While the results didn’t favor in the direction of the No. 14-ranked Cottage Grove Lions girls basketball team (9-6) on Friday, the future is bright for the program. Freshmen on varsity basketball squads are rare, but the Grove has two, and one of them is lighting up the scoresheet despite the 67-50 loss to the No. 4 Marist Catholic Spartans (10-3).
Madison Stuhlmiller, the freshman in question, was the star of the show for the Lions on Friday. She had 10 points, good for third-best on the team.
“The one freshman that starts, she’s got a great future,” Lions head coach Kim Beer said. “She’s getting all of this playing time, and she plays most of the minutes of every game. She has some spurts that are really excellent. The thing that freshmen usually go through, if they have a bad stretch, they have a tendency of getting down on themselves for a while. You have to straighten them out. Everybody makes mistakes.”
The Lions entered this game coming off a home 45-42 loss last Friday against the No. 7 North Bend Bulldogs that broke their two-game win streak.
The Spartans stepped in rolling as they took down the Bulldogs at home in a 40-33 duel for their third straight win.
The wheel of fortune was spinning early in this one as Marist punched first, but Cottage Grove slapped back to get up to the 11-point mark. The momentum went right back to the Spartans as they took advantage of some lackluster Lions turnovers and held the first-quarter lead at 18-13.
In the second, lackadaisical long passes from Cottage Grove led to more turnovers, and Marist took advantage by putting up 18 more in the frame. Spartan guard Ashley Powell was the leader of this charge with eight points, but assistance was present as guard Katelyn Shoemaker scored seven and guard Rayana Iverson notched six.
With credit towards the Marist defense, Cottage Grove struggled in the third to put together any consistent runs and buckets. Solid production came from freshman guard Madison Stuhlmiller, who got up to eight points, but the Spartans were able to make it a 55-41 game with a period to play.
Marist held strong in the fourth quarter and extended their lead out past the 20-point mark midway through, and ended up taking the game with a 67-50 final.
“We’re going to go to work on breaking the press a little better than what we did,” Beer said. “It cost us a lot of turnovers and a lot of points. Also, we’re going to work on getting Mariah open a little bit better. I don’t have a lot of complaints about the kids today because I think they gave it their all. As a coach, I’ve told them all along, as long as you guys work hard, you give me everything you got, then I’m not going to complain.”
Leading the way for the Cottage Grove offense was senior guard Makya Alsup, who scored 17 points.
Cottage Grove will stay home and look for a bounce back on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 7:15 p.m. against the No. 26 Marshfield Pirates.
“I think our confidence is better,” said Beer. “They work harder, and I feel like they’re fighting hard for something. That’s probably the biggest improvement we’ve made in 15 games. I think we play more as a team than we did to begin with. That causes some of the turnovers; once in a while, we overpass. I think that will get better.”
The Spartans will keep the campaign marching at home tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. against the Baker Bulldogs.