BOYNE CITY — After a two-game winning streak, the Grayling girls basketball team has now lost two in a row and has not scored 40 points in either game.
The latest setback came Thursday night, Feb. 10, when the Vikings were defeated by Boyne City, 47-29 and saw their record drop to 5-12 overall and 2-9 in the Lake Michigan Conference.
Grayling got off to a slow start as Boyne City opened an 18-5 lead after the first quarter, and the Vikings were never able to gain any ground the rest of the way.
In fact, the Vikings were shutout in the second quarter, 12-0, and finished the first half in a deep 30-5 hole. Recovering from such a deficit proved to be impossible.
“We have to start quick … We had some good moments there towards the end, running our out of bounds sets and getting open looks. … Especially in that fourth quarter we moved the ball better, knocked down our free throws.” — Vikings Coach Daniel Brandt
The Vikings offense never did get on track and scored only five points in the third quarter. The Ramblers put in 11 and took the floor in the fourth quarter holding a 41-10 lead.
Grayling finally caught fire in the fourth quarter, and outscored the Ramblers, 19-6 but it was too little too late to do much good for the Vikings.
“We struggled to get the ball moving, and then we struggled from the free throw line (10 for 27),” said Grayling head coach Daniel Brandt. “We didn’t get anything going until the fourth quarter.
“Just didn’t have the energy that we’ve had the past few games, and it bit us.”
Rylan Finstrom paced the Vikings with 14 points, Makenzie Castle added five while Lauren Hartman and Jasmine Youngblood both chipped in with four.
Grace Dawson led Boyne City with 15 points.
“We have to start quick,” Brandt added. “We had some good moments there towards the end, running our out of bounds sets and getting open looks.
“Especially in that fourth quarter we moved the ball better, knocked down our free throws. We were able to knock down 8 of 11 in the fourth quarter, so we did a much better job attacking the rim.”
The Vikings are next scheduled to see action on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at home against Charlevoix.
