By John Jarvi
Local Sports Journal

MUSKEGON – The Spring Lake girls basketball team is still perfect nine games into the season.

The Lakers used a strong first half to capture an easy 65-33 victory over Orchard View Friday in Lakes 8 Conference action.

Spring Lake is now 9-0 overall and 4-0 in the conference.

After taking a 16-10 lead following one quarter, the Lakers pulled away to leads of 31-16 at halftime and 43-23 after three quarters.

Spring Lake scored nine straight points in the second quarter, seven in a row early in the third quarter and another nine points in a row in the fourth quarter.

“The score didn’t show how close the two teams are matched up,” Spring Lake Coach Rich Hyde said. “You’ve got to limit Orchard View’s second shots, and we did.”

The Lakers forced 17 turnovers on defense, thanks to eight steals, and also had a good rebounding game.

“It was pretty physical inside in the first half,” Hyde said. “Randi Rice played well for us. She had 12 rebounds and Kelsee Zuidema had 18 rebounds.”

Spring Lake showed some scoring balance with Zuidema getting 19 points, guard Reiko Johnson adding 16 and Nora Adkins coming off the bench to chip in 11. Johnson also had five assists.

A’mari Brown had 11 points for Orchard View and Jayshonna Blackshire scored 10. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 5-6 for the season and 2-3 in the league.