HURON — A win is a win, no matter how you get it. Babies and puppies have to be cute, but you manufacture a win any way you can.
The Huron Tiger girls used an 8-0 run in the third quarter to establish a bit of separation and made just enough free throws down the stretch to hold off a pesky Sturgis Brown Scooper squad 53-46 Saturday afternoon at Huron Arena, to improve to 7-4 and push their current winning streak to three straight.
“We’ll take the win for sure,” said Huron coach Tim Buddenhagen, “especially when we shoot as poorly from the free throw line as we did today.”
Huron jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead on a bucket by Isabelle Ellwein, a pair of free throws from Hamtyn Heinz and a three-point play from Ellwein, only to see Sturgis rally back on threes from Tatum Ligtenberg and Lexi Long to take the lead. The teams traded points the rest of the quarter, until an Ellwein deuce gave Huron a 13-12 edge with just over 40 seconds to play. Sturgis missed a shot and got the rebound, shuffled it out for a three, which also missed badly, but the ball found Reese Ludwick underneath for a put back as the clock ran out, for a 14-13 Scooper lead.
Heinz hit two more free throws to open the second quarter to give the lead back to the Tigers and the home team maintained a slim advantage through the quarter, building the margin up to as much as five, only to see Sturgis rally.
A pair of free throws by Taylor Price cut the Huron lead to two, at 26-24 at the half.
A total of 18 free throws were taken in the first half, as the pace of the game was slowed - to the preference of the Scoopers. “We knew they were a physical team that liked to get after the ball,” Buddenhagen said. “On film they really hit the boards hard and they made it really tough for us to string together some points and build momentum.”
The Tiger momentum train hit a hiccup to open the second half, as senior Alexis Feenstra fouled Kaylee Whatley, and the Sturgis player converted the ‘and-one,’ while Feenstra headed to the sideline with her third personal foul. Huron got the lead back as Ellwein got open on the baseline for a jumper, then caught a perfect pass from Heavan Gainey on a runout for a lay-in. Seconds later, however, Gainey committed her third foul, relegating two of Buddenhagen’s starters to the bench with four minutes to play in the quarter, as his team held a slim 30-29 lead.
It was then that the Tiger defense stepped up. Reese Rozell got a baseline jumper to fall, then caused a turnover on the Tiger trap that led to a Bella Shreeve bucket at the 3:20 mark. Shreeve’s basket made it 34-29 in Huron’s favor and the lead held up through the end of the period, as the Tigers took a 38-32 cushion to the final period.
Gainey responded to getting back into the action in the fourth quarter by draining a three-point field goal on Huron’s first possession. Whatley responded with a deuce, but Feenstra got open on the block and converted and Heinz scored on a rebound basket on the next Tiger possession and the lead was suddenly up to 11.
Whatley scored again, but Gainey converted on consecutive trips for Huron, to counter a three from Price and the Tigers were up by 10 with four minutes to play. There was no way to know it then, but Gainey’s lay-in would be the final field goal for Huron, as Sturgis was relegated to sending the Tigers to the free throw line to get themselves back in the game.
It nearly worked for them.
Over the final two minutes and change, Huron hit four of 10 from the line, missing the opportunity to both slam the door shut on Sturgis and lock it. The Scoopers, on the other hand, were held in check by the Tiger defense and were unable to make a serious run of their own, as they made no field goals and only hit four of seven from the line over the same time period.
“Our energy is generated by our offense,” Buddenhagen said. “So when we hit some shots and string together some points, our whole team gets lifted. Outside of a couple of short spurts, we weren’t able to do that today. We weren’t surprised when we made a bit of a run there in the third period with Alexis and Heavan on the bench, because we switched to an active man-to-man press and we forced some turnovers and converted them into points.”
Heinz and Ellwein each scored 13 points in the game and Heinz was credited with seven rebounds as well. Gainey added nine points in the contest.
Whatley scored 13 points and had eight rebounds for Sturgis, which also got 12 rebounds from Ludwick, as the Scoopers fell to 2-10 on the season.
Ironically, in a game where, according to Buddenhagen the Tigers shot free throws more poorly than he has seen them do (Huron was 17-31 from the line) it was at the charity stripe that Huron won the game. Both teams had 16 field goals, and both had four three-pointers. While Huron hit only 55% of its free throws, Sturgis only shot 14 free throws in the game, making 10 of them and providing the seven-point difference.
Huron is back in action Tuesday, when the Watertown Arrows come to town. The Tigers will be seeking to avenge a two-point loss to the Arrows back in December in Watertown. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. at Huron Arena.
Sturgis 14 24 32 46
Huron 13 26 38 53
Sturgis (2-10): Taylor Price 2 3-4 9; Kaylee Whatley 6 1-2 13; Tatum Ligtenberg 1 2-2 5; Lexi Long 3 1-2 8; Addisyn Jolley 1 0-0 2; Reese Ludwick 3 3-4 9. Totals: 16 10-14 46.
Huron (7-4): Bella Shreeve 2 2-4 6; Hamtyn Heinz 2 8-10 13; Alexis Feenstra 1 1-5 3; Isabelle Ellwein 5 2-3 13; Heavan Gainey 4 0-1 9; Bryn Huber 0 3-4 3; Reese Rozell 2 0-2 5; Gracie Culver 0 1-2 1. Totals: 16 17-31 53.
FG: S - 16-44 36%; H - 16-46 35%. 3-pt FG: S - 4-17 24% (Price 2, Ligtenberg and Long); H - 4-23 17% (Heinz, Ellwein, Gainey and Rozell). Rebounds: S - 37 (Ludwick 12); H - 31 (Heinz 7, Shreeve 6), Turnovers: S - 15; H - 8. Fouls: S - 24 (Whatley, Sawyer Dennis out); H - 18.
