Ball handling wizard Ariana Poyirier takes the ball down the court in a home game against McGregor. Poyirier, along with the rest of her teammates, will return next year in what should be an exciting season to come for Cook County High School girls’ basketball. File photo/Laurie Johnson
Mountain Iron-Buhl (MIB) proved quickly why it is ranked 10th at state in single A girls’ basketball in their playoff meeting with the Cook County Vikings.
The game was played in Grand Rapids on Saturday, March 2. Only an upset playoff win of the Carlton Bulldogs at Carlton propelled the Vikings into this game.
Still, despite facing steep odds—MIB is perennial state qualifier–the Vikings hoped to make a game of it against the older, more experienced squad they were facing. MIB, however, had other ideas.
Behind a withering defense, MIB raced to a 48-15 halftime lead and effectively ended the Vikings’ chance to move on in the Section 7A playoffs. The game finished 87-28 in MIB’s favor, and a young Viking team left the floor knowing where it has to improve to play with teams like MIB or Cromwell, who is ranked third in Class A.
Ariana Poyirier led the team in scoring against MIB with 9 points. Abbie Crawford finished with 8 points, Paisley Smith 6, Alyssa Spry 3 and Emma Gesch 2.
The Vikings ended their season with a 10-15 mark.
With no seniors on the squad, a strong freshman through junior class and a bevy of very talented junior high players coming up, coach Kelly Hawsen’s Vikings should be poised to make a strong run next season.
That, of course, will depend on how much time they spend in the gym, but this group of girls seems to enjoy playing together, playing hard, and getting better; improvement was something they did all season long. Overall it was a really good season for this group of kids. Can’t wait to see them play next year!
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