St. Ignace hands Lady Hurons second consecutive loss to powerful U.P. team

by Richard Lamb, Advance Editor

A tall and talented St. Ignace Saints (5-1) girls? basketball team stormed into town and came away with a 85-29 win over the Lady Hurons (4-2) last Friday. Coach Emily McLean found some positives in a game with a lopsided score. ?We shot the ball well, but our shots did not fall. They played well as a team and I am excited about that. Sooner or later those shots are going to fall for us and the score could be much different,? she said after the game.

ST. IGNACE WENT up 23-8 after the first quarter and led 48-17 at halftime. The lead swelled to 40 after the third quarter at 63-23. Rogers City had no answer for 5-foot-11-inch guard Nicole Elmblad who had 25 points. Greta Grambau had 10 points for Rogers City while Logan Schuiteman added eight points.

McLean unveiled a zone defense for the first time this season, but it had little effect on the Saints. St. Ignace prefers a fast-pace game, often taking shots before all the players have set up, offensively or defensively.

After a 4-0 start, the Lady Hurons los

t to Sault Ste. Marie and then St. Igance, the two toughest teams on the schedule. McLean said the girls knew these would be difficult opponents, and it is her job to make sure their confidence is not shaken by the losses. ?They have to keep positive. There is going to be many more wins in the season. This can?t keep us down. We have to just move forward and take the good things that we did in that game and take them to practice and take them to the next game,? McLean said. THAT NEXT game is not until a Jan. 5 contest at Hillman, followed by a trip to Newberry Jan. 8. The next home game is Jan. 12 with Alcona.

?I told them not to be down. I said I am still proud of the team, but we do have some things to work on in practice to get us back to where we were after those first four games,? McLean said. The junior varsity team came away with a 47-34 win over St. Ignace. Nikki LaLonde scored 18 points and Becky Talaske added seven in the win. Rogers City led 10-8 after the first quarter, 19-16 at halftime and 28-26 after three quarters.