HART — Hart exploded out of the gates Monday night, taking control of its West Michigan Conference cross-division game against Montague right away and cruising to a 79-23 win.
Montague struggled to so much as get into its offense as Hart's press repeatedly harassed the Wildcats into turnovers. That in turn led to fireworks on the offensive end, especially from Rilynn Porter, who hit four three-pointers in the first quarter alone as the Pirates (5-2) raced to a 26-3 lead.
Porter kept firing up open shots in the second quarter, going for six treys and 19 points in all in the first half on her way to a game-high 21. She also sparked the offense with her passing, delivering seven assists in the win.
Porter said getting off to a quick start Monday was a point of emphasis after her team's frustrating overtime defeat to Ravenna the previous Friday.
"We took that really personally," Porter said. "We
shouldn't have lost that game. We had way too many turnovers and got outrebounded. We really wanted to get in the flow of the game,
and I think this game was a really good start to the flow for the rest
of our games. It's going to give us a lot of confidence."
The senior guard swished one of her treys from well beyond the arc, demonstrating her confidence. She said it's her teammates and coaches that make her feel empowered to fire from deep.
"Last year, I got a lot of confidence (from) my teammates," Porter said. "They
trusted me. This year, I feel like my teammates trust me too. Just
knowing that they trust me to make that shot gives me a lot of
confidence knowing that my teammates are there to rebound it, or just
give me an open pass."
While Porter dominated on the outside, Reese Smith got a lot of work done on the inside, scoring 14 first-half points and 16 in all. She was a force against the smaller Wildcat frontcourt.
Hart's Reese Smith has the ball knocked loose by Montague's Marguerite O'Connell during Monday's game at Hart. Smith scored 16 points in Hart's 79-23 win.
Coach Ron Williamson said he and his staff have been working with Porter and other Pirate veterans who have had to take on leadership roles on this year's team after previously being able to get their work done in the wake of graduated players like Addi Hovey.
"She's played for a couple years with Addi and the other seniors," Williamson said. "As a
coach, we're looking for those younger kids that were part of that to
accept the role of how they've got to lead it, and hopefully we're on (the way to) that happening."
The Pirates got all 11 of their players into the game as their lead increased throughout the second half, and nine of them scored. Aurora Virtanen scored 10 points in the second half and 14 overall.
Williamson said his team played very fundamentally strong defense throughout the game.
"We talk all the time about
where we want to have screens and to trap, and we've been doing that part, but we
haven't been rotating on the back end," Williamson said. "Today we did a better job of
rotating to cover up the open people.
"It was a good bounce-back game for us. The kids played well. Some of the
things we've been struggling with, we were able to do."
The Pirates' early stumbles - at least relative to their recent past - have been frustrating to deal with, but Porter is optimistic they will make the team better in the long run.
"That early loss against Shelby really is giving us a lot of fuel and
fire for the next game (against them), which is (next week) at home," Porter said. "Playing teams
that are tough in the beginning is eventually
going to help us, because we don't want to have our best games at the
beginning of the season. We want to have our best games at the end of
the season."
