By Greg Gielczyk
KALKASKA — Grayling’s girls basketball team knew just where it stood going into it’s Lake Michigan Conference game against the Kalkaska Blue Blazers on Friday, Jan. 27, so when the final horn sounded the numbers on the scoreboard didn’t come as any surprise.
The Blazers are having another of their typical outstanding seasons, and will undoubtedly be one of the teams to beat in the Michigan High School Athletic Association tournament when the regular season is finished.
Right now, they’re leading the LMC by the slimmest of margins after a 60-27 victory over the Vikings. Kalkaska came out of the game with a 6-0 record in the league and a spotless 9-0 mark overall.
St. Francis continued to hang close with a 5-1 record and is 9-1 overall, while Charlevoix stands in the third spot (9-3, 5-2 LMC). Grayling dropped to 1-6, 2-10 LMC and is still trying to find the right chemistry to produce more successful results on the court.
Despite it’s best efforts, Grayling couldn’t stop the Blazers from doing pretty much what they pleased from the opening tip. The Blazers opened up a 30-point lead, 41-11 at halftime and never really was threatened.
Mallory Hatfield penetrated down low for a couple of inside baskets to get the Vikings’ offense started, and Ellie Carr also was able to gain her way inside for another two points. Grayling continued to attack the basket aggressively, with Madison Longendyke becoming the third Viking to drive inside for a basket and Natalie Amy contributed a free throw to close out the Vikings’ first 11 points of the game.
But the Grayling offense chugged to a crawl in the third period as the Blazers’ closed off the passing lanes and kept the Vikings from getting any good looks. The Vikings produced only three points in the third, all of them coming at the free throw line and scored by Hatfield.
Grayling’s successful was only minimally better in the final frame, when the Vikings managed nine points as Abby Pippin swished a jumper, Olivia Schreiber got inside for a bucket, Esa Powers connected for a field goal while Hatfield tossed in a 3-point shot that settled in the nets a couple of ticks ahead of the final buzzer and she contributed two free throws as well.
Hatfield finished as the Vikings’ leading scorer in the game with 14 points.
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