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The Lady Raiders of Marlette fought of parts of that trio for awhile Thursday night, but then could not hold on. The Chargers, defending Class C State champs, pulled away from a two-point halftime lead to shutdown the Lady Raiders, 54-35 in a non-league contest at Raider Pavilion.

Marlette (5-3) was looking to its height advantage, with three six-footers in the front court, to control Nouvel in a half-court game. The idea did not work fast enough or long enough.

The Chargers (7-1), behind six straight points from Kretz and two off a steal from Ryan, burst out to a 9-0 lead in the opening two minutes.

"We had two major meltdowns," explained Fred Mroczek, Marlette coach, "one at the beginning of the game and one at the end of the third quarter. We fought back well after the 9-0 start. When we ere in our half-court offense I thought we were very patient. We got the off-side screens and the shots we were lookingfor."

With the help of a three-point play from 6'2" center Kelsey Hall and a triple from 6'1" forward/guard Jenna Lange, Marlette cut the deficit to seven, 15-8, by the end of the quarter.

The game plan stayed effective in the second quarter. Working the ball on offense, Lange connected on two more threes ands Hall and 6'1" Kendra Smith each scored inside buckets as the Lady Raiders trailed by just two, 22-20, at the break.

Marlette still trailed by only five, 33-28, midway into the third quarter, but turnovers against the Chargers 2-2-1 zone press began mounting up.

Ryan, a 5'9" All-State guard, finished off her streak of nine straight points and then Nouvel closed out a 12-0 run to stretch the lead to 17, 45-28, by the early moments of the fourth quarter.

"We just made too many passes over people instead of into the seams," Mroczek said of Nouvel's zone press that helped lead to 22 points off of 27 turnovers. "When we did get into our set offense, we played pretty well."

Ryan finished with a game-high 16 points, 14 in the second half, and Kretz, a 5'8" senior guard, was right behind with 15, 11 coming in the opening half.

"Ryan is in her own league and Kretz is just a real solid player," said Mroczek.

Hall led the Lady Raiders in scoring with 12 points. Lange added nine points and Smith was effective on the glass and finished with 13 rebounds.

The Lady Raiders will put their 2-0 GTC East record on the line this week when they return to division play. They were to host Ubly (3-0, 6-1) last night (Tuesday) and will entertain Deckerville (0-3, 2-5) this Thursday evening.

Mroczek said he is hoping to use the loss to Nouvel to create a positive. "We want to use this as a barometer and a learning experience for the rest of the league season. We have a lot of tough games."