by Ben Murphy
Sports Writer
The Farwell girls basketball team didn’t have their best night defensively on Tuesday against visiting Pine River. Fortunately for the Eagles, they still had enough offense to win the non-league battle, 47-43.
“We gave up a season high 43 points, which was disappointing but I have to give credit to Pine River, we did not do the things that we typically do well,” head coach Mike Groulx said. “We were a step late in rotations, a step late to loose balls and did not communicate well.”
Of course, when you’re able to win a game, it can’t be all bad.
“A positive is that we did not have a great night shooting, but found other ways to put points on the board,” Groulx said. “Overall, we got better once again playing against a zone defense.”
Farwell used a well-balanced scoring attack to lead 16-14 after the first quarter, and Madison Travis broke free for 11 points in the second, as the Eagles led 23-22 at the half.
The Lady Bucks inched ahead 30-29 entering the fourth, but Travis buried eight more points in the fourth to help the Eagles storm back for the win.
Travis finished with 25 points and 16 rebounds to help lead the way.
“I have been really impressed with Madison this year,” Groulx said. “She is the player every team collapses on and routinely sees triple and quadruple teams every night at is still performing at a high level.”
Remi Sponseller added nine points, five steals and four assists, Raini Sponseller scored eight points and tracked down six rebounds, Macy Campbell added four points and three steals and Rachel Odykirk had one point and four rebounds.
“Remi has been our floor general night in and night out, she also was fantastic defensively off the ball covering up mistakes all night,” Groulx said. “Rachel hit a big free throw with about 10 seconds left to make it a two possession game. Extremely proud of her confidence in that moment.”
On Thursday, Jan. 20 the Eagles topped visiting Jack Pine Conference foe Gladwin 65-23, avenging a loss to the Lady Flying G’s earlier in the season.
“Dominant performance on both ends of the floor for us,” Groulx said. “We dropped a one point game earlier in the season at Gladwin so this was a big game for us. We were able to take control early with good offensive execution and defensive pressure. We led 34-10 at the break. We were able to open the third right where we left off and able to get a lot of kids in the game and some good minutes.”
Travis had a game-high 27 points and 16 rebounds, Raini Sponseller added 17 points and eight rebounds, Remi Sponseller chipped in with 10 points, six steals and five assists and Odykirk and Ivy Frisch added three points apiece. Campbell and Addyson Thormeier also scored two points apiece and Alaina Gaskill scored one.
Farwell (9-3 overall, 5-3 JPC) was at Clare on Thursday, hosts Pinconning on Tuesday and hosts Beaverton on Thursday.
