Mason Eastern falls to Manistee Catholic in Thursday hoops action

CUSTER — When senior starter Janessa Alvesteffer went down with a leg injury, you could have figured the Mason County Eastern girls were in trouble.

Alvesteffer, a major inside presence for the Cardinals, was injured in the first quarter and eventually had to leave the game.

Teammate Olivia Wing didn’t even suit up. She was sitting on the bench in street clothes with an injury. And Lucy Shoup is in Europe and a foreign exchange student.

Down those three players was bad enough, but the Cardinals were facing a surging Manistee Catholic squad that is still in the hunt for a West Michigan D League championship. In the end, the Sabres, winners of eight straight notched a 55-19 victory.

Alvesteffer tried to play through the injury, but after making a trip up and down the floor was taken out of the game by Coach Jake Smith.

“We’ll probably have only one or two of our original starters on Monday,” Smith said. “It’s a struggle, but we’re trying to get to the end of the season with good morale and have the younger players learn from some difficult experiences. It’s just a matter of battling through and getting that experience.”

The Cardinals trailed 16-5 at the end of the first quarter and then were outscored 7-3 in the second and trailed 23-8 at the half. Catholic led 44-13 after three.

Maria Gomez-Jimenez led the Cardinals with five points. Alvesteffer had three before her injury.

Eastern has three games left in the regular season. The Cardinals (8-11, 7-9 WMD) travel to Marion for a WMD contest on Monday.