By Clayton Blauwkamp
The Hamilton Varsity Girls were defeated by the Holland Christian Maroons in a hard-fought game that ended in overtime with a final score of 52-59. The Hawkeyes record is now 6-6 (4-3 in conference).
The starters for the Hawkeyes were Kaitlyn Geurink (#3) Fr, Megan Williams (#10) Sr, Taylor VanderZwaag (#12) Jr, Raya Vanderzwaag (#21) Sr, and Kyra Kleinheksel (#23) Jr. The leading scorers for the Hawkeyes were Kaitlyn Geurink (#3) with 23 points and Taylor VanderZwaag (#12) with 12 points.
The Hawkeyes battled it out in the first quarter, playing hard, knocking down shots and running a
good defense. The Hawkeyes went back and forth in the 1st quarter but ended up with a lead at the end of the first quarter with a score of 12-10.
The Hawkeyes fell behind quickly but kept fighting and kept the game close. They played great defense towards the end of the 2nd quarter to keep the game close. The score at the end of the first half was 21-23, Maroons.
The third quarter was high scoring one for both teams. Kaitlyn Geurink (#3) had a very important 3rd quarter for the Hawkeyes and everyone contributed, leading to a total of 20 points scored in the quarter. The score was tied at the end of the 3rd quarter 41-41 with the Hawkeyes outscoring the Maroons 20-18.
The Hawkeyes were going back and forth with the Maroons in the 4th quarter. The Hawkeyes were down 48-51 with 1 minute left in the 4th quarter. Kaitlyn Geurink (#3) made a layup with 35 seconds left. Then Taylor VanderZwaag (#12) got a steal, giving the Hawkeyes the ball and a timeout with 28 second left. The Hawkeyes threw a back door pass to Taylor VanderZwaag (#12) and she got pushed by the Maroon's defender. The Hawkeyes were in the Double Bonus. Taylor VanderZwaag (#12) was at the line and hit the first free throw, but missed the 2nd. The Maroons called a timeout with 13 seconds left and the score was tied 51-51. The Maroons drew up a play and the Hawkeyes accidentally fouled with 2.5 seconds left. The Maroons had a 1 and 1. The Maroon shooter missed the first free throw. The Hawkeyes got the rebound and the game was headed into overtime.
In overtime the Hawkeyes struggled to score, slowly falling behind 51-55. They fought hard, but couldn't catch up, leading to a final score of 52-59, Maroons.
After the game, we interviewed Kaitlyn Geurink. We asked Kaitlyn a few questions.
"How did you think the team played together?"
Kaitlyn said, “We did pretty well overall but we could have done better.”
"What were things you had to overcome?"
Kaitlyn replied with, “Having a weak first half and half of our team coming back from being sick from earlier in the week”.