Leland girls basketball is off to a fast 3-0 start to the 2023-24 basketball season with wins against Suttons Bay, Forest Area, and Cadillac Heritage over the past week.
On Tuesday, the Comets took care of business against Cadillac Heritage 54-16.
“We were able to work through some adjustments during the course of the game and focus on areas that we still need to work on and improve as the season moves forward,” coach Ryan Knudsen said. “It was a good team effort as we have continued to emphasize our defensive effort in the early part of the season.”
The Comets went into the half up 29-12, then exploded in the third quarter while only allowing two points to push their lead 41-14.
Leland junior Elli Miller led the Comets with 16 points, 6 steals, 5 rebounds. Comet senior Mallory Lowe added 15 points, 8 rebounds, 6 steals, 3 assists; Ella Knudsen 8 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists; Lorna Wiesen 6 rebounds, 4 assists.
Tuesday’s result was much of the same as last week when Leland defeated both Suttons Bay and Forest Area. In the first two games, Leland didn’t allow either team to score over 10 points.
The Comets defeated Suttons Bay 51-9 then Forest Area 53-6.
“We started the game out against Suttons Bay a little slow, but after the first quarter we were able to get the nervousness out of our system and we were able to lock down defensively and get into a rhythm offensively to pull away in the second and third quarter,” Knudsen said. “We had very good ball movement offensively (against Forest Area), which not only created many great opportunities to score in the half court, but we were also able to learn more about how we can improve on that side of the court.”
Stats against Forest Area: Lowe 16 points, 10 steals; Miller 8 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals; Knudsen 6 points, 3 steals, 3 rebounds; Wiesen 5 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals.
Stats against Suttons Bay: Lowe 18 points, 14 steals, 7 rebounds, 5 assists; Knudsen 12 points, 7 steals, 5 rebounds, 5 assists; Miller 8 points, 6 steals, 3 assists; Wiesen 8 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists; Kally Sluiter 6 rebounds, 5 steals.
