By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com
MANISTEE — The Ludington Orioles picked up the pace after a tough loss to Mona Shores on Tuesday and cruised to a lopsided 54-20 win over Manistee on Thursday.
The win kept the Orioles perfect in the West Michigan Conference Lakes Division with a 3-0 mark, while they lifted their overall record to 5-4.
The Mariners, on the other hand, fell back to the break even point at 3-3 on the season, while it was their first loss in the conference and puts them behind the Orioles at 2-1.
Photo/Joe Washington
“Part of that (scoring struggles) is the opponent,” Orioles coach Warren Stowe said. “Manistee is a super skilled team, but we’ve been playing the Mona Shores and Ann Arbor Pioneers of the world. They had the skill, plus they are big and strong.
“Tonight against a great opponent like Manistee, we were able to find the bottom of the net, which was nice.”
While the Orioles didn’t kick their offense into gear early, their defense pestered the Mariners to a 15-3 first-quarter deficit.
Ludington kept on rolling after that, spreading the margin out to 35-12 by the halftime break and then led 50-19 after three.
“We look our best, in my opinion, when we have scoring like tonight when we have four girls score between eight and 12 points,” Stowe said.
“I do have a lot of girls who can score on any given night, and when they can play unselfish and share the ball like they did tonight, and allows the defense to turn into offense we can score some points.”
Photo/Joe Washington
Welch scored 13 points, Jennah Skiba and Eliana Jeruzal each added 10 and Jordyn Anderson finished with nine for the Orioles.
Jayna Edmondson led the Mariners with seven points and Libby McCarthy added six.
Ludington hosts Reed City in a non-conference matchup Monday night with the starting time moved up to 6 p.m. so everyone can get home in time to watch Michigan’s national championship game.
Manistee goes on the road to meet Montague in a conference contest next Tuesday.
