HART — Montague has played some good competition early in the season, but the Wildcats haven't seen many teams like Hart, and that showed as the host Pirates raced to a huge early lead in a 79-23 Montague loss.
The Wildcats struggled to get into their offense against Hart's athletic and fast press defense early in the game and quickly fell behind 10-0. By the end of the first quarter, Montague trailed 26-3 and the Pirates' Rilynn Porter had hit four three-pointers.
"That's Hart," Montague coach Jess DeBruin said of the Pirates' aggressive defense. "It was just a matter
of how we were going to handle the pressure, and tonight we didn't.
"They knew
how to pressure us. We worked on it. We
just didn't bring it to the floor tonight. Ludington
pressured us and we handled it fine. We beat ourselves tonight."
Montague (1-7) did start showing more signs of life offensively in the second quarter, as Addi Smith converted a three-point play and Gentry Knop knocked down a three-pointer. However, Hart continued to have a lot of success offensively itself and the Wildcats couldn't cut into the deficit.
Montague's Marguerite O'Connell tries to power past Hart's Rilynn Porter during Monday's game at Hart. The Wildcats lost, 79-23.
DeBruin said she felt her team got some good looks that did not go down during the game, adding, "That's just basketball. You're going to have times where you do have good looks, and they're going to miss."
The Wildcats have worked to build confidence during the season, a tough thing to do with such a young roster and a difficult schedule. However, DeBruin said they're making progress, even if the scoreboard doesn't always show it.
"We're starting to
realize that we can shoot and we can get to the basket," DeBruin said. "It's just
a matter of trusting each other and trusting ourselves...It's just a matter of finding it and realizing that
we can hang with these teams and battle from the get-go."
Building depth is also a factor, though that's also difficult to do with a team that entered the season with only Knop boasting significant varsity experience. Montague did, though, get seven players into the scorebook Monday.
Knop and Smith led those seven, scoring five points each. Marguerite O'Connell added four points. For Hart, Porter scored 21 points and Reese Smith had 16.
