Standout sophomore Chloe Grooters played strong early and led the Rangers on the offensive attack. Sophomore Kaitlyn Pointkowsky also played a big time factor into the JV girls basketball 60-33 win on Thursday night. Key plays and tweaks to the defense led the Rangers to a solid start and even better finish.

Chloe is a strong, quick point guard for this team. Early in the game, the girls were being hacked under the basket, drawing many fouls which led to many free-throws.

“We had several free-throw opportunities,” Chloe said. “We probably should’ve made more than we did, but they still helped us in the end.”

In the second quarter, the Rangers went into the bonus creating multiple scoring opportunities. This helped FHC jump out to a comfortable 34-13 lead heading into the half. Play on the offensive boards played a big factor into the game.

“Having a lot of offensive rebounds got us flowing more,” Chloe said. “We don’t usually get that many, but this game we stepped it up.”

The Rangers racked up a couple threes which kept them ahead through both halves. On the defensive end, head coach Kevin Brechting had the girls playing a full court press. This was put to effect early on in the game.

“The first time we played them, we only did one press against them,” Brechting said. “They got really good at it, so we threw that second one in.”

Brechting agreed with the fact that more free-throws should have been made. The team focuses on a great deal of free-throws during practice.

“We always stress our offense and defense,” Brechting said. “It controls the tempo and everything else. The aggressiveness really helped us there.”

Sophomore Kaitlyn Piontkowsky put several points on the board for FHC.

“Most of our points tonight came off of offensive rebounds,” said Kaitlyn, who had 19 points and 13 rebounds in the game. “The free-throws could’ve been better, but the ones that went in helped us for sure.”

In the second half, the Rangers pushed more on the offensive end. Playing a zone full court press and catching Cedar Springs off guard made a huge difference towards the outcome of the game.

Kaitlyn drove the ball to the paint and drew many fouls throughout the night. The end score definitely reflected the work ethic and compassion the girls had. Breaking down the season, they have all learned how to perform together and work towards the results they want.

“As a team, we used to not full court press and we scored a lot less,” Kaitlyn said. “Once we started to press, we slowly saw the score rise throughout each game.”