Photo courtesy of Calli Newberry

By Calli Newberry

A 3-pointer by freshman guard Ashlyn Upton sparked a late-game scoring run for the Armada Tigers, propelling them to a 46-41 home-court victory over an undefeated Algonac team Tuesday night. 

“When she shot it I didn’t know it was going to go in, but I knew it wasn’t going to be a bad miss,” Armada head coach John Baerwolf said. “She’s played in some big games already this season for us, both of our freshmen have, and tonight just happened to be her night a little more.” 

The Tigers held a 37-35 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but they found themselves in a bit of a drought in the following four minutes as the Muskrats took control with a 6-0 run. 

Advertisements - Click the Speaker Icon for Audio

But then Upton got the ball at the top of the arc and snagged three much-needed points. She said she was confident taking the shot, and rightfully so. The freshman led her team with 16 points on the night and had made two 3-pointers prior. She also managed three assists, rebounds, and steals. 

From there, Upton said their game plan was: “Just work hard and play good on defense, get the steals, and do anything we can to get more points on the board.” 

And that’s exactly what they did. The Tigers battled back while holding Algonac to zero points the rest of the game. 

With three minutes to go, Armada junior Alayna Nowik (four points) hit a quick jumper from the block on a backdoor cut, extending her team’s lead to 44-41. Armada soon got the ball back and managed to take nearly a minute and a half off of the clock. 

Baerwolf said his players’ quick and disciplined passing was the best he’s seen all season. 

“We’ve been talking about this, and frankly, we haven’t done a good job in our games leading up to tonight,” he said. “We told them that that was the best job we’ve done so far at controlling the tempo, controlling the ball, and finishing the game. That was the biggest thing. We handled it the rest of the way, that was a big thing for us.” 

And great passing leads to more shot opportunities, which Armada took full advantage of with well-rounded team performance as nine of its players scored. Junior guard Meya Drob had 10 points and two assists, and freshman forward Claire Sniesak chipped in with five points.

Assistant coach Bob Bova said the Tigers had learned a lot in the seven games leading up to Tuesday, which prepared them for a tough matchup with an undefeated team. 

“Every game we’ve learned something from, win or lose, so we were just ready. We prepared well, played together, made some mistakes but overcame them, and closed it out in the end really well,” he said. “I thought our passes were best when they needed to be at the end.” 

The Muskrats were 4-0 (2-0 BWAC) before traveling to Armada and they held the largest lead of the game in the first quarter: 14-7. They were led by junior guard Ella Stephenson with 19 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc.

Algonac will take a break from conference play to face Lutheran Northwest on Thursday, followed by Yale (4-3, 2-1 BWAC) on Friday. 

Armada (5-3, 2-1 BWAC) will travel to North Branch (3-2, 2-1 BWAC) on Friday, which Bova said should make for a good game. 

“They’re always tough, and we’re going there,” he said. “They’ve got some experience, but we’ll be ready.” 

Calli Newberry

Calli Newberry is our go-to sportswriter at Blue Water Healthy Living. She covers all of our local athletes as they compete in the Blue Water Area and beyond. As a Blue Water native, Calli graduated from Croswell-Lexington High School in 2017. She then went on to study and run track at Hillsdale College, from where she graduated in 2021 with a degree in sport management and journalism. When she’s not covering sports or other local news, Calli writes on her own blog, Lessons Along the Journey where she posts encouraging perspectives from her daily life to help others along their own journeys. She’s also written a 16-week devotional for teen girls titled, Semester Together. You can follow Calli on her website www.LessonsAlongTheJourney.com or on Instagram @townsend.calli