Injuries add to women's hoop woes

By Jayden Hewitt
Sports Editor

The Lady Stars basketball team was beaten handily on Wednesday, Jan. 11 in the first game back after winter break, 67-40 to Grand Rapids Community College.

The loss marks the fourth in a row for the struggling Stars.

This game also marked LCC’s first game back in the home gym in the Gannon Building on LCC’s campus for the Lady Stars. The gym had been closed during fall semester for renovations.

Head Coach Layne Ingram said he believes it was a multitude of reasons that led to the loss at the hands of GRCC.

“Grand Rapids, they shot the ball really well, we did not, that makes it tough,” Ingram said. “We also didn’t rebound well. We didn’t play that great of defense.”

The Lady Stars were noticeably out-rebounded by a large margin, 51-30, and only managed to shoot 26.3 percent from the field.

Leading the way in scoring for LCC was guard/forward Alivia Densmore with 13 points. Guard

Riley Merryfield added eight points. Guard/forward Shalyn Dziewiatkowski grabbed seven rebounds for LCC.

The Lady Stars were without a key player in forward Elysia Causley. They also had a top scorer in guard Riley Merryfield go down with an injury during Wednesday’s game.

Ingram spoke about the injury situation with conference play ahead.

“With Ely (Elysia Causley) being hurt, that’s extremely difficult; she’s one of our best players,” Ingram said. “She’s an honorable mention all-conference player from last year.

“That’s a huge loss, and losing a couple of other kids is hard just when you get to thinking about fatigue, and you think about showing teams different options,” Ingram said. “We have enough though … We’ve got eight kids. Ely will be back; Riley will be back on the floor.”

The loss brings LCC to 3-9 on the year with conference play starting on Saturday, Jan. 14 at Glen Oaks Community College.

Ingram spoke to the positives coming into conference play, mentioning mistakes as learning opportunities.

“The non-conference is about seeing where you’re at and seeing what you can do,” Ingram said.

“For us, every game we take something positive from it. We have to get better at boxing out. We have to be a better defensive team. We have to do a better job of decision making.

“For us, all of our non-conference games have shown us the opportunities that we’ve missed, and shown us the things we need to dig a little bit deeper to go after.”

For schedule information go to http://www.lcc.edu/athletics.