The Grizzlies Split To Open The Season

The Grace Grizzlies started their season last week with one home game and one road game.  For the fourth year in a row the Grizzlies are beginning their year with five starting seniors.  Much like the previous seasons the expectations are high in Grace.  This year’s group of seniors has some well balanced players that have had plenty of varsity experience coming into the season.  That being said, the five seniors have not spent a lot of time on the court as a group in a couple of years and could take some time to coalesce.  The Grizzlies will also have to contend with some minor depth issues.  The five seniors will be backed up by just a pair of juniors and a handful of sophomores.  The Grizzlies will have to rely heavily on their senior leadership and will have to do their best to keep their post players out of foul trouble.

The Grizzlies started their season by hosting the West Side Pirates.  The two schools have had some great battles in recent years with the Pirates more often than not getting the upper hand.  Unfortunately for the Grizzlies that trend continued in last week’s match up.  In the first quarter of play the scoring was nearly a mirror image of each other.  Both teams hit a pair of three point buckets while adding one additional field goal.  The difference in the opening quarter came at the foul line where the Pirates went two for two while the Grizzlies struggled going a dismal zero for five.  The Grizzlies improved on their foul shooting in the second period of play this time making two out of four and matched their first quarter scoring output of eight points.  However the Pirates still managed to outpace the Grizzlies scoring twelve in the quarter and took a six point lead into the half.  Coming out of the half the Grizzlies floundered while the Pirates surged getting up by as many as twenty points in the third quarter.  The Grizzlies would manage to chip away at the large Pirate lead but the game was never really close again.  Following a last second three point shot by Grace the final score was just a six point differential but the loss felt much greater than that.  

After a tough opening season loss at home the Grizzlies had an ideal opportunity to bounce back and regain their confidence when they traveled to Aberdeen to face the Tigers.  Aberdeen is a team on the decline and will likely find themselves at the bottom of the 3A rankings in the state.  The Grizzlies were heavily favored in this match up and they would not disappoint.  After a slow start to the game the Grizzlies finally got rolling about midway through the first quarter of play.  By the end of the quarter the Grace lead was already at double digits.  The Grizzlies would hold the Tigers scoreless in the second period and more than double their own score.  Grace went on to run away with this game winning easily with a running clock throughout the fourth quarter.

This week the Grizzlies will once again be heavily favored in one game when they host Alturas Prep on Wednesday before facing more of a challenge when they host Bear Lake on Saturday.

Grizzlies 8 8 11 22 50

Pirates 10 12 19 15 56

K. Edwards 3, G. Draper 6, C. Mecham 4, B. Smith 4, J. Wilkerson 12, C. Smith 8, P. Yost 13

Grizzlies 19 25 16 12 72

Tigers 5 0 8 5 18

K. Kimball 5, K. Edwards 3, G. Draper 4, C. Mecham 4, B. Smith 19, J. Wilkerson 2, C. Smith 12, P. Yost 18, C. Barthlome 5