It was just a night the Lady Rangers will want to forget as the girls varsity basketball team lost to the Byron Center Bulldogs by a score of 62-48. The Rangers were led by junior Theryn Hallock who had 20 points and a number of steals and assists, but it wasn’t enough as in the end, the girls would suffer their second loss of the season.

“It was a really good team effort, and we had a great amount of energy throughout the whole game,” Theryn said, “The bench was super loud and supportive, and it motivated all of us that played an extreme amount of time.”

After a tough home win against a good Greenville team, the Rangers were looking to ride a lot of momentum going into their matchup with the Bulldogs on Tuesday night. The game started out on a good note for the Rangers as Theryn dropped in an easy layup on the first possession of the game. After this though, the scoring would stall for a good amount of time as the game only saw the Bulldogs come up with an easy layup after two minutes of play. As the Lady Rangers took a timeout about halfway through the first quarter, they knew that some things on the offensive side of the ball needed to change.

Coming out of the timeout, Theryn came out with a chip on her shoulder as she got a great layup to go in; along with a contested three-pointer and another layup, she led a 7-2 run to put FHC up by five going into the second quarter by a score of 11-5.

It was a neck and neck ball game to start off the second quarter as it saw Byron Center come out of the huddle with an eerie look in their eyes. The Bulldogs went on a 6-0 run in the first minute and a half of the second quarter as the Rangers took a timeout with four minutes to go. After the timeout, there was much of the same from the Lady Rangers with seniors Ava Metaj and Brittney Probst getting great looks from the mid-range and the rim, but the Bulldogs could just not be stopped. They were scoring on what seemed to be every possession, and whether it was a layup or a three-pointer, the Bulldogs could not miss. As halftime rolled around, the Lady Rangers found themselves in a hole down 30-19.

As the advent of the third quarter came around, it seemed like the Bulldogs continue their run. Byron Center would pull away by 18 at one point, but never count out this FHC team. In the late part of the third quarter, the Rangers started to hit their stride. To start, Ava made a  free throw that would lead to a layup and a three-pointer from senior Zoe Lipke, and another good look at the rim from Brittney. After a lot of scoring, the Lady Rangers found themselves down by eight to end the third quarter with a score of 43-35.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the scoring seemed to be pretty even on both sides of the court with the Lady Rangers only being down by at most 11 points halfway through the fourth. That didn’t hold true however as the Bulldogs would hit their stride yet again with some good looks at the rim and some great defense that shut down a lot of FHC’s production. As the clock wound down to triple zeroes, the Rangers would suffer their second loss of the season at the hands of the Byron Center Bulldogs by a score of 62-48.

“It was a tough loss but at the end of the day, it was one of our best defensive games,” Theryn said, “we communicated and talked a lot, and I was super happy with the way the team played.”

The Lady Rangers have now fallen to 3-2 and will go on to face one of the toughest teams in West Michigan in the East Grand Rapids Pioneers this Thursday, February 25th at 7 PM at EGR, and right after that will go on to face Lowell this Saturday.