Offense lets Cheboygan girls basketball down in home defeat to Gaylord Blue Devils

CHEBOYGAN – The Cheboygan girls basketball team has shown significant offensive improvement this season.

Unfortunately for the Chiefs, Tuesday was one of those difficult nights where they couldn’t quite find the consistency to knock off a solid opponent. In the end, offensive struggles let down the Chiefs in a 39-29 home loss to the Gaylord Blue Devils.

With Cheboygan dropping its second straight contest, here’s some takeaways from Tuesday.

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Sluggish second half

Despite their offensive issues, the Chiefs (9-12) found themselves within striking distance of the Blue Devils (9-11) heading into the third quarter. However, a fourth foul sent Cheboygan senior center Bella Ecker to the bench for several minutes. Without Ecker on the court, the Chiefs had trouble knocking down shots, while the Blue Devils increased their advantage to nine by the end of three.

“They took away near the basket from us and we didn't hit from the outside as much as we would’ve liked,” Cheboygan coach Walter Hanson said. “That definitely caused us some problems.”

Cheboygan saw no players reach double figures in the game. Leading the Chiefs with six points apiece were Jaelyn Wheelock and Emily Clark, while Ecker and Cloee Rupp both scored four, Addy Baldwin and Olivia Patrick tallied three apiece, Kinsey Carpenter had two, and Isabella Hingston chipped in with one.

While the final two quarters were disappointing, the Chiefs avenged a poor start to the game and battled back to take the lead in the second quarter, something Hanson was pleased to see.

“I thought we were taking advantage of the mismatches at the beginning a little more,” Hanson said. “We were able to use our speed. In the second half, (Gaylord) kind of packed it in and got us to shoot, and it paid off for them.”

Not perfect, but good enough

As much of a struggle it was for the Chiefs, it wasn’t a banner night for the Blue Devils either.

However, Gaylord improved both offensively and defensively over the final two quarters, eventually pushing its lead to double digits and giving itself breathing room to capture the win.

“I think the first part is we didn’t play any defense (in the first half), we didn’t get any transition buckets whatsoever, and you need transition buckets when teams are playing you in a zone, because you’ve got to beat a zone,” Gaylord coach Kelli Parker said. “I think we did a much better job of looking up the floor. Cheboygan plays scrappy, they’re a scrappy team.

“We went to a zone (in the second half), which helped us out because we just kept getting beat long in transition earlier. We play Thursday and we’ve got to get a little more locked in, I guess.”

Addison McDonald’s game-high 13 points paced the Blue Devils. Kennedy Wangler scored seven and Alexis Shepherd added six.

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One more before districts

Cheboygan will wrap up its regular season with a home clash against Kalkaska – a team it will face in districts four days later – on Thursday. It will be senior night for the Chiefs.

As the postseason approaches, Hanson still likes where his team is headed.

“I’m super happy with the team, I’m super excited with what we can do in the postseason,” Hanson said. “This is our first game in several weeks where we had all five starters back. We’ve got to find that chemistry again. It looked pretty good (Monday) in practice, but we just need to keep building upon it in our last game and see what we can do in our next couple of practices.

“As long as we can get some momentum and rhythm back into us, we’ll be alright.”

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's offense stagnant in girls basketball loss to Gaylord