FRUITPORT – Not long ago, after a season-opening victory, Fruitport girls basketball coach Brian Packard said if his team could average around 15 turnovers per game, some victories would come.

The Trojans had 33 turnovers in a really tough performance on Tuesday night, and victory did not come.

Fruitport started struggling early against Kelloggsville’s aggressive pressing, trapping defense and lost its composure. That led to a lot of poor ball movement, unwise passes, steals and missed shots for the rest of the night.

In the end the Trojans fell 50-33 to Kelloggsville in their O-K Silver conference opener. The score might have been worse, but the visiting Rockets also had a lot of turnovers and missed shots.

Fruitport is now 1-2 overall this season.

“Kelloggsville is a quick team, they do a great job of speeding things up, and one of our weaknesses as a team is our overall speed,” said Fruitport head coach Brian Packard. “When we get sped up, we lose our composure and it turns into ‘get the ball out of your hands as soon as you can.’

“If you have a point guard who is comfortable under pressure, they just kind of slow things down and handle it. We did not have that tonight.”

The Trojans were once again forced to play without junior Izzy Hanson-Wilbur, the team’s top scorer and ball-handler, who suffered an ankle injury early in the season opener.

The Trojans were hoping to prove to themselves that they can play well and win without Hansen-Wilbur, if necessary, and the jury is still very much out on that question.

They did so on opening night against Montague, but lost badly to Spring Lake last Friday, and Tuesday’s defeat made it two painful outings in a row.

So are the Trojans closer to the team that made plays and beat Montague, or the one that failed to execute in the last two games?

Probably somewhere in the middle, according to Packard. The biggest problem is that, without their star, they have nobody who can effectively play the point and keep the offense focused and on track.

“We need some girls to step up,” the coach said. “Against Montague we had some girls step up. Against Spring Lake we had nobody. Tonight we have a few girls step up, but when the other team is pressing like that you can’t run those girls for 32 minutes.

“We’re in the middle. We’re getting there. But when you have 18 or 19 turnovers by halftime, that should be an end of the game total.”

The good news is that Hanson-Wilbur, who can play the point and handle the ball under pressure, is expected back in the lineup by next week, according to Packard.

The Trojans will definitely be better with her. The only question will be how much.

“She wanted to try to play tonight, but we kind of shut her down,” the coach said. “We have a game next Monday against Fremont and we would like to have her back for that.”

The first quarter went pretty well for Fruitport. The Trojans were down 6-2 with 2:30 remaining, then went on a 7-0 run and led 9-6 headed into the second.

Kendall Lee had four points in the first for the Trojans.

The game started going bad in the second quarter, when Kelloggsville had a 17-4 advantage and went to halftime with a 23-13 lead.

The Trojans totaled 11 turnovers in the second quarter.

The third quarter was not so one-sided, with Kelloggsville only having an 11-6 edge and leading 34-19 heading into the fourth. The problem was that Fruitport only made three baskets – two by Ava Powell – and coughed the ball up eight times.

The Rockets sewed up the win by outscoring the Trojans 16-14 in the final quarter. Eight of Fruitport’s points came from the free-throw line.

Lee led Fruitport with nine points, Powell added seven, and Kalli Tawney and Kya Tawney had five points apiece.