7th grade Lady Giant hoops team finishes off perfect season at 16-0

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FREMONT – Undefeated. 16-0. Perfect.

You can call the Fremont Middle School seventh-grade girls basketball team a lot of things, just make sure one of them is champions.

The seventh-grade Lady Giants completed a season-long run of dominance through the middle school TRAC Wednesday afternoon, blowing away Lima 38-20 to claim the tournament championship and capping an unbeaten season.

“It says a lot about the girls. They worked hard,” said coach Timi Kidwell. “In the summer we had summer open gyms and there were days we’d have five or six girls in the gym.

“Six or seven of these girls have played together for the last two years and you could tell they had the chemistry. And bringing in some of the newer players helped out, too. It’s a great group of kids. I can’t say enough about the girls.”

When the final horn sounded – not before a buzzer-beating Fremont jump shot, just for good measure – the Lady Giants’ celebrated was on. They donned pre-made undefeated season t-shirts, a banner commemorating their achievement was unfurled and, of course, they lifted the trophy.

“It feels so amazing. I’m so excited,” guard Hailey Held said. “We earned it. We really work hard at practice and we’re all best friends and we all work together really good.”

Wednesday looked much like many of the games that preceded it. Fremont jumped on its opponents quickly, using a full-court press defense to force Lima into hurrying the ball up court – and often turning the ball over. From there, Fremont quickly moved the ball from transition into offense. Fremont scored the first 12 points of the game, with Lima not cracking the scoreboard until just two seconds remained in the first quarter.

The pressure, the hustle and the collective commitment to making Lima uncomfortable continued through the second quarter as Fremont took a 22-6 lead into halftime and had its perfect season virtually wrapped up.

“It feels great,” said center Janiah Holmes, whose size, athleticism and scoring touch helped her score 23 points. “I don’t know what to say.”

While many championship teams don’t come to believe they have the makings of a special season until the year is well underway, point guard Mylah Williams knew from the start her team was on the verge of a season to remember.

“First game,” Williams said. “We blew them out.”

And many more blowouts were to come, thanks to a core group of committed players all finding their own role to fill.

“Janiah is a phenomenal athlete, you can tell she’s grown up playing basketball with boys most of her life,” Kidwell said. “Mylah Williams, our point guard, she’s kind of holds the team together, she runs the show out there. Kendyl Kidwell, she’s probably my best defensive player, she’s funny, she doesn’t like offense, she’d rather play defense and it showed tonight.

“Hailey Held, she’s a hustler she gives you all she has out there. Shannice Knott was key aspect to this team, she comes in and hustles and plays hard all the time, and they all do. Our bench players, whether they go in for 20 minutes or 20 seconds, they give us there all.”

From the stands – which were filled to capacity on the east side of the gym and well more than half-filled behind the benches – the girls high school coaching staff and varsity team watched on, impressed with the talent on the floor and excited for what the future holds for the Lady Giant program.

“It’s definitely exciting to see a group of girls play with passion and share the ball and all that good stuff but I also see a lot of people that have spent time with these girls as they’ve come up,” Vela said. “So, it’s kind of been cool to see all the work multiple people have done and it’s all coming together.

“As long as they keep things in perspective and keep getting better, they’re not going to like to lose,” he added. “That’s where it starts. When a team goes undefeated, one loss is going to be devastating and that might drive them to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Among the varsity players looking on included senior Braelyn Horn. Horn, who along with her teammates, will host Whitmer Thursday night in Ross’ final home game of the season, relished the chance to witness the careers of future players develop just as her is winding down.

“It’s inspiring to watch, it’s something I used to be as I get ready to play my last home game,” Horn said. “I have goosebumps. It’s like, ‘Wow, I was here but now I’m almost done. It’s almost over.’”

She also came away impressed.

“They already have a really good chemistry,” she said. “We were talking, the varsity girls, and they are way more skilled than we were when we were in seventh-grade. We’re like, ‘These girls are some monsters out here.’”

Monsters who are quickly making winning a habit.

“They won the league in volleyball, I went up to them at the volleyball tournament when they won the championship there, I said, ‘Now it’s our turn in basketball,’” Kidwell said. “This group is used to winning. They’re not accustomed to losing and it’s going to carry over to eighth grade.”

 

Fremont 38, Lima 20

L |2—4—10—4 20

F | 12—10—11—5  38

LIMA (20)

Harris 1 0-3 2; Spivey 3 1-3 7; Smith 4 0-1 9; Nelson 0 2-5 2; Enberg 0 0-2 0; Allen 0 0-2 0.

FREMONT (38)

McClain 2 0-0 2; Williams 4 1-2 9; Held 2 0-2 4; 8 7-12 23; Holmes 8 7-12 23; Knott 0 0-2 0.

 

7th grade girls basketball roster

No. 1 Aniyah McClain

No. 2 Mylah Williams

No. 10 Hailey Held

No. 11 Mackenzie Smith

No. 13 Kendyl Kidwell

No. 21 Taylor Ruppert

No. 23 Janiah Holmes

No. 31 Gaby Garza

No. 34 Jordan Nesbitt

No. 40 Shannice Knott

No. 42 Xsaria Pueute

No. 45 Maycie Wolucrton