By Michael Rupp
The Senior Royals from MMCRU were honored Friday, February 4th for their dedication and hard work to MMCRU athletics. Seniors Taylor Harpenau, Emily Dreckman, Kirsten Letsche, Mya Holmes, Ellie Hilbrands, and Makenzie Meyer were all honored in between the boys and girls games. Seniors from archery and cheer, as well as the boys basketball team were also honored.
The Lady Royals faced off with Gehlen for the first game of the season, and won 75-43. This time the game was in Marcus, and the Royals win percentage was still a perfect 100%.
MMCRU came out in their quick man to man defense that they have played most of the season. Gehlen played a standard 2-3 zone against the Royals and really plugged up the middle early. MMCRU Senior Taylor Harpenau hit an early three from the top of the point, and then set up Hilbrands for a nice inside layup, forcing Gehlen head coach Brandon Schaecher to call an early timeout.
The Royals grew their lead throughout the rest of the first half, but what was more impressive was the Royals stellar defense that held the Jays to only 10 points. In the third quarter the Royals remained constant, putting up 11 points, and only allowing 5. The night ended with the Royals holding a 43-20 lead, and extending their win streak to 19.
The Lady Royals also faced off with GTRA on Monday, February 7. Junior Kora Alesch led the team to a 57-24 victory, going 6 for 6 with 14 points.
An enthusiastic crowd packed the gym at Unity Chirstian High School in Orange City to see the undefeated Lady Royals take on War Eagle rival Unity Chrsitan on Tuesday. Both squads were undefeated in the conference going into the game, and whoever won took home the conference title. This season, Unity has lost just one game, a non-conference matchup against 5A Bishop Heelan. The Royals were undefeated, but still the underdog to last year’s 3A state champs.
Unity would get out to a 11-4 lead early in the first, but the Royals didn’t drift away. At the end of the first period the Knights led 19-12. The Royals played with more intensity in the second quarter, and drew multiple foul calls, giving them a lot of opportunities to put up points from the free-throw line. By the middle of the third quarter, the Royals had drawn three fouls on Schoonhoven, and Head Coach Jay Schuiteman pulled her from the game, but the Royals committed multiple fouls of their own. MMCRU went into half with some momentum after Kora Alesch got an easy layup off the inbound to make the score 29-33 Knights inside of 30 seconds, and then the Royals defense didn’t allow Unity to get a shot off at the buzzer.
In the third quarter the action did not slow down. Both teams went point for point throughout the first few minutes, but inside of three minutes Royals Senior Emily Dreckman hit back to back threes to take the lead 43-42. The teams went back and forth through the third quarter and into the fourth.
With 3.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter the Knights lead 62-61. Coach Gillian Letsche called a timeout and drew up a last second look. Senior Taylor Harpenau inbounded to Junior Kora Alesch, who through a football style pass all the way across the court to Senior Emily Dreckman who had a last second layup attempt, but it was too hard off the glass.
The Knights are champions of the War Eagle for the second year in a row, and Royals lock up the number two spot again as well. The Royals will host the Winner of GTRA and South O’Brien on Tuesday, February 15.