Cedar Springs varsity girls basketball picked up two more wins last week. In the photo above, Shaelyn Fasel dribbles the ball for the Red Hawks.

The Red Hawks were twice victorious last week picking up wins on Tuesday night over Coopersville 36–21, and on Friday beating the tough Forest Hills Northern squad on the road by a 41–30 margin.  The wins put the ladies into sole possession of first place in the OK Blue conference, with a record of 8-1 (13-3 overall as of Monday).

The Coopersville game saw the Red Hawks play some more of their outstanding defense allowing the Broncos to score no more than 7 points in any quarter. On the offensive side, the team was short handed, as starting point guard Molly Holtrop was unable to play due to an ankle injury.

Cedar scored first and never trailed at any point in the game.

Tiffany Karger led the way with 19 points to continue her high scoring ways.  Rachael Ludtke followed her with 11 and Brittany Todd, Chaya Coxon, and Hannah Wight each delivered 2 point.

On Friday night, the ladies headed to Grand Rapids to face the Huskies of FHN for the second time this season. CS had won the first match up at home in a tight one 44-41, with the Red Hawks needing to hold on in the fourth quarter for the win. This game was no different than the first, with each team trading baskets and trading the lead 6 times in the first few minutes.

Early in the second quarter with FHN leading 9–8, Cedar was able to get the ball inside and Rachael Ludtke scored three consecutive buckets on excellent feeds from her teammates, forcing Northern to call time out and adjust their defense.  After that the Red Hawks were in control.

As the game wound down, Northern was forced to press and when they were unable to steal the ball, as they tried to trade fouls for possessions. The tactic failed, as Cedar hit their free throws down the stretch to put the game away.

Tiffany Karger scored 17 points to lead the ladies and went 9 of 10 on her free throw attempts, many of them coming in the fourth quarter. Rachael Ludtke pitched in with 10 points, Chaya Coxon had 5, Molly Holtrop had 4 with 3 assists, Brittany Todd 3 with a giant defensive rebound near the end, and Hannah Wight scored 2 but came away with 5 offensive rebounds.

The Red Hawks played again Tuesday the 14^th at home, in a non conference battle with Holland West Ottawa, and will return to league action Friday with a home game against Comstock Park.

#22 Allie Veltkamp driving hard to the basket

#33 Tiffany Karger driving hard in for a layup

Cedar Springs girls’ varsity traveled to Coopersville Tuesday night to play the Broncos. Cedar pulled out the victory win 35 to 33.

The Red Hawks got off to a quick start taking an early lead 13 to 7 at the end of the first quarter. The Broncos stepped up their defensive pressure in the second quarter holding Cedar to only eight points and hitting a buzzer beater at the end of the half to trail 21 to 13.

The third quarter saw some outstanding shooting for the Broncos as they connected on two three pointers and went on a 7 to 1 point run to put themselves right back into the game. Coopersville out scored the Red Hawks 13 to 6 in the period leaving Cedar with only a one point advantage to begin the final stanza.

#34 Rachael Ludtke laying up between two opponents

The contest remained close for the entire fourth quarter, with Cedar Springs maintaining a slim 3 to 5 point margin for most of time. Coopersville continued their hot outside shooting finishing the game at 55 percent from three but Cedar managed some timely defensive stops to hold off the Broncos.

Coach Scott Taylor was pleased with the win, and noted that he knew that Coopersville was a good shooting team from scouting them earlier  this month. “We did contest their shots well but we need to work on the rebounding. At the end of the game we knew that they had fouls to give and would be coming after the ball hard and we take better care of the ball,” he said.

Tiffany Karger led the Red Hawks with 16 points and 8 rebounds. She got help from Rachael Ludtke, who finished with 11 points, Brittany Todd with five, Hannah Wight with two and Allie Veltkamp with one.

Cedar Springs improved their record to 5-­1 and Coopersville slipped to 3-­4.

The team is off until January 3, when they take on Kenowa Hills at home.