By Noli Brown
On Nov. 17, the Grand Rapids Community College women’s basketball team played the Cougars from Illinois Central College ending in a loss, 48-85.
The Raiders faced a player shortage tonight, having only six players available due to injuries and transfers.
The starting lineup for GRCC included sophomore guard Avery Jirous, freshman guard Cylie Burns, freshman forward Sophia Modderman, freshman guard Anna Tubbergen, and freshman forward Kaylie VanDerHulst.
During the initial minutes of the game, the Raiders encountered a challenging beginning, managing to score only a few points. However, in the last minute of the first period, they added nine more points to make the score 11-27.
As the second quarter drew to a close, the Raiders found themselves trailing with a score of 29-49, facing challenges on both the offensive and defensive fronts. Their efforts were notably there as they struggled with challenges in making successful plays and stopping their opponents’ progress.
Coming out into the third quarter, the Raiders were ready to make a comeback and strengthen both their offensive and defensive sides.
To end the third quarter, the Raiders were able to tack on eleven points, while keeping the Cougars to only score 13 more points, with an ending score of the third quarter 40-63.
During the final quarter of the game, the Raiders had difficulty maintaining a strong defense and were hurrying their offensive plays, leading to the Cougars scoring more than 10 points in that period.
Leading scorer of the game today for the GRCC Raiders freshman Aaliyah Ratliff with 27 points is certain that as long as they learn and play as a team they won’t lose.
“I think we played okay, there’s always room to get better and tonight we pointed out what things we need to work on.” Ratliff said. “Our main focus for our next game is going to be how we play as a team, as long as we play together there’s not one team I see us losing to.”
The Raiders didn’t have their best performance, but are continuing to learn and grow as a whole team to achieve goals and get better each game.
Head Coach David Glazier is still positive about their loss today and is taking this as an opportunity to learn and grow better from it.
“I think we worked, I think we competed in moments. We talked about failure not being a dirty word because you know that’s was not a great performance, but there’s a bunch of great things we can take from it and grow.” Glazier said.
The GRCC Raiders take on Kuyper College on Nov. 29, with an opportunity to play at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The anticipation builds as both teams prepare to showcase their skills in this exciting basketball event.
This event is a once in a lifetime opportunity and Glazier is very excited about this.
“This will be fun, it’s an event more than a game. It’s something that the Kuyper coach and I have been plotting ever since he got that job so it will be fun,” Glazier said. “Hopefully we got some renewed bodies on the floor with us and we are a little bit stronger than just six, but we shall see. It’s about the event, so win or lose I think we are going to enjoy ourselves.”
