Game of the Week: Lansing Catholic girls break Portland’s perfect season

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Undefeated Lansing Catholic hosted undefeated Portland Friday night. If you had to describe this game in one word, it would be fight. Lansing Catholic came in as the underdogs against a team who won the state championship last season, but that didn’t stop the Cougars from clawing their way through this one and getting the win.

“It feels pretty good. It was definitely a team win, we had some ups and downs but we’ve been preparing for it all week and it feels really good to play them and do our best against them,” said sophomore Leah Richards.

Richards was the star of the show. She had 24 points total, 18 of them in the second half which elevated the Cougars to a 55-52 win over Portland.

“Every practice kind of sort of built up the last few weeks. Last year when we lost to them twice we were like, we really studied how they played and studied how to get better and how to beat them the next year and we did,” said sophomore Gabby Halliwill.

“I’m so proud of these kids because they just play the game. They don’t really get intimidated by a whole lot of other teams,” said Lansing Catholic coach Kacee Reid. “Certainly Portland gives a lot of reasons to be intimidated by them and these girls just know they can play, they trust each other, and I think they trust the coaches and it all works out. We’re lucky to get this one but we’ll take it.”

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