By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
Back in December, the Saugatuck girls basketball team fell to Lawton 51-47 to extend the Trailblazers’ losing skid to three straight.
And when it hosted Lawton on Friday, Feb. 4, Saugatuck was again in danger of losing three straight games after suffering defeats to Watervliet and Gobles.
But the Trailblazers didn’t let history repeat itself.
Using a balanced scoring attack that saw seven players break into the scoring column, Saugatuck prevailed by a score of 54-47 to improve to 8-5.
“I’m very proud of how the team bounced back tonight,” Saugatuck coach Kevin Tringali said. “We hit a low point (in the loss to Gobles) on Tuesday, so I give our kids all the credit in the world for staying positive and playing for each other as they did tonight.
“It was truly a great team effort against a very good solid team.”
Senior center McKenzie Pearson led the offensive effort for Saugatuck with a game-topping 15 points. Junior point guard Haley Rivera was close behind with 13 points, nine of which came on a trio of 3-pointers.
But it was the defensive effort of sophomore wing Jenn Schock that really caught Tringali’s attention.
Tasked with guarding Lawton’s leading scorer, Schock responded by limiting the Blue Devils’ point guard to two points.
“Jenn was stellar on defense,” Tringali said. “Their point guard scorched us for 16 points the last time, including four threes. But Jenn embraced the challenge of guarding her all night and was able to hold her to a single basket.”
In the game with Gobles, freshman forward Kennedy Gustafson scored 16 points to pace Saugatuck. That, however, wasn’t enough to prevent the Trailblazers from dropping the 49-44 decision on the road.
Early foul trouble plagued Saugatuck.
“We were in foul trouble all night long and that really put us in such a tough spot,” Tringali said. “But despite the fouls, I’m proud of how hard we fought to stay in the game.
“We have a few things we must fix. Now, it’s on me to figure out how.”
