Kalamazoo Valley Women's Basketball wins eighth in a row!

December 1, 2006    KVCC (80) vs. Lakeland C. C.(57) at Schoolcraft in Livonia, MI

       Re-kindling an old rivalry, the 4th ranked Lady Cougars tipped off against 13th ranked Lakeland (OH) in the Schoolcraft College Invitational Friday night and the result was a bit surprising - or maybe not.  Lakeland entered the game having won four in a row after a season opening loss to regional foe Mercyhurst N.E. by a single point. "They were on a major roll and have some tremendous weapons in 6' guard Gabrielle Flonnoy (19 points / 9 rebs. a game) and post player Keyauna Jenkins (14 points/ 10.2 Reb).  Our team defense and a couple of outstanding individual efforts keyed our success." Said the Cougar coach. "Kutz and Foston tag teamed Flonnoy and she ended with 9 points and Gear and Whittaker shut down Jenkins, who also ended with 9. We take a lot of pride in our defense and those four kids did a nice job, but they also had a lot of help from the ball pressure placed by our guards. The way we handled them was a little bit of a surprise to me. They're going to win a lot of ball games this year, but we all stepped up to the challenge."
       Kutz also had a good night at the other end of the floor leading the Cougars with 15 points, including a 6/6 effort from the free throw line. Point guard Amber Peters joined Kutz in double figures with 10. Betsey Dennis & Charity Knight each had 9 with Jealyn Foston adding 8.  All told, 13 players scored for the Valley team. Kate Whittaker lead the effort on the boards with 12, with Kim Gear chipping in with 7.   
       The Lady Lakers had no player in double figures because of the tenacious Cougar defense. "The defense was solid - and as usual it fed our offense,"  Said Welch. "I thought that all 15 players gave the "extra degree" of effort tonight. Quite frankly, we established a more consistent effort on defense and when we do that we seem to have a bit more bounce in our step at the offensive end. It's fun to watch - at least from our perspective."

         The Lady Cougars are now 8-0 on the season.