Win over Standish gives Clare girls third straight district crown

By BEN MURPHY

Cleaver Sports Writer

With a Division 2 district championship on the line, the Clare girls’ basketball team delivered in a big way on Friday. The Lady Pioneers were hosting Standish-Sterling in the district title game, and they took down the Lady Panthers, 42-30, giving them their third straight district championship. The victory also avenges a pair of losses from the regular season, proof of just how good they’ve been playing the last few weeks.

“We were excited, we felt like we have been really close (to beating Standish), the second game we played them we were right there, we had a chance to win and we just didn’t make our free throws at the end when we needed to,” head coach Shane Kelly said. “We were excited to get back to the district final and try to win our third straight. Losing all the starters that we did from last year, it has been a season of growth and of girls stepping up. We had a great third quarter, we changed things defensively and Standish couldn’t figure it out. The girls played great and pulled off the win.”

Clare was behind 9-7 after the first quarter, but they used a big second quarter offensively to get out in front; pouring in 20 points to lead 29-20 at the half. In the third quarter, it was the defense’s turn to shine, as they held Standish scoreless, and they pulled to a 36-20 lead entering the fourth.

“We saw something in the second quarter that we ran and we saw something we could do to them, we just didn’t want to do it in the first half so they could game plan for it,” Kelly said of the third quarter defense. “We waited until the third quarter, and we ran it really well. We run four or five different traps, we run man, different presses and we continually keep the opponents off their sets that they want to run and it works out pretty well.”

Gabby Darland led Clare with 15 points and two rebounds, Kamara Cooper had eight points, 10 steals, seven assists and five rebounds and Sophia Buzzelli added seven points, two rebounds and two steals. Kyley Wyman added four points and three rebounds; Lena Renner also had four points and Amelia Ryzyk chipped in with two points. Olivia Forsberg added three steals, two rebounds and two assists.

“The two freshmen, Darland and Cooper have been great,” Kelly said. “Since Darland has been up on varsity, we are 9-1 and she has played a huge part of it. Buzzelli had a great game for us in the district finals. Just the whole team, with the depth that we have putting the pressure on them and running up and down the court (did well). We are going 10 or 11 deep and it shows in the third and fourth quarter.”

Clare reached the finals thanks to their semi-final win over Chippewa Hills on Wednesday, March 4, 39-32.

“(The keys were) keeping it together at the end of the game, taking care of the ball and limiting our mistakes and creating turnovers,” Kelly said. “We are a defensive oriented team; we hang our hat on defense every single night. Sometimes we won’t have our offensive game, but we will always have our defense and make teams work extremely hard and that is how we’ve been able to win 18 games so far.”

The Pioneers had a bit of a slow start in this one and trailed 7-3 after the first quarter and 20-16 at the half. The Pioneers flipped the script in the third quarter though and took a 32-29 lead entering the fourth. Clare outscored Chip Hills 7-3 in the final frame to secure the win and advance.

Leading the way in this one was Cooper with 17 points, eight rebounds and two steals while Wyman, Aleigha Finkbeiner, Ryzyk and Darland had four points apiece. Syerra Mills, Forsberg and Renner had two points apiece. A. Finkbeiner also had seven rebounds; Forsberg took down six rebounds and Renner pulled in five boards. Forsberg and Reese Finkbeiner had two assists each and Ryzyk swiped away three steals.

Clare (18-7 overall) did have its season come to an end on Monday, when it lost its regional semi-final game to host Big Rapids, 50-33. Further details on that game will be featured next week.