COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – In Branch County high school sports last night, Coldwater went down to defeat to Portage Central in non-conference varsity boys and girls basketball. In the boys action at Portage Central, the Cardinals lost to the host Mustangs 74-52. Coldwater started strong, leading 22-15 at the end of the first quarter but it was all Portage Central the rest of the way with the 22-point victory improving their record to 9-2.
Luke Beckhusen had a team-high 12 points and 4 assists for the Cardinals and the senior point guard was our McDonald’s Player of the Game for Coldwater. Brady Beckhusen added 11 points as the Cardinals record slipped to 8-5. Coldwater returns to action Friday night with an Interstate Eight game at Parma Western.
The Mustangs last night made it a 3-game sweep over the Cardinals, winning the JV game 51-29, and taking down the Coldwater freshmen 65-36.
In the girls play at Coldwater, a comeback by the Cardinals came up short last night with Portage Central hanging on for a 54-48 victory. The Mustangs were ahead 34-24 at the end of the third quarter but Coldwater rallied to tie the game up at 46 with 2:12 left on the clock before Portage Central closed out the win on an 8-2 run.
Kendall Galloway filled up the stat sheet with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals while Tyler Scheid added 10 points for the Cardinals, who are now 7-6.
Coldwater won the JV game 47-18 with 13 points, 6 steals and 6 assists for Samantha Rodesiler while Emilee Smoker chipped in with 9 points and 9 rebounds. There was no freshman game.
In boy’s only varsity action last night, Quincy was a winner at home over Athens 70-43. Quinn Eifrid and Nathan Karney had 18 points apiece while Brandon Gary had 10 rebounds along with 7 points as the Orioles improved to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the conference.
Also in the Big 8, Union City travelled to Springport and beat the host Spartans 59-36. Elijah Way had 13 points with 10 points apiece for Jalen Boes and Elijah Harris as the Chargers improved to 6-1 in the league and 9-2 overall with their sixth straight win. Union City lost the JV game to Springport 50-35 with 13 points for Jacob Watson.
Last night’s boy’s game at Bronson between the Vikings and Olivet was cancelled. And Tekonsha lost at home to Colon 61-50. Freshman Anthony Layne had 19 points in the defeat for the Indians while Everett Lewis Lanphar added 13 points.
In a girls only non-league game, Bronson lost at Homer 46-38 with 10 points for Kelsey Robinson as the Lady Vikings’ record drops to 6-7.
In wrestling last night, Coldwater went 1-1 in an Interstate Eight Quad meet at Sturgis, defeating Pennfield 41-21 before falling to Sturgis 53-12. Going undefeated on the night were Daniel Pino with two wins and Shuaib Aljabaly who was 1-0. Finishing 1-1 were Zoe Nowicki, Ezra Lewis, Zack Horter, Griffin Olmstead, Jesse Miller, Sam DeMeester and Ben Fagen. Coldwater will compete in the I-8 league tournament on Saturday at Harper Creek.
In boys swimming and diving last night at the Browne Aquatic Center, Coldwater dropped their home meet to Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 110-63. Miguel Bauza finished first for the host Cardinals in the 100 butterfly and was second in the 100 backstroke. Also, Javier Perez took first place in the 50 freestyle.
In diving, Coldwater’s Austin Butler and Austin Krzeminski finished first and second. Butler had the highest score for a single dive with his double somersault while Krzeminski is the first Cardinal to post a 6.5,6.5 and 7 for a single dive with his one and a half somersault. Both broke the old team record with Butler edging out Krzeminski on the last dive to capture the win.
Yesterday afternoon in bowling, Coldwater’s boys and girls varsity teams defeated visiting Pennfield at Midway Lanes. The boys beat the Panthers 24-6 with a high score of 267 for Alec Keplinger. The JV boys lost 21-9 with a 168 for Andrew Sheets.
Coldwater won the varsity girls match 27-3 with Alysia Vanwormer rolling the high score with a 211. The JV girls won by taking a tie-breaker game with a high score of 159 for Sabrina VanAuker. This afternoon in bowling, Coldwater is on the road against Parma Western at Airport Lanes while Bronson has a home match with Kalamazoo Hackett.
Tonight in high school sports, in wrestling, Bronson is at Marshall for a Quad meet and in gymnastics, it’s Senior Night for Coldwater with the Cardinals hosting Tecumseh.
