By John Raffel
Correspondent
MCBAIN – McBain Northern Michigan Christian’s girl basketball seasons came to an end on Tuesday, March 7, with a loss to Maple City Glen Lake 61-14 in the Division 4 regional semifinalists.
Last week in district action, NMC beat Walkerville 50-2 in the semifinal and had a thrilling 36-33 win over Manistee Catholic Central.
“It was a huge win for out girls tonight,” coach Rich Bennett said after the win vs. MCC. “I am extremely happy for our seniors to bring home a fourth straight district title. We played an excellent first half but came out a little flat right out of halftime. We were making a lot of fundamental errors. We regained our composure towards the end of the third and carried it into the fourth.
“(Jada) VanNoord’s defense was absolutely stifling. She had her best defensive game of the season tonight.
(Alaina) Rozeveld was on point tonight. She played incredible defense and hit crucial free throws for us all throughout the game. The entire team did great, talked to each other on the floor, helped when needed and didn’t let a close game get in their heads.”
The Comets had quarter leads of 13-10, 23-14 and 30-22.
Rozeveld had 14 points while Paige Ebels had eight rebounds and five steals.
Against Walkerville, “the girls did a great job tonight,”Bennett said. “We played well defensively and communicated well as a team. We were able to be patient with the ball tonight and keep our turnovers to 10. We had balanced rebounding tonight on both ends of the court which allowed second chance opportunities for scoring.
“We didn’t shoot great from the line but applied pressure and forced 19 turnovers. All of the girls were able to get valuable minutes on the court tonight.”
It was 31-2 at halftime.
Ebels and VanNoord had 10 points apiece.