By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
SAUGATUCK—It was a battle of unbeatens when the Saugatuck girls’ basketball team hosted Martin on Friday, Dec. 21.
The Trailblazers entered the game at 5-0, while the Clippers were 4-0.
And thanks to a big fourth quarter, it was Martin that kept its undefeated record intact.
The Clippers outscored Saugatuck 13-3 in the final frame to erase a 5-point deficit and secure the 32-27 victory.
Martin coach Ben Schipper had nothing but praise for his team’s effort.
“Obviously, we wanted to win this game and we want to win the division,” Schipper said. “But more than anything, this is a big confidence booster for us this early in the season.
“Saugatuck is a team that everyone is propping up as the team to beat—and understandably so, with the talent they have—and to come in here and hang with them really helps our girls believe in themselves.”
While disappointed with the outcome, Saugatuck coach Kevin Tringali said the loss is a great learning opportunity for this team.
“We told the girls we have everything in front of us still in terms of our goals for the season,” Tringali said. “In a strange way, (the loss) might be good for us in the long run. We have a lot of people telling us we’re good and we’re trying to buy into that, but we obviously still have a lot of things to work on and this helps us see what some of those areas are.”
Defense was the story for both teams. And for Saugatuck, that defensive effort focused largely around limited Makala Goddard.
And the Trailblazers were successful in that regard, as Goddard was limited to one point on a fourth-quarter free throw.
But other Clippers were able to step up, led by Macy Thorne with 10 points and Avery Jager with nine points.
“Obviously, every team we play is going to try to take Makala out of the game and Saugatuck did a good job of that as she didn’t have a field goal tonight,” Schipper said. “But she was able to stay composed and get her teammates involved.
“We just kept telling the girls to run the offense and not get bogged down because they’re trying to take (Goddard) out of the game. We finally started doing that in the second half and getting more of the looks we wanted.”
Saugatuck jumped out to a 13-4 lead after one quarter, with Kennedy Gustafson scoring six of those points for the Trailblazers. The quarter also include a 3-pointer from Penny Grob, which turned out to be Saugatuck’s lone triple of the game.
“We’ve scored about 20-points worth of threes in most games and that went to three tonight,” Tringali said. “So, that’s a big difference. My shooters all have the green light and they got some good looks. We just need to be more patient within the offense.
“So, I was okay with the types of shots we took. But I didn’t like where the shots were within the possession.”
Saugatuck continued to lead throughout the next two quarters, taking a 16-14 lead to halftime and the 24-19 lead to the final frame.
Martin opened the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run to knot the score at 24-24. A basket from Gustafson put Saugatuck back up 26-24 with 6:20 left to play before Liz Reinke connected on a triple to give the Clippers a 27-26 edge.
Following a free throw from Mylah Simpson to tie the score at 27-27, Martin went up for good on a bucket from Thorne.
“You have to credit Martin’s girls,” Tringali said. “They made more big plays than we did. They’re always so well-coached and disciplined. They value the basketball on every possession. There’s not a lot of unforced errors by them, and in a game like this, that’s huge.
“Martin’s game plan worked better than ours. The good thing for us is we get the chance to see them again, so we’ll make some adjustments and see what happens next time.”
Gustafson led Saugatuck with 13 points. Brook Simpson added six points, with Mylah going for five. All three of those girls came into the game averaging double figures.
“We were trying to make sure we didn’t help off of (Brook Simpson) and leave her open because we know how dangerous she is,” Schipper said. “Liz Reinke, who guarded (Simpson) all night long, applauded her teammates for having her back. She never had to worry about someone doing an extra rotation.
“The big thing was keeping Kennedy off the boards, because that’s how she scores a lot of her points is off offensive rebounds. And I feel like we really dominated the defensive rebounds and didn’t give them a lot of easy second-chance looks.”