Lady Raiders Advance to District Finals with Win Over Alma

On Wednesday night, the Portland High School Lady Raider basketball team took on the Panthers of Alma in the district semi-finals hosted at PHS.

Portland drew a first-round bye, while Alma advanced to the semi-finals when their first-round opponent Shepherd withdrew from the postseason.

The Raiders defense shut down the Panthers early, holding them to zero points in the first quarter, and no more than eight points in each of the remaining quarters.

The Lady Raiders would end up defeating Alma 50 to 16.

Portland was led offensively by junior Ashley Bower who scored 15 points. Juniors Ava Guilford and Alivia Densmore added 10 and eight points respectively.

Alma was led by senior Alyssa Leister who scored eight points for the Panthers.

Scoring summary by quarter:

1st – 2nd – 3rd – 4th – Final

Portland 7 – 12 – 11 – 20 – 50

Alma 0 – 4 – 4 – 8 – 16

On the other side of the district 37 bracket, Ionia defeated Central Montcalm on Monday night in the first-round. Alma then faced Belding on Wednesday in the semi-final. The Bulldogs fell to Belding 52-42.

Portland and Belding will meet in the district championship game on Friday night at Portland.

Belding finished the regular season schedule 8-3.

Photos by AJ Guilford.