CLARE — It’s been a difficult year for the Houghton Lake girls basketball team, and it didn’t get any better when the Bobcats returned to the hardwood after the Christmas break and dropped a 54-38 decision to the Clare Pioneers Jan. 5.
Houghton Lake has lost three straight and are pretty much eliminated from the Jack Pine Conference race, although there is still a lot of season left to play. Not only would they have to win a majority of their remaining games but the top teams would have to lose a few for them to pick up any ground. The Bobcats are 2-5 overall and 2-3 in the JPC.
Despite the apparently one-sided loss to the Pioneers there was no handwringing on the part of Bobcats’ Coach Greg Kauffman afterward. If anything the coach was generally pleased with his team’s effort.
“It was one of those nights that the score is a bit misleading,” Coach Kauffman insisted. “After watching the film we did play pretty well. You give Clare credit. They shot the ball extremely well from the outside and their best three players combined for 43 points.
“Their coach (Kevin Richards) told me after the game that’s the best game they’ve played in a month. Unfortunately it was against us. We did have some turnovers we need to clean up and we did have some defensive breakdowns that we will fix. But Clare was hitting from the outside early and that really stretched our defense out. Then they were able to get things going in the paint.”
Obviously the Bobcats could get no relief. It didn’t help that they missed 19 shots from within 15 feet of the basket in the first half. Those are high percentage shots and as Coach Kauffman said the Bobcats needed to make them but didn’t.
If they’d made six or seven of those shots the complexion of the game might have changed completely. That’s not saying the Bobcats would have defeated the Pioneers but the score would certainly have been closer.
As it was the Bobcats were in a 20-point hole after the first 16 minutes and could not climb out. The Bobcats made a few more of the shots they were getting in the first half but not nearly enough to make up the ground they’d lost.
“We did some really good things,’ Kauffman said. ‘We really pounded them on the glass. I was very happy with the way we rebounded as a team. Also proud of the fact my girls didnt’ quit. They played until the final buzzer. We ended up outscoring them in the second half so we have some good building blocks to work with.”
Logan Ordiway paced the Bobcats with nine points as well as six rebounds. Lainey Meigs contributed eight points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Lexi Blanchard finished with eight points, five rebounds, three steals. Bridget Ripke added four points, seven rebounds and two steals. Taylor Nutt had three points and three rebounds. Ignat chipped in with two points and four rebounds. Alexis Souder had two points, five rebounds and three assists. Madisen Forman had two points.
