By Sports Editor: Danielle Hamilton
Friday’s basketball game was huge in two ways. One being the winner of the game would advance in the Lakes Conference tournament and the second being that it was the Pink Game.
The Waterford Kettering Captains came out on top over the Lady Highlanders. The final score was 41-21. Kettering advanced to take on Waterford Mott for the conference title.
Throughout the first quarter, the score was close and neither team seemed to have more momentum than the other. At the end of the first, Howell was down by just one point. At some point in the second quarter, this changed drastically. Kettering went on a run and began to put Howell out of the game with their stellar defense and ability to score from anywhere on the court.
Kettering was able to keep sophomore Erin Honkala out of the game which greatly helped them. Honkala has been a huge part of Howell’s offense under the basket this year.
Senior Tess Weatherly was the high scorer for Howell with eight points.
“We just have to learn from tonight and keep looking forward,” says Weatherly. “We have big games coming up and we can’t get down on ourselves after this.”
With this being the annual Pink Game that the Lady Highlanders have had for the past five years, several events occurred during the game. A large crowd collected for the game and pink shaded the stands.
The varsity team wore pink jerseys and the gym was decorated with pink streamers, balloons, and posters. Pink beads, leis, and glow sticks were being sold, as well as Shoot for a Cure t-shirts. A bake sale was also held by the middle school girls basketball teams. During the week at Howell High School, the Leadership class held a bake sale at lunch to help out this cause as well.
There was a raffle with 16 total prizes donated by businesses in the area. At the end of the third quarter, Buffalo Wild Wings hosted a wing eating contest. There were ten participants and the winner was senior Tyler Johnson, who received a 25 dollar gift certificate to Buffalo Wild Wings.
All of the proceeds of the game go to the Susan G. Komen foundation to aid in breast cancer research and education. This game was organized mainly by senior Maggie Jenison, with the help of the public relations team of the Marketing II class at Howell High School, as well as other individuals. Jenison is a guard on the girls varsity basketball team.
“The planning got off to a late start. No one really was taking charge of it so I took it into my own hands. I wanted it to be successful and to help out this amazing foundation,” says Jenison.
With the state tournament coming up, Howell will have to get back into the right mindset. They have a bye for the first round of districts. In the second round, they will play the winner of Brighton and South Lyon East in the district semi-final.
“We feel confident in ourselves that we can go far into playoffs. We have the talent to go as far as we want, we just have to stay consistent,” says Jenison.
