By Journal Sports Staff

ISHPEMING – Westwood improved by 41 points from its result against Kingsford last year, but fell one point short in a season-opening 59-58 loss to the Flivvers at home on Friday night.

Patriots junior guard Paige Rivard hit the final of her three 3-pointers with four seconds to go to cut the deficit to one point, but the Patriots couldn’t get anything more.

“We are a team of rookies,” WHS coach Kurt Corcoran said. “The only girl with any real varsity experience is (senior) Hannah Salmi, and we’re a team that still trying to figure out our identity.

“But considering we lost to Kingsford by 42 (points) last year, 60-18, that a great improvement.

“We had girls diving on the floor and putting in that kind of effort. Plus there are girls with a high basketball IQ.”

After grabbing a 13-8 lead after one quarter, Westwood held the lead through most of the next two quarters, including 29-23 at halftime and 46-41 after three quarters.

“We had a problem for about the first three minutes of the fourth quarter when their pressure got to us and we turned the ball over a couple times,” Corcoran said.

He also said that the Flivvers’ Mariana Bianco hit four 3-pointers in the second half, quickly brining Kingsford back.

Rivard finished with 14 points, while Salmi had 13 and Liz Farley added 12 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Another Patriot, Marissa Carello, had 10 points.

The Flivvers won the JV game, 57-47.

Gwinn 44, Gladstone 29

At Gwinn, the Modeltowners evened their record at 1-1 as 6-foot-1 Tori Lauren filled the stat sheet with 20 points, 20 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“We still struggled with defensive pressure, but when we get in our offense we’ve been doing really well,” Gwinn coach Ben Olsen said. “And our matchup defense – our first half was the best half of defensive basketball I’ve seen in my four years here.”

It helped the Modeltowners raced to a 19-7 halftime lead as Lauren dominated.

“Tori’s footwork is great and we were getting the ball to her as she was taking on double teams,” the coach said.

He was also pleased as his seven-player roster covered for sophomore Tierra Taylor, who struggled with foul trouble and only played about six minutes, scoring four points and pulling in seven rebounds.

Gladstone was led by Kaitlyn Hardwick with 10 points.

The Braves won the JV game, 40-33.

Marquette 45, Petoskey 22

At the Petoskey Invitational, Amber Huebner fired in 20 points to power the Redettes.

Terese Ledy added 11 points and seven rebounds in Marquette’s opening game of the season.

“There are always nerves to start Game 1, especially with only two returners,” MSHS head coach Ben Smith said. “But we battled through it and will look to improve on some things when we face St. ignace (today) in the finals.”

The Redettes opened a 17-6 lead in the first quarter and led at the half 23-14. The Redettes then outscored Petoskey 14-2 in the third quarter to put the game away.

Marquette won the JV contest 67-8.

Newberry 59, Engadine 35

At Newberry, junior Taylor Bryant rolled up 23 points, 12 rebounds, seven steals and three assists as the host Indians rolled to a 32-10 halftime lead.

“We did well considering that one of our better players, Bridget Stoetzer, was sick and she only scored one point,” Newberry coach Fred Bryant said. “We had some girls I expected to step up do quite well, especially Monika Tomica. She didn’t have a lot of rebounds, but she gave us some deflections that kept the ball in play.”

The Eagles cut its deficit to eight points in the third quarter before Newberry built its lead back.

The Indians’ Natalie Beaulieu and Megan Grigg added 10 points each while Kelsey Huffman had nine, as did Engadine’s Aspen Hood.

Newberry won the JV game 46-24.

Superior Central 38,

Big Bay de Noc 26

At Cooks, Sydney Emard tossed in 12 points to pace the Cougars’ girls basketball team in their opening Skyline Central Conference game of the season.

Emma Rondeau added nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds as SC improved to 2-0 overall.

“We were a little shaky, but we pressed (the Black Bears) and got them to throw the ball away a few times,” SC head coach Greg Trowbridge said. “That got us into a better pace. of play.

“We struggled getting the ball into the hoop, though. And they often limited us to one shot.”

Madison McPhee led the Black Bears (0-2, 0-1) with eight points.

Chassell 53, Rep.-Mich. 19

At Chassell, sophomore Shawna DuMoulin scored nine points for the visiting 0-2 Hawks as the Panthers built a 35-9 halftime lead.

Lela Rautiola and Milly Hoskins led all scorers with 12 points each.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee and Senior Sports Writer Craig Remsburg. Email them at sports@miningjournal.net.