By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com

LUDINGTON — A quick burst at the start of the game appeared to indicate a budding blow out for the Ludington girls’ basketball team on Thursday night against Montague.

It didn’t happen, but the Orioles did earn a 39-31 victory over the Wildcats.

Jenna Skiba struck for the first bucket in the first 15 seconds of the first quarter, followed by Jordyn Anderson and Elianna Jeruzal rattled in a 3-point shot to finish it off. But things slowed down after that, and the Orioles struggled the rest of the first half and led by only two at the break. They enjoyed better success in the second half and captured the victory.

“The girls came out and executed the scouting report, and they handed it to them,” Montague coach Jess DeBruin said. “We’ve had a couple close games in the past couple games. We needed to take out some revenge, in a way, on someone and get some of that out. It just showed what we can do.”

Surviving the early explosion by the Orioles, the Wildcats ended the first quarter with a 9-7 lead and maintained it, 13-11 at the half.

Ludington found its offensive rhythm in the second half and started to establish its dominance. Jeruzal and Madelyn Kenyon finished the third quarter with five points apiece to lead an Oriole charge to a 14-8 advantage that pushed them ahead of the Wildcats, 25-21.

Kenyon went on a personal 5-0 run at the onset of the fourth quarter, and the Orioles eventually stretched the lead to 12 points, 37-25.

“They sped us up big time in the half court and we were loose with the ball and it was flying all over,” said Ludington coach Warren Stowe. “In the second half, I thought we did a much better job. Montague had a great game plan, and those girls played very hard. We knew we were going to get their very best, and they executed well.”

Jeruzal and Kenyon led the Orioles in scoring with 10 points apiece, Peyton Welch had nine.

Ludington missed 4-of-6 free throw attempts over the final 35 seconds which permitted the Wildcats to keep the game close to the end.

“This was the best game we have played all year,” said DeBruin. “They (the Wildcats) are fighters. They will play to the end no matter what, regardless if we are losing by a lot or a little.”

Braylyn Bultema scored nine points to lead the Wildcats, Adilynn Peterson added six and Amanda Cederquist four.

It was the Orioles third win in a row and lifted their record to 9-6 overall and 6-1 in the conference. Ludington travels to Whitehall on Tuesday for another conference matchup.

Montague is 3-10 overall and 3-5 in the conference. The Wildcats host Grant in a makeup game Monday.