In its final regular season game, the girls varsity basketball team secured a convincing 51-40 victory over rival Forest Hills Northern. Seniors Madi Winter and Emma Yoder played big last night, as they were the two leading scorers with 22 and 21 points, respectively.

While these two seniors led the charge, it was a team effort to defeat the Huskies on their home court and senior night.

“That was the best team win we’ve had to date,” Head Coach Kristina Prins said. “All of the girls played really well and it’s really exciting to get this win.”

In the first quarter, Emma was dominant as she scored 9 of FHC’s 10 points. The Rangers led by 3 at the end of the 8 minutes after starting out sloppily. FHC had 6 turnovers in the first half – most of them coming in the first quarter – but were able to stay in the game thanks to Emma’s aggressiveness against a very challenging Husky post player. FHC led by 3 again at the half.

“When I was getting frustrated my teammates just picked me up,” said Emma, who led the team in rebounds with 10. “The passes in tonight were great; I was able to get so many points because the passes set me up just perfectly.”

A breakout third quarter for the Rangers is what ultimately secured the victory. After being shut down in the first half, Madi came out of the locker room on fire as she scored the next 10 points for FHC, and 14 of the 20 points the Rangers scored in the third to lead 38-26 after three quarters.

“I just I had to turn it on,” said Madi, who had 4 steals, 3 assists, and 2 rebounds in addition to being the leading scorer. “I was kind of out of it in the first half and it was affecting the team. We all just gathered together in the locker room at halftime and talked it out and we all turned up the heat.”

The domination of Madi and Emma secured a big lead, and Prins was able to clear the bench and put a fresh five in with one minute left in the game. Northern also cleared its bench, and the score remained at 51-40 for the final score. In the second half, FHC made key adjustments and cut down on turnovers as well as played extremely cohesively on both sides of the ball.

The past few years, every time Central and Northern have played the game has been decided by less than 3 points. Tonight, FHC won convincingly.

“It’s fun to have the buzzer beater but to come back and just kill them in the second game is awesome,” Emma said. “We got both types of wins, so this is really fun.”

The Lady Rangers have gone undefeated against Forest Hills teams and have come out victorious in the Battle of the Hills this season. This final conference win puts FHC at 10-2 overall and in second place in the OK White. The Lady Rangers started off to a rocky start of this season, losing 3 straight games. They went on to only lose twice more all season.

Next game will be a district game at East Grand Rapids. Usual leading scorer and key component of this Ranger team junior Claire Baguley will be back in this upcoming game from an injury, undoubtedly an advantage for FHC.

“It’s an awesome feeling to win tonight, we really just wanted to get this last regular season win,” Emma said. “It was just huge being able to be out there playing with the people I love and playing the game I love.”