Kemp's relentless play leads Charlevoix girls past Boyne City
CHARLEVOIX — If the game is in motion, then so too is Anna Kemp.
You might even get a little dizzy keeping track of the Charlevoix senior out on the basketball court at times.
“I call her the Energizer Bunny,” Charlevoix girls basketball coach Reece Koepke said with a laugh. “I can’t pull the batteries out of her. She just keeps on going. She’s up the floor, down the floor. She gets injured and she’s still go, go, go.”
Outside of timeouts, you would have been hard pressed to find one of those moments when she stopped or even slowed down Friday night when the Rayders visited Boyne City.
That crazy energy on both ends of the court led to 18 points and 10 steals from Kemp, along with a Charlevoix victory in 49-35 fashion.
“I just have a lot of drive to win and be at my best,” Kemp said on what keeps those batteries charged. “I don’t know. My mom was a really good athlete, my dad was a good athlete. A lot of people in my family have played basketball.”
In each half, Kemp was relentless on the defensive end.
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She pulled off back to back steals that were converted to baskets in the first half, then in the second half, went back to back with two ridiculous and acrobatic steals along the baseline that led to points at the other end.
“As a coach, I love to have her playing out there,” added Koepke. “She goes hard the whole time.”
That kind of energy on the defensive end was exactly what the Rayders had planned for the night.
“I think it was one of the main parts that helped us win the game. The focus was to get stops and use them to our advantage,” said Kemp. “And I think the focus of the night was really to just beat Boyne City. It’s a rivalry game.”
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After a 21-8 lead closed the first quarter, Boyne City tightened things up a bit in the second to make it 28-19 at the break, but back came the Rayders again in the third, pushing it out to a 39-25 game after three, leaning again on the defense.
“I installed that one-three-one there and it started to happen,” Koepke said. “We got some steals and were working on a lot of fast breaks and layups. That’s turning things around and getting us moving up pace a little more.”
Along with Kemp for Charlevoix, Abbey Wright added 18 points and 10 rebounds, a solid night to say the least, especially with everything being thrown the Charlevoix senior’s way by the Ramblers.
One of the leading scorers in the LMC, Wright had to rely on others stepping up around her – like Kemp – at times to turn in successful offensive trips.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about,” Koepke said. “As the season goes on, people are looking at the book and looking at things and thinking, ‘Abbey is scoring.’ Teams are going to double team her, they’re going to do different things, so as a team everyone has to step up and be patient with the ball.”
Karlee Eaton also had nine points and seven rebounds for Charlevoix.
Boyne City was led by Braydin Noble with 12 and Elly Wilcox and Addy Burns each scored six.
Boyne City fell to 7-8 overall and 4-5 in the LMC with the loss and will next head to Traverse City St. Francis on Tuesday, Feb. 6.
Charlevoix pulled off a third straight win with the victory to get to 8-6 and 6-3 within the LMC. They’ll next welcome Kalkaska on Tuesday and you can believe there will be some continued uptempo play out of the Rayders.
Especially if Kemp is running things.
“We want to play faster and get the ball moving up the court and just score as much as we can in these games,” Kemp added.
Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Charlevoix girls basketball tops rival Boyne City, wins third straight
