Late basket by Fox helps JoBurg girls hand Onaway first basketball loss this season

ONAWAY – It was physical, it was scrappy, and it all went down to the wire again between the Onaway and Johannesburg-Lewiston girls basketball teams on Thursday night.

But unlike last season, Onaway couldn't hold on against JoBurg, which used some late-game heroics to earn a hard-fought 45-44 road victory. After what was another thrilling conference clash, here are some takeaways for both teams.

A dramatic final two minutes

Onaway (5-1, 3-1 Ski Valley) led for basically the entire contest, but a small run gave JoBurg a 43-39 lead with under two minutes left. Onaway used a 3-pointer from sophomore Andrea Ruppert to cut the deficit to one, forced a JoBurg turnover, and retook the lead with a basket from junior Charlotte Box. Onaway got another defensive stop, but JoBurg rose to the occasion by forcing an Onaway turnover. With just seconds remaining, Jayden Marlatt delivered a perfect pass to Brittney Box, who handed the lead back to JoBurg with a layup. JoBurg (3-4, 1-2) came up with one more clutch defensive stop to hand Onaway its first loss.

“I guess we kind of lost our way – it was just a lack of discipline, honestly,” Onaway coach John George said. “We struggled to score; we missed a lot of easy buckets tonight. I thought we played with a lot of energy and intensity; I really did. Honestly, I thought we were the better team tonight, but it just didn’t show.”

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Onaway starts fast, but JoBurg stays resilient

It was the perfect start for Onaway, which built an 11-2 first-quarter lead behind seven points from junior guard Kailyn George. Instead of falling further behind, though, JoBurg responded with a 9-2 run to get back in the game.

JoBurg played smothering defense and did a solid job against George, who scored 12 of her game-high 16 points in the first half, as well as Onaway junior Charlotte Box, who netted 14 points. Sydney Peel scored seven and Ema DeMaestri added four.

“(Onaway) looked to attack downhill on us, and our goal was just to switch out on everything and hedge out on the screens and stuff like that, just try to force them away from the basket as much as possible,” JoBurg coach Ryan Marlatt said. “The game could’ve gone either way, and we just ended up on the winning end. All around, great team effort.”

JoBurg’s night consisted of many clutch shots, including a trio of 3-pointers from Emerson Wertman, who finished with 11 points. Marlatt scored 10, Lily Crane recorded nine, and Fox had eight.

A Ski Valley that’s up for grabs?

If there’s one thing about this season’s Ski Valley Conference, it’s that there are not many gimmes for the top teams. With Onaway’s loss, it fell out of first place in the conference standings, while Inland Lakes (4-2, 4-0), which beat Pellston on Thursday, moved into first. Onaway currently sits third. Mancelona (4-2, 2-0) is now second. Onaway travels to Inland Lakes next week.

If games like Thursday end up being the norm, the Ski Valley could be almost anyone’s conference this winter.

“We see this all the time, on any given night, good teams get beat – and I guess it was our turn tonight,” George said. “I guess we’re not going to win them all, so we got that one out of our way, so we just got to go on from here and we’ve got a tough, tough stretch next week, and hopefully we can rebound from it.”

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: Onaway girls basketball falls to JoBurg, suffers first loss of season