Women compete hard, still tumble

By Jayden Hewitt
Sports Editor

The LCC women’s basketball team lost a tightly contested battle to Lake Michigan College on Wednesday, Jan 25 by a 64-56 score.

Lake Michigan jumped out to an early 15-6 lead in the first quarter that forced LCC to claw back with a 19-6 second quarter. The Lady Stars then were outscored 43-31 in the second half.

Despite the loss, LCC Head Coach Layne Ingram said shot making, not defense, was the culprit in the loss.

“We have to put the ball in the basket; we got some kids that we depend on to score,” Ingram said. “We missed some layups, we missed some free throws, (we) missed some wide open jump shots.

“I’m pretty pleased with the overall execution; (I’m) pretty pleased with the overall defense,” Ingram added.

Guard/forward Alivia Densmore racked up 18 points and six rebounds to lead LCC, while forward Elysia Causley scored 15 points for the Stars in her return to the court.

Effort was not an issue in the loss, Ingram said. He sees improvement in the team’s response.

“The first quarter was rough, but we talked about it,” Ingram said. “One of the things you can talk about with this team is when you face adversity, you’ve got to figure it out and stay together, and so they’re getting better at that.

“I’m happy with their energy, I’m happy with their effort,” Ingram said. “We have to just turn the corner where we finish games.”

Ingram cited defensive adjustments as one thing that changed the game after the first quarter.

“I think we put a little more emphasis on our defense,” Ingram said. “The defense is going to get us going. We have to stop them. We let them get several open shots.”

“I think the zone was certainly a much better defense for us with what they were bringing,” Ingram said. “I think the good thing for us is in our conference we get to play everyone twice. We’ll try some stuff for the first half and then in the second half we’ll make adjustments and basically be only doing things that were working in this first half of games.”

The loss marks the eighth in a row for the Lady Stars, and brings them to 3-13 overall and 0-4 in conference after a 71-52 conference loss to Ancilla College on Jan 21.

The women’s team will be in search of a first conference win and a win to snap the losing streak at Southwestern Michigan on Saturday, Jan 28.