Senior Claire Baguley’s stellar defense against East Grand Rapids’ sophomore guard Jillian Brown wasn’t enough for the Lady Rangers to defeat their rival from the east last night. Ultimately, the Rangers lost to the Pioneers 61-44. Despite not winning the game, FHC showed astonishing defense in the first and fourth quarter.

FHC’s main focus was to stop the Brown sisters, Jillian and senior Olivia, and stop EGR senior shooting guard Mary Schumar. Jillian, who averaged 9 points last season, was held to only 4 points by Claire. Olivia Brown was more of a challenge for the Rangers. Sophomore Brittney Probst stopped Olivia from driving to the hole, but Olivia showed her shooting range and scored 16 points against Brittney. Freshman Theryn Hallock guarded Mary for the majority of the game and kept her from shooting beyond the arc.

The game started off with both teams playing lockdown defense. FHC and EGR had trouble running their offense and getting shots from inside. Claire, Jillian, and Olivia had trouble shooting and getting easy shots in the paint, where the three do most of their damage. By the end of the first quarter, FHC and EGR were tied up 10-10.

The second quarter was not good for the Rangers. They had sloppy passes that the Pioneers were able to steal right away. Due to FHC’s bad passes, the Pioneers were able to have many fast break opportunities and score some easy layups. Olivia took advantage of the Rangers’ bad quarter and scored the majority of her points in the second quarter. Although FHC had a rushed offense, Brittney was able to get some good shots and score 4 points. At halftime the score was 36-21, and the Lady Rangers found themselves down by 15 points.

The second quarter set the precedent for the rest of the game. In the third quarter, the Rangers were trying to get the game back within reach. The Rangers came out of the locker room with a lot more intensity than they had at the beginning of the game. Claire’s defense against Jillian helped the Lady Rangers get the lead down to 10 points. Freshman Remmie Ingraham was huge on the boards, getting both offensive and defensive rebounds. Remmie also was able to add 4 more points to the scoreboard. Theryn was also a huge contributor in cutting down East’s lead. She had 3 steals and multiple takes at the rim. She was ultimately able to earn 5 points in the third quarter. The score at the end of the third quarter was 46-32.

Theryn, Claire, and Remmie came out in the fourth quarter with the urge to defeat the rival Pioneers and wouldn’t go away easily. Unfortunately, the gap was too big for the Rangers to recover from. Theryn had airtight defense against Mary, and Claire still kept Jillian under control. Remmie once again was huge on the boards, but the Pioneers were still beating FHC down the floor. The final score of the game was 61-44.

This loss puts the Rangers’ record at 7-4 and 2-2 in the OK White conference. On Monday, the Lady Rangers will be playing at Lowell for a make-up game that was cancelled due to weather. The Red Arrows are in a bit of a rebuilding year, and their record is somewhat unimpressive so far this season; however, Lowell cannot be counted out in this one, as it is a very talented and scrappy group.