Fourth-quarter surge lifts Onaway girls past JoBurg in thriller

ONAWAY – The Onaway Lady Cardinals might be a young team, but they’re still finding different ways to win on most nights.

Squaring off against Johannesburg-Lewiston in a battle of top-four Ski Valley Conference teams, the Cardinals didn’t seem to panic when they faced a significant deficit.

Instead, the Cardinals battled back, showed enough poise down the stretch in the fourth quarter, and came from behind to top JoBurg in a 47-45 home victory on Friday night.

“They just don’t give up,” said Onaway coach John George. “It was just a game of runs and we preach that every night. We’ve just got to weather the storm sometimes. They go up, we go up, and actually I think once we went up, we never went back down, so that was helpful. I’m super proud of them, they all played hard, and we’ve got a big week next week – a tough week next week – coming up. We needed that one, for sure.”

Trailing by eight late in the third quarter, the Cardinals (12-3, 10-2 Ski Valley) started to hunt down JoBurg as junior center Sydney Peel connected on a momentum-switching 3-pointer just before the buzzer, which cut Onaway’s deficit to 37-32 at the end of three.

While the Cardinals fell behind by seven early in the fourth, they capped off a 6-0 spurt with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Kailyn George to get within one with 5:20 left. The Cardinals took their first lead of the game when George made a basket with 2:40 to go, then sophomore guard Charlotte Box found some space and made a layup for a three-point advantage with 1:43 remaining. However, JoBurg (11-5, 7-4) cut its deficit to one when Jayden Marlatt got to the basket and scored with about a minute to go.

Senior guard Madilyn Crull later put the Cardinals up two by splitting at the free throw line, but JoBurg found itself with a chance to win it late. Unfortunately for the visiting Cardinals, a last-second 3-point attempt hit off the iron, giving Onaway a thrilling come-from-behind triumph.

“If she makes it, it’s a great shot, right?” George said. “That’s not what we drew up, of course. We didn’t want to give up an open one, but hey, the kids played great down the stretch, they worked their tails off in the second half, and I’m a proud coach.

“I think it was just kind of mind over matter. They (JoBurg) were intimidating to play. They’ve got some of the best athletes in the conference with Jayden Marlatt, and the (Jocelyn) Tobias girl is putting up 17-18 a game, so I don’t know. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, but it was just our night.”

With the win, the Cardinals, who earned a fourth straight victory, remained in solo second place in the Ski Valley, while JoBurg dropped to fourth. Gaylord St. Mary (13-2, 10-0) still leads the conference with no defeats.

The Cardinals built a 14-11 lead after one quarter of play, but JoBurg won the second and took a 24-20 advantage into the break.

Before the fourth-quarter surge, the Cardinals struggled to defend the offense of JoBurg, which saw many players get open and score layups.

For George, he was pleased with the way his team adjusted down the stretch.

“I think our girls were getting confused because they were trying to switch on it, and the truth of the matter is they (JoBurg) didn’t really hit a lot of outside shots tonight, and they didn’t have to, so they went inside,” George said. “We just started going underneath some of the picks and we weren’t getting caught up in the screens, but they’re going to get one every once in a while, and they did, but for the most part we made an adjustment, we did a better job executing, and it worked in our favor.”

With a unique combination of solid experience and talented youth, the Cardinals have turned this campaign into one of the program's best in recent memory.

“I didn’t think we were going to be able to do that much this season, honestly, because we haven’t worked together all that much, and since it’s a bunch of younger people, you don’t know how they’re going to handle it,” said Crull, a key senior for the Cardinals. “I think it’s just complete teamwork, and when we depend on each other instead of just being selfish, we do well. It’s completely teamwork. When you come back like that, it’s a big thing to be able to do that.

“It’s been a blast.”

George netted eight of her game-high 15 points in the fourth quarter, while Box finished with seven, Ema DeMaestri and Marley Szymoniak both scored six, and Crull and Peel each had five.

George continued to praise his team, which has established itself as one of the top squads in the league.

“I don’t know all the statistics, but we probably haven’t finished second in our conference since the Allie Nave days, when they won the conference in 2006-2007, that type of deal,” George said. “As far as it goes, for the school and for the students and for everything else, it’s great to be an Onaway basketball player right now with what the boys are doing and everything else."

For JoBurg, Jocelyn Tobias led the way with 14 points, Marlatt had 13, Emerson Wertman added eight, and Gloria House and Sophia Townsend chipped in with four apiece.

Onaway heads to Gaylord St. Mary for a battle between the Ski Valley’s first and second place teams on Wednesday. The Cardinals will cap it all off with a road contest at rival Inland Lakes on Friday, Feb. 10.

“We’ve got a three-game stretch that’s going to be really, really tight,” George said. “I think we can go in there and at least give them (St. Mary) some fits. They haven’t had a lot of challenges in the league, but hopefully that’s their worst enemy, not thinking that nobody can go in there and contest them.

“We’re going to go in there and see what we can do.”

During Friday night’s home event, Onaway High School held a benefit fundraiser in memory of a Johannesburg-Lewiston Area School first-grade student who tragically lost her life in a house fire earlier in the week. Over $5,000 was raised for the family of the girl during the course of the night.

“Some of our members and businesses got together to bring in some silent auction prizes, do the gate and 50/50’s and try to find a way to help raise a few bucks to help out,” said Onaway athletic director Marty Mix. “Very proud of these communities.”

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Fourth-quarter surge lifts Onaway girls past JoBurg in thriller