Teagan Reeves went out with a bang, but the Miss Basketball finalist couldn’t do it on her own Tuesday in Three Rivers’ 55-39 loss to Benton Harbor in a Class B regional semifinal at Edwardsburg.
Reeves’ 30-point, 12-rebound effort was neutralized by Kysre and Kalabrya Gondrezick, who combined for 38 points to send the Tigers to Thursday’s regional championship agame against Parchment.
Benton Harbor led 19-16 after the first quarter. Reeves posted 14 points in the first frame and the Tigers adjusted defensively the rest of the way, swarming Reeves and forcing the Wildcats to find points elsewhere.
Three Rivers wasn’t able to step up to that challenge, falling behind 31-22 by halftime.
“They obviously have two of the best guards maybe in the state playing for them,” Wildcats coach Jason Bingaman said. “They put a lot of pressure on you defensively and they were able to make some athletic plays. At the same time, we struggled with some fundamental things in terms of being consistent that we couldn’t do against a team of that caliber.”
Carried offensively all year by Reeves and senior teammate Linsey Masnari, Three Rivers had seen increased contributions by other role players at the end of the year and into the postseason. But Masnari shot 13 percent from the field for four points, and juniors Alexis Herbert and Cheyenne Richardson combined for seven.
Kysre Gondrezick finished with 26 points for Benton Harbor before fouling out with just over six minutes to play. Kalabrya Gondrezick posted over half of her 12 points with her sister on the bench down the stretch.
“We made some mistakes in terms of reversals and getting good ball movement,” Bingaman said. “But offensively we got a lot of good looks and weren’t able to finish some of them. Maybe if you finish a couple of the good looks we had, maybe it’s a little closer. Defensively we gave them too many chances with allowing them some key offensive rebounds. Every time we got within striking distance and felt good, one of the sisters would make a good play and kind of eliminate any kind of run we’d be able to make.”
It was the final time Reeves, Kimmy Sibert, Cory Sanders, Masnari, Alicia Schmidtendorff, Holly Hines and Teagan Reeves suited up for the Wildcats. Reeves has already signed to play for Western Michigan University next season, Schmidtendorff is headed to Spring Arbor to run track and Hines will play golf at Central Michigan.
“After the pain and the hurt is gone from losing — and it should hurt for a little bit — they’ll be able to realize that the senior class played in maybe the best tw0-year span in girls basketball here in terms of wins-losses, first class to win multiple conference championships and multiple district titles.
“After the pain washes away a little bit, they’ll be able to look back and have a lot of good memories from it.”