Cheboygan girls fight back in fourth quarter, but fall short against Newberry at home

CHEBOYGAN – The stage was set for another thrilling comeback win by the Cheboygan girls basketball team.

But just when it looked like the Chiefs were going to overcome yet another 10-point deficit, Newberry refused to let it happen. As a result, Cheboygan fell just short of earning a third straight victory after suffering a 39-35 home loss on Tuesday.

Here’s some takeaways from Tuesday night’s clash between the longtime Straits Area rivals.

Showing fight

Trailing 31-21 after three quarters, it was an uphill climb for the Chiefs (4-8, 0-3 Straits Area Conference). But the fourth proved to be the best offensive quarter for Cheboygan, which saw players knock down clutch shots to get back into the game. Beginning a 7-0 Cheboygan run was senior Emily Clark, who connected on a 3-pointer, while sophomore Olivia Patrick scored a basket to slice the Newberry advantage to five. Clark came up big again minutes later, drilling another three to pull the Chiefs to within one with three minutes to go. However, the Indians (6-6, 3-3) managed to stave off the Chiefs in the final minutes and leave with a win.

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“I’m super happy with the way we were able to battle back,” Cheboygan coach Walter Hanson said. “That’s two games in a row that we’ve done that, so it kind of shows that we’re starting to mature as a team. They’re (Newberry) very tall, they really clog up the lane, and I don’t know how many layups we got, but they really made it hard for us.”

Freshman Cloee Rupp led the Chiefs with 12 points, while Clark finished with nine, Jaelyn Wheelock had seven, Kinsey Carpenter netted four, and Bella Ecker chipped in with two.

Rabochova the hero for Newberry

Helping the Indians edge the Chiefs was senior Lucie Rabochova, a foreign-exchange student from the Czech Republic. Offensively, she was terrific, scoring a game-high 17 points, while her length on defense was a problem for Cheboygan as she blocked several shots in the game.

“Lucie is a solid all-around basketball player,” Newberry coach Sarah Johnson said. “She’s got some height, but she can also run the court. She’s fast, she plays good defense, and she sees the court well. She sees her teammates and makes some really good passes when we need her to.”

Allie Whalen tallied 14 points for Newberry, which snapped a four-game losing streak.

“I think our girls showed up tonight. We’ve had a tough last couple of games,” Johnson said. “Tonight, we came in and wanted to do the little things well. I think they rebounded well; they got some passes off to set up our offense, and I think we executed well – and we played as a team.”

Need a little more offense

On defense, the Chiefs did a solid job of holding the Indians to under 40 points. However, their offense let them down as they found good looks but struggled to make shots consistently.

“Defensively, we were happy with how we played tonight,” Hanson said. “We wanted to fix some things from the way we played against Brimley, and I thought we did. The shots that (Newberry) were making were not uncontested. I was happy with that. Offensively, I was happy with our ball movement and shot selection, but it just didn’t fall for us tonight when we needed it.”

Cheboygan hosts St. Ignace in SAC action on Thursday.

In the junior varsity game, Cheboygan captured a 30-27 overtime victory. Isabella Hingston led Cheboygan with 11 points, Elise Markham and Amber Gahn each had six, Ella LaRocque tallied three, and Caleigh Easter and Briahna Campbell added two apiece.

Contact sports editor Jared Greenleaf at jgreenleaf@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @sportsCDT

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Cheboygan girls basketball team fights back, falls at home to Newberry