By Ron Rop
Local Sports Journal 

The Western Michigan Christian Warriors’ girls basketball team turned up the intensity at both ends of the floor in the second half of Friday night’s River Valley Conference game against visiting Hudsonville Freedom Christian.

Trailing 19-15 at the half, the Warriors reeled off 27 points on the offensive end and limited the Falcons to just one free throw and posted a 42-20 victory.

WMC remains undefeated in the conference at 6-0 with two games remaining. Overall, Coach Mike Henry’s team is 13-5.

“We did a good job of pressuring in the second half,” Henry said. “We tried to force them out toward the 10-second line more and make them run their offense further out.”

In the first half, the Falcons built a 9-4 lead after one quarter and led by five at the half. Rachel Slottke scored eight of her nine points in the opening half for the Falcons.

Along came the second half and the Warriors’ surge began. However, it wasn’t until the final two minutes of the third quarter that Lindsey Johnson hit a short jumper then added a free throw to give the Warriors a 22-20 lead.

While the Warriors limited the Falcons to just one point in the third quarter, they themselves only scored seven.

The fourth quarter was a entirely different story as the Warriors had a 20-0 scoring advantage. The Falcons made 1-of-8 from the free-throw line in the second half.

“We concentrated well on defense and then I felt the defense led to a lot of our offense in the second half,” Henry said.

Senior post player Vanessa Eekhoff led the Warriors with 15 points and nine rebounds. Fellow senior Rachel Bruinsma added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Johnson finished with five points and three assists.

Western Michigan Christian 42, Freedom Christian 20

FREEDOM CHRISTIAN
Alison Westra 1 0-0 2, Emily Koetsier 1 0-3 2, Emily Gatlin 1 0-0 2, Alexia Pronk 1 3-5 5, Kelli Hoffman 0 0-0  0, Rachel Slottke 3 3-8 9. Totals 7 6-17 20.

WESTERN MICHIGAN CHRISTIAN
Olivia Varnado 1 0-0 2, Julie Merz 1 0-0 2, Sarah Hughes 1 0-0 2, Anneliese DeKam 0 0-1 0, Jessica Knoll 0 2-2 2, Cassidy Kraker 1 0-0 2, Rachel Bruinsma 3 6-7 12, Lindsey Johnson 2 1-4 5, Vanessa Eekhoff 7 1-5 15. Totals 16 10-20 42.

Freedom 9 – 10 – 1 – 0 — 20
WMC 4 – 11 – 7 – 20 — 42
3-pointers: none. Fouled out: Hoffman. Total fouls: Freedom 19, WMC 15. Technicals: none. JV: WMC 58, Muskegon Heights Academy 12.