Hurons offense goes cold in loss to Soo

The Huron basketball team took one on the chin Tuesday, as the powerful Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils took a 43-28 win in Rogers City. After a Sault three-pointer made the score 23-12 with 5:37 left, a late second-quarter surge brought the Hurons (7-2) close at the half. While the defense shut out the visitors for the remainder of the quarter, the Hurons rallied. Senior guard Jess Konieczny hit a jump shot from the right baseline with 5:18. Then Sara Dove fed Megan Hanson for a short jumper with 2:32 left. As the second quarter buzzer sounded Hanson’s three-point shot fell through the rim to make the score 23-19 at halftime.

THEN THE Blue Devil defense clamped down. With the visitors playing a tight zone, collapsing around Huron leading scorer Ashley Fleming, the Hurons had trouble. Fleming’s two free throws made the score 23-21 in the opening minute of the third quarter, then the Hurons went ice cold. Dana Fairbanks’ put-back with 48 seconds left in the quarter were all the points scored as the Soo went out to a 31-23 lead.

The fourth quarter proved no better as the Blue Devils held the Hurons scoreless until Dove’s 15-foot jumper with 1:18 left in the game. “I thought we were fine to start out the second half, we were down by two. Then we sat on 23 (points) forever. I though we played well and that defensively we did a good job, especially coming from 11 points down,” said Huron coach Karl Grambau. Hanson tacked on another buzzer three-pointer for the final score of the game.

HANSON’S EIGHT points led the Hurons while Fleming scored seven and Dove scored four. Dani Fergan had 14 of her game-high 23 points in the first quarter. “We will have to regroup. We learned some things tonight. We will come back. We are a pretty resilient group,” Grambau said. The coach said the te

am needs to get healthy and work on a way to beat a 2-3 zone. Tiffiny Krueger, who suffered a sprained ankle in the St. Ignace game, is still out and Fleming played with an upper leg injury, which was heavily wrapped.

“This is game number nine and we are 7-2. We are having a great year and we have got to learn from this and move on because we have a tough one in Cheboygan Tuesday,” Grambau said.

LAST THURSDAY, the Hurons took a 47-38 game in Rudyard. The Hurons started slowly, trailing 14-9 at the end of the first quarter and 27-25 at halftime. Fleming scored 27 points while Hanson added five.

THE JV team lost to the Soo and defeated Rudyard this week. Against Rudyard, coach Amanda Munger’s team took a 51-42 win. Jenny Fleming’s 23 points paced the attack. A big first quarter for the Soo proved too tough to overcome, as the RC squad suffered a 57-37 loss. The Blue Devils led 25-11 after the first quarter and 37-18 at halftime. Fleming scored 10 points while Chelsiea Brege added eight.