Girls varsity basketball earns another win over Forest Hills Eastern 48-36

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Forest Hills Central cleared the bench with one minute remaining in the game in their matchup against Forest Hills Eastern, confident with their 15 point lead. With an unlikely random draw in the Cornerstone Holiday Tournament, FHC and FHE played each other for the second game in a row last night and the Rangers came out victorious once again with a final score of 48-36.

The Rangers led throughout the entirety of the game and were up by nine with four and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter when they started to slow down the previously fast-paced game in order to run out the clock. A tight FHE press was exploited continuously by the quick Rangers, as FHC led throughout the entire game.

With five varsity players injured, ineligible, or absent, many other players saw an unprecedented amount of playing time. Senior Sarah Obermeyer got the start as well as the first points of the game, unusual for the team member who describes herself as a vocal leader rather than a player. Sophomore Ally Ringler, who was pulled up to the varsity team from JV three games ago, also saw a lot more playing time last night and was key to the tight Ranger defense, as well as earning points on deep, contested jumpers.

“Ally is finding her shot and she is getting more confident, which I love,” said Head Coach Kristina Prins about the only sophomore on the roster who scored four points and had a steal last night.

Another spark for the Lady Rangers was freshman Brittney Probst, sister of senior Breanna Probst, who was pulled up for this game due to the absence of many players. The two sisters play nearly identical, both scrappy and aggressive on defense and both proving to be momentum changers in this game.

“It’s nice to have another Bre out there. They are like yin and yang; watching the sisters play was really cool,” said Prins about the duo who together had eight points, seven steals, and seven rebounds.

When in the game together, the sisters played the top two spots in the 2-3 zone the Rangers ran throughout the majority of the game. Breanna especially was all over the Hawks’ best shooters.

“They make almost every shot they take so I think that [playing tight defense and not letting them get open shots] really helped lower their numbers,” Breanna said.

The Lady Rangers move to a 2-3 overall record after defeating Eastern twice. Their next game will also be apart of the Cornerstone Holiday tournament and they will face Wayland at 4:30 on December 30th. Four-year senior point guard Madi Winter will return to play in this game, which will surely be a game-changer for FHC.

“[Having Madi back] will really make a difference,” said junior Claire Baguley, who scored 18 points in last night’s game to become the high scorer for the fifth game in a row. “She can see the floor better than anyone else on our team and she can make unbelievable passes. We really need someone to lead us as far as running the floor and getting other people open.”

With another win under their belts and confidence high, the Lady Rangers are excited to head into another battle against Wayland this Saturday.

“We don’t really know much about Wayland but we’ll have a few [players] back that we were missing today,” Claire said. “Hopefully we can continue our momentum and play some good defense and get the win.