MUSKEGON – An aggressive Spring Lake girls basketball team wasn’t interested in season records when it came time for Friday’s Division 2 district championship game against Montague.

The Lakers just smelled a trophy and were determined to win it.

Spring Lake came into the contest as a slight underdog with a 13-8 season record, compared to Montague’s 17-4 mark.

But the Lakers played with the confidence of a clear favorite, beating the Wildcats 44-32 at Oakridge High School to claim the sixth district title in program history.

Spring Lake now moves on to regionals next Tuesday against Newaygo at 5:30 p.m. at Orchard View High School.

“I never considered us the underdogs,” said veteran Spring Lake Coach Rich Hyde. “We know Montague’s a good team, but we think us playing in the O-K Blue on a daily basis gives us a little better advantage.”

The biggest points of the game came from a surprising source, senior Jennifer Judge, who nearly doubled her season average by scoring a game-high 16 points.

Judge only scored two points in the first half, but turned her game around once she came out of the locker room in the third quarter.

“Jennifer Judge was a super-human player for us tonight,” Hyde said. “Once she hit that three early in that third quarter, you could see her relax, and all of a sudden she took over on offense.”

Montague had the early advantage, taking a 10-7 lead after one quarter.

Spring Lake quickly tied the game 10-10 in the second quarter, and the lead jumped back and forth. Meah Bajt hit a bucket to put the Lakers ahead 18-17 with one minute left in the half, and that’s the way it stood at the break.

Judge took control in the third quarter, opening the scoring with a two-point bucket then and draining a three-pointer moments later. She totaled seven points in the third, allowing the Lakers to jump to a 27-22 lead heading into the fourth.

Judge drained a three-pointer seconds into the fourth quarter to extend the Laker lead. She finished with seven points in the final stanza while Bajt added four, and the Wildcats never got closer than four points down the stretch.

Turnovers played a huge role for the Lakers, who converted 21 points from Montague miscues.

“In games like this, you see a lot of jump balls, a lot of turnovers, a lot of tired kids, and a lot of kids leaving everything they’ve got out there,” Coach Hyde said. “In a physical and scrappy match like this, where both teams want to win, it’s going to get tough. I’ll take a few turnovers and jump balls and missed opportunities as long as we keep fighting, and our kids never quit.”

Bajt had 12 points and six rebounds for Spring Lake while Alexa Carter totaled eight points.

Claire Meacham had 11 points and nine boards for Montague while Kendall Osborne added eight points.