Girls Basketball Notebook: Stifling defense leads to win for short-handed Lakeview

Lakeview was missing its top scorer and one of its senior leaders.

Despite that, the rest of the Spartans stepped up big, leaned on their defense and came away with one of their best wins of the season.

Lakeview dominated Mattawan, 46-18, in a Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference non-division crossover girls basketball contest at Lakeview High School on Tuesday.

Playing without senior captain Aisling Rankin, ruled out for the season with a knee injury just this week, and without her sister Anya Rankin, Lakeview's sophomore scorer, who is day to day with a different injury, the Spartans took over this game early and had a surprisingly easy time against a Mattawan team that came in at 8-7.

Dealing with those injuries, the Spartans seemingly turned a corner after losing three of their last four games and improved to 9-6.

"Losing two experienced guards like that, that's tough. We are beat up. But the girls know we aren't making any excuses for that," Lakeview coach Blake Shaw said. "We had a lot of different girls step up tonight and, in a way, it's a good thing. Some girls are getting more minutes, so when we get everyone back, we can all come together and really get rolling."

Lakeview forced Mattawan into seven turnovers in the first quarter as the Spartans held the Wildcats to just two points in the opening period. Lakeview took the early 10-2 lead when Madelyn Belmore hit a layup at the first quarter buzzer after a slick bounce pass to the post by Jenna Morris.

Lakeview kept Mattawan off the scoreboard basically the entire first half, holding the Wildcats to just four points at intermission as sophomore Camille Oxley hit a jumper just inside the arc in the final minute for an 18-4 lead at halftime.

The 18 points for the game for Mattawan was the team's second lowest total for the season.

"Our offense comes from our defense when our defense gets better," Shaw said. "We probably played our best defensive game of the season. We were dialed in from the start, ready to go and it showed."

Katelyn Belmore led Lakeview with 15 points, Oxley chipped in seven points from her point guard spot and freshman Danayah Williams adding nine points off the bench.

More Girls Basketball

Pennfield 66, Homer 53

Pennfield senior Kaylee Glidden went over the 1,000-point mark for her career as she had a game-high 35 points, including a school-record six 3-pointers, to go along with eight assists, six rebounds and three steals. Natalie Hensel added 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks as the Panthers improved to 6-11.

Battle Creek Central 42, Portage Central 33

A'Mya Hodges had 16 points and Kyliera Guest added 10 for the Bearcats, who improve to 4-10.

Gull Lake 56, St. Joseph 40

Gull Lake outscored St. Joseph 21-10 in the second quarter to take over this game. Bree Eklund led the Blue Devils with 22 points.

Edwardsburg 51, Marshall 24

Marshall sinks to 8-9 overall with the non-conference loss as Addie Waito, Natalie Frever and Emily Dingee all had five points for the Redhawks.

Hillsdale Academy 54, St. Philip 33

Miriam Hibbard had 18 points with Addi Dzwik adding nine points and 10 rebounds for the Tigers, who fell to 8-9.

Colon 62, Tekonsha 14

Colon jumped out to a 24-2 lead after the first quarter and improved to 13-4. Reese Williams had 22 points and 10 steals and Megann Mullins added 13 points and five steals to lead the Magi. Reagan Henry had eight points for Tekonsha (2-13).

Athens 45, Camden-Frontier 13

Athens goes to 11-5 overall with Maria Bronsink leading the Indians with a career-high 21 points.

Monday's Girls Basketball

Harper Creek 48, Sturgis 42

Harper Creek opened with a 12-1 lead and went on to win this non-conference contest and improve to 6-10. Ella Chantrenne had 23 points to lead the Beavers with seven rebounds.

Olivet 64, Perry 13

Olivet is 14-4 overall and 9-1 in the league with Drue Allen coming up big in the win over Perry with 14 points, six steals and three assists. Olivea Gessner and Kara Priddy each had 11 points and Payton Otto added 10.

Bill Broderick can be reached at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @billbroderick.

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Girls Basketball: Stifling defense leads to win for short-handed Lakeview