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The Lady Raiders, despite half the team missing the first week of practice because of volleyball commitments, started fast Monday night on their way to a 51-39 GTC crossover win at USA. The Lady Patriots are a co-favorite, along with Laker High in the West this season.

For Coach Fred Mroczek, this was the first of three big tests in the opening week of the girls hoops campaign, which is marking the switch-of-seasons debut from the fall to the winter.

"This week is pretty demanding. We've got the top two teams in the West and we have Warren Woods Tower Wednesday (tonight)," mentioned Mroczek, whose own team is a strong favorite in the GTC East. "So, this was satisfying to get our first win...especially on the road against a quality team."

The Lady Raiders, behind the shooting of 6'1" senior Jenna Lange, led 8-5 after a quarter and then zipped out to a 30-15 lead by the break. Lange scored 16 of her game-high 19 points in the first two quarters, including all eight of Marlette's points in the opening quarter. She was three-for-three on triples, two coming in the second quarter spurt.

"We have lots of experience on this team, and Jenna took over in the first half," noted Mroczek. "She had 16 of her 19 in the first half when we were struggling, offensively. As the game went along, we got more people involved in the offense."

A talented USA team, shaved the Lady Raider lead to 10, 39-29, in the third quarter, Marlette then stopped the rally to win by 12.

Senior center Kelsey Hall, shook off a slow scoring start and finished with 18 points and also had a game-high 13 rebounds. Lange added five assists while senior guard Catherine Distelrath had seven points and three steals.

Mroczek also praised the efforts of reserve players such as Kayla Roberts, Caitlin King and Amber Wood. "They gave us some very quality minutes off the bench."

The Lady Patriots' Dani Greml led all scorers with 24 points.

Marlette visits Class A Warren Woods-Tower, ranked among the top 10 teams in the entire state, this evening, and then hosts the Lakers of Elkton-Pigeon-Bayport this Friday night.