also drained a trio of treys finishing with 11 points. Sophomore Meredith Helmus added seven.
Overall, the Sailors were pleased with their offensive production, but like the defense, they see upside for improvement.
“We have some things we have to work on with offense,” Brown said. “We’ve been seeing more zone this year than we have in the past and zone offenses tend to get overlooked a little more than man, the quick-hit plays and all the things you really work on a lot. For what we’ve been working on for zone offense, I was happy and pleased with what we did tonight.”
South Christian improved to 14-2 overall and 7-1 in the conference. The win also set the stage for Friday’s OK Gold showdown where the Sailors, ranked 13th in the state in Division 2, travel to Grand Rapids West Catholic to take on the Falcons, ranked fifth in the state in Division 2 and have a 7-0 record in the conference.
The win was the sixth in a row for the Sailors since they dropped a 62-49 decision to West Catholic in early January. South’s other loss was a 41-39 decision against Hudsonville in December.
With four seniors on the team along with two freshmen, two sophomores and the remaining players from the junior class, the Sailors have a mix of youth and veterans which makes for an enjoyable team to coach.
“We have a group of girls that just love each other,” Brown said. “It’s a little bit more than basketball to us. It’s about life and doing this journey together. Being there through the hard times, the good times, the struggles in school, on and off the court. We have a really, really good squad this year. They’ve really taken this to heart and making this a journey that’s going to be memorable.”
Thornapple Kellogg fell to 2-5 in the league, 6-9 overall. The Trojans were led in scoring by freshman Taylor Lloyd, who drained a pair of treys and finished with 14 points.
