Throughout the game against Jenison last on Tuesday, Dec. 19, both teams were evenly matched, but in the fourth period, back-to-back fouls on FHC led to Jenison coming out with a close win, 49-42. 

Coming into this game, rather than having one main focus, Head coach Karen Karatkiewicz’s plan was to let the girls play. However, it is not only to play but to play with discipline. 

“Our game plan today was to just let them play basketball,” Karatkiewicz said. “We want them to have fun and be fluid within and not have to necessarily be overcorrecting everything and come up with a complicated strategy but to just to have the discipline to do the little things right 100% of the time.”

Senior captain Maggie Kelderman said that the team also prioritized the plan to focus on fundamentals, especially in defense, while also looking at what she individually could add to the court.

 “Our main plan coming into this game was just to focus on the fundamentals, especially our defense,” Kelderman said. “Good defense makes good offense, so we really were focusing on that. My main focus, individually, was to do a better job facilitating on the court with my passes.”

To start off the first period, senior captain Maggie Snieder took advantage of her height to win the jump ball and gave the Rangers the possession. Jenison followed that with great defense to get the ball back. This was a common occurrence throughout the first period, with it being a back-and-forth game.

Jenison broke this cycle by putting the first points on the board. However, with 4:21 left in the first period, Jenison took its first foul, allowing junior Jordan Knoing to take two free throw shots. Making both, she tied up the game for the Rangers, 2-2. The points didn’t stop here, and by the end of the first period, FHC was in the lead 11-7. 

Koning was the Rangers key scorer early in the game. Karatkiewicz noticed how much she did on the court, however, not just with how she performed but also with the pressure that was placed on taking care of the basketball. 

“We give her a lot of responsibility with taking care of the basketball like the majority of the game, so we know we put a ton of pressure on her,” Karatkiewicz said. “She comes up big; she just plays; she’s a workhorse. She doesn’t let things really affect her too much. And she came up really big today. Both taking care of the ball and scoring it.”

The second period, again, was a back-and-forth battle of the defenses and offenses. One issue, though, that was beginning to develop throughout this period was fouls. Due to these fouls, it was giving Jenison an upper hand on gaining possession of the ball. With that, the girls had to make adjustments on the court. 

One adjustment, in particular, on the court that Karatkiewicz took priority in was communication, especially on defense. 

“We had to make some adjustments, but mainly, it was just making sure that we were on the same page and communicating on defense,” Karatkiewicz said. “We had some confusion on who was guarding who; we had some girls open, and there was a little bit of that kind of mix-up.”

Another aspect that the team needed to adjust to that Kelderman noted was how they needed to get back on defense fast and not let Jenison get that advantage of having an open court to play offense with. 

“We really needed to get back on defense,” Kelderman said. “They were running the floor really well, so getting back to the paint was what we mainly focused on.”

However, even with these adjustments that needed to be made and an understanding of how Jension played, the Rangers came out of the second period in the lead 20-17. 

Now, with the first two periods behind them and two more to go, there was still much playing to go. During this period, the Rangers took great aggression over offense. At one point, FHC was in the lead by ten points. Jenison didn’t let this discourage them by following that up with taking three in transition to get them back into the game. 

The Rangers felt this tremendously. Kelderman knows how this can impact a team, and specifically for her team, they began to hang their heads. With that comes a focus that she knows they need to work on, which would better help their playing, whether or not they are ahead or down points. 

“We need to be better about not hanging our heads,” Kelderman said. “So we need to be better at keeping our energy up throughout the game and have that next play mentality where if you make a mistake, it doesn’t matter. We need to finish the games.”

Even with Jenison being able to come back a bit after the ten-point difference, FHC extended its lead 37-31 by the end of the third quarter. 

With one period to go and the game still being relatively close, it was still either team’s game. Jenison took that mindset with flying colors and drew multiple fouls on FHC, allowing them to even up and eventually take the lead. This fast comeback put the Rangers in a place where they weren’t able to come back and take the win, ending the game with Jenison winning 49-42. 

Although this was a tough loss for the Rangers, with the Holiday break coming up, Coach K is ready to regroup and focus on the disconnects that the team has been experiencing in the last five games.

“Our next focus is regrouping,” Karatkiewicz said. “Work on some of the things that we’ve seen or not seen from the first five games that we’ve played. A few with execution on offense and just getting comfortable shooting the ball and being confident attacking the basket. Just kind of getting that groove.”