It was a mixed effort from all of the Lady Rangers on Friday night, but the girls varsity basketball team snuck out a win against a sneaky Greenville team 46-38. The Lady Rangers were led by junior Theryn Hallock, who scored 15 points and added 3 steals and a number of flashy assists. Adding onto Theryn’s performance was senior Zoe Lipke as she contributed 10 points and a solid number of assists and great defensive possessions to lead the Rangers en route to their third win of this young season.

“Our goal was to bring a lot of energy and pressure them into making turnovers,” Zoe said, “we wanted to do this because we are really good when it comes to fastbreak points.”

As the Lady Rangers came out for the opening pass, their goals for the beginning of the game seemed to be favored a lot on the defensive side of the ball to get better looks in transition. It came that way as they were getting great defensive possessions with steals from Theryn and senior Ava Metaj and a block from senior Brittney Probst. This set up great looks at the other end with Theryn hitting a three and getting a mid-range shot to fall through along with Zoe adding a layup. After the snap of a finger, the Lady Rangers were up 10-0 with Greenville having to take a timeout to halt the run.

Even if Greenville was down, they still were ready to bounce back. The Yellow Jackets kept pressuring the Rangers into making a lot of turnovers and, just as the Rangers did, Greenville went on a run of their own. After a couple of three-point shots that went in, Greenville was only down by four with just a little bit of time left in the first quarter. As the Lady Rangers came out of a timeout after Greenville’s 6-0 run, Theryn stepped up big with a great mid-range shot that made it through the hoop, and the Rangers were up by six going into the second quarter.

“We called our timeout and knew we had got beaten a little bit there,” Theryn said, “But we told ourselves that we knew we had to get back to our game and hustle like we do.”

As the second quarter started, the Lady Rangers looked better and better as time went by. They were getting great looks on the offensive end of the floor with Theryn giving great passes to Ava and freshman Ashtyn Scarlato for great open looks at the rim. As the second quarter winded down, the Lady Rangers lead seemed to get bigger and bigger. With Zoe and Theryn both hitting a three-pointer to end the half, the Rangers lead grew to 12 points going into halftime.

“I think we moved the ball quickly and hit our shots in the second quarter very well,” Ava said. “That gave us a good lead going into halftime.”

After coming out of the locker room from halftime, the Lady Rangers would get the ball first to start the second half and would be very consistent throughout the third quarter. With Brittney and Ava scoring most of their points in the third quarter, the Lady Rangers looked to their defensive game for momentum and their offense for more quality control.

“We were trying to slow things down a little and look for more favorable shots,” Zoe said. “We were getting too many threes shot after the first pass on a lot of offensive possessions. We just had to keep ourselves in check and stay under control.”

As the third quarter would go on though, the Lady Rangers would look to the bench for some good minutes to save the starters some time for a big fourth-quarter run. With Ashtyn and sophomore Delaney Smith getting a lot of time on the floor in the second half, their confidence built up throughout the game as they would produce more and more great looks and points for the Rangers. As the third quarter came to a close, the Lady Rangers still found themselves in the lead 39-26.

“We have so much energy off the bench it’s amazing,” Zoe added. “They all help out in their own ways and add to the game. It’s so helpful to know that we have such a deep team.”

As the fourth quarter came upon the FHC gymnasium, the Lady Rangers found themselves in some foul trouble. The Yellow Jackets were already in the bonus and were looking to draw a lot of contact to draw more fouls from the Rangers. Greenville did get just that but couldn’t capitalize on a lot of their opportunities. After a missed free throw, Theryn came up the court with about five minutes left in the game and hit a greatly contested three-pointer that would give FHC a lot of momentum for the rest of the game. Even if the Rangers were succeeding, they still made a lot of mistakes. After a foul, Greenville was on the charity stripe down by 11. They had one and one free throw shots, and they missed the first one. The Rangers didn’t know this though as Greenville immediately pounced on the ball for an open layup that cut the deficit to nine with just over a minute to go in the game. It wouldn’t make any difference and after a great look by Delaney at the rim, the Lady Rangers ran away with the game and ended up with another one in the win column by a score of 46-38.

“We got the win, but there is just a lot to improve on in a variety of ways,” Theryn said.

The Lady Rangers are now 3-1 on the season and will go on to face Byron Center this Tuesday, February 23rd at 7 PM at FHC and then will quickly turn around to play a great East Grand Rapids team next Thursday at EGR.