John Raffel
Sports Scene
Carson City-Crystal freshman Mikayla Duflo has been scorching the nets with her shooting and has played no small role in her team’s impressive start at 9-2 for girls basketball.
“It’s been a lot of teamwork and a lot of effort,” Duflo said. “We’ve been practicing in offseason and summer.”
A rare victory for a CC-C team over Pewamo-Westphalia was impressive, Duflo noted.
“Portland St. Pat’s were tough,” Duflo said. “Those were two good wins over our toughest opponents, I’d say. “
On Jan. 19, she Eagles had an impressive 36-22 win over Fowler.
But there will be other tough opponents coming up that Duflo is anticipating.
“Saranac or Dansville, both of them are going to be tough, I think,” she said. “But I think we should beat them.”
The Eagles want to stress on team basketball she added.
Duflo is averaging around 12.5 points a game at point guard.
“I do a little bit of everything,” she said.
Sophomore MacKenzie Geister has been sparking the Eagles with putbacks and rebounding. Sara Schneider, a starter at the No. 2 guard, and Allison Seals are two key seniors for CC-Crystal.
It didn’t take long for Duflo to adjust to the varsity level.
“I got used to it quick,” she said. “It’s the quickness of the game. In junior high, it’s slow but in varsity, as a freshman, it’s pretty fast. I think we can improve and get better. We can improve a lot on offense and passing a lot and dribbling.”
CC-Crystal was 5-17 a year ago.
“When you’re a coach, you just take it a game at a time,” said skipper Larry Farmer, noting that in a preseason poll, his his team was seventh. “I think it would be a surprise for others. They’ve been rebounding well. The rotations have been really good.”
Tori Christiansen, a sophomore, is averaging seven rebounds a game. She had 17 against Potterville in a 57-33 win.
“We’re in a really tough league,” Farmer said of the Central Michigan Athletic Conference. “We’ll just have to take one opponent and do the best we can. The rest of it takes care of itself after that.”
Offensive execution and improving in other areas is the emphasis for future games, Farmer added.