FOWLERVILLE — You could say it was a night, sort of, for the unsung at Fowlerville High School on Friday night.
Ollie Updike, who was fourth on the Gladiators girls team in scoring, was almost unconscionably good from the floor on Friday, putting up four 3-pointers and finishing with 18 points as Fowlerville rolled past Ionia, 52-39.
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Good luck getting her to say it, though.
“Everyone on our team can score,” she said. “We have seven people who can score in double digits. It makes our team hard to be stopped (for that reason). You could say my shot was hot, or you could say they were worried about other people on the team.”
You could say the same thing about the Fowlerville boys, who rained 10 3-pointers on Ionia in a 74-53 rout. Two of the 3s came from 6-6 Dan Judd, who plays mostly in the post. When he decided to shoot 3s, they went in.
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The Fowlerville crowd was surprised and delighted. Gladiators coach Fred Hackett was merely delighted.
“It’s something we expect from Danny,” Hackett said. “He’s a heck of a shooter sometimes. We all know it, but sometimes he doesn’t take that shot as often as we think he should. But it’s nice when you see them go in.”
Judd had 16 points for the second game in a row and nine rebounds for Fowlerville (3-3 overall, 2-1 CAAC White), which ended a three-game losing streak.
Nick Semke just missed a triple-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 13 rebounds to go with eight assists. Andrew Spalding was hot from the floor too, scoring all 13 of his points in the second half, 10 in the fourth quarter, and Geoff Knaggs added 12 points.
The Gladiators kept Ionia’s Brady Swinehart in check as the Bulldogs (1-5, 0-3) lost their fifth in a row.
“A big key for us was to contain Swinehart,” Hackett said, “and Caden Collins did a great job of doing that through three quarters.”
Three quarters, as it turned out, was enough, as Hackett sat his starters for most, if not all of the fourth period.
The girls followed, and the Gladiators did their best to shut down Ionia standout Jaylynn Williams, who finished with 19 points. No other Ionia player had more than six.
But, Updike pointed out, the Gladiators were trying to stop Williams, too, rather than let her get her points and shut down the rest of the Bulldogs.
“We tried to stop her,” she said, chuckling. “She gets hers. She’s a great player. But I give credit to my teammates who tried to stop her. We did a pretty OK job.”
But the Fowlerville defense, by and large, did what coach Nick Douglass wants it to do.
“Our defense fuels the best, so to speak,” he said. “It’s not necessarily turnovers that lead to points for us, but stops. Our stops allow us to get out in transition, and our girls to a really good job in transition.”
The Glads started the season 5-0 before losing its final two games before the holiday.
“We had gotten a little comfortable,” Updike said. “After we lost a couple of games, our intensity really picked up.”
“Some coaches go into the break preparing for future opponents,” Douglass said. “Some go into the break to fix what needs fixing, and that was my approach.”
Most of the problems involved defense and helping each other. The Glads pulled out a win in the final seconds at Mason on Tuesday, and kept Ionia in check throughout on Friday.
Fowlerville (7-2, 2-1) turns its attention to first-place Williamston, whom it plays at Williamston next Friday.
“We told the kids to enjoy this one,” Douglass said. “There’s nothing with enjoying this week. Next week will get here when it gets here.”
