Lady Raiders Downed by Greyhounds

The Portland Lady Raiders hosted the Greyhounds of Eaton Rapids on Friday night as part of Portland’s Winterfest.

The Raiders started the game off strong and their up speed and aggressive defense allowed them jump out to an early 12-3 lead. The Greyhounds were able to close the gap to 16-11, but thanks to a couple of three-pointers by Senior Calley Goodman, Portland ended the first quarter with a 25-16 lead.

The second quarter started off slow for the Portland offense, while at the same time Greyhound’s 6-foot Senior, Isabell Austen, started to use her height advantage over shorter Raider defenders to establish an inside game for Eaton Rapids.

Eaton Rapids was able to tie the score at 33 with 2:13 left in the second, and after forcing a few errant passes by the Raiders, the Greyhounds took a 40-33 lead into halftime.

The third quarter was a defensive showdown. The Greyhounds were able to eke out 8 points, but held the Raiders to only 4 points. The third quarter came to and end with Eaton Rapids leading 48-37

In the fourth quarter, foul trouble started taking its toll on the Raiders, and the Greyhounds took advantage by shooting 8 of 14 from the free throw line. The Raiders were able to close the lead to 51-44 with 4:25 left, but that is as close as they would get. Eaton Rapids finished strong and came away with a 60-49 win.

Calley Goodman lead the Raiders scoring with 14 points. Freshman Ashley Bower added 12, while sophomore Ava Gruber and freshman Breckyn Werner each contributed 7.

For Eaton Rapids, seniors Isabell Austen and Ari Sysum each had 18 points.

After the game, Portland Head Coach Jason Haid said, “It is a tough match-up for us. They are a lot bigger than we are. With Grace (Sines) going down in practice yesterday, it made us even smaller than we normally are. They took advantage of it. Give credit to them, they did a better job of taking care of the ball this time around. Our foul trouble early really hurt us. I think we had 16 fouls in the first half, and they were shooting two free throws every time we fouled them. The game was called very tight early on, and I think we had four or five starters on the bench with two fouls for the majority of the first half. Ashley (Bower) got her second foul early in the first quarter, same with Ava (Gruber). It really kind of took the wind out of our sails. We had 25 points in that first quarter, and then just kind of got out of rhythm. We just were not able to recover there in the second half. We kind of gave them some confidence going into the second half, and they were the better team tonight. They established inside and they finished well and rebounded better than we did, so they deserved the win.”

The Lady Raiders move to 6-2 in the CAAC and 10-3 overall. They Greyhounds move to 5-4 in the CAAC and 8-8 overall.

The Lady Raiders play Olivet on Saturday, and then a make up game on Monday against Lansing Catholic.

Photo courtesy of AJ Guilford.