Olivia Patrick's big night lifts Cheboygan girls to runaway victory over Ogemaw Heights

CHEBOYGAN – It was a long, long wait – 15 days, in fact – for the Cheboygan girls basketball team, which finally returned to the court and played a game on Tuesday.

But the Chiefs certainly showed no signs of rust. Fueled by a solid all-around performance, the Cheboygan girls hammered Ogemaw Heights in a 56-23 non-conference home victory.

Following Tuesday’s triumph, here’s some takeaways from the matchup.

Patrick, youngsters lead the way

It was a huge night for some of Cheboygan’s younger players, who made their presence known throughout the contest. Fueling the Chiefs (3-7) was sophomore guard Olivia Patrick, who netted a career-high 17 points. Meanwhile, fellow sophomore Jaelyn Wheelock scored eight points and freshman Cloee Rupp added five. All three played strong defense for a Cheboygan team that made it hard on the Falcons (1-11) all night.

“It’s absolutely wonderful to see (those young players) step up like that. They put a lot of time into the gym, along with others,” Cheboygan coach Walter Hansen said. “It’s just great to see (Patrick) play that way. She tries so hard on defense, and she’s been working a lot on her offensive game, so it’s great for Olivia.”

The Cheboygan upperclassmen did their part as well, as seniors Kinsey Carpenter and Bella Ecker tallied eight points apiece. Senior Emily Clark recorded seven.

HOCKEY AND WRESTLING: Cheboygan hockey drops two weekend games, Chiefs wrestling solid at Mancelona meet

VOTE FOR AOTW: Cast your vote for the Cheboygan Daily Tribune's Athlete of the Week for Jan. 15-20

BERGSTROMS: Tough mindset instilled a long time ago between Mackinaw City basketball father-son duo

Taking advantage of a fast start

For Cheboygan, it was all positive early on. Behind Patrick’s 10 first-quarter points, the Chiefs built a double-digit lead after one. The second ended up being arguably an even better quarter for Cheboygan, which took a commanding 32-17 advantage into the break.

“(Getting off to a fast start) is what we’re going for. However, there’s been a few games where we jumped out to a big lead and slowly lost it, so I don’t get huge comfort in that, but I was happy to see the continued aggression throughout by everybody on the bench, too, not just the starters,” Hansen said.

Avenging a bitter defeat

Just over two weeks ago, the Chiefs found themselves frustrated following a disappointing loss at Rogers City. But with plenty of time to regroup, the Chiefs made the most of their first game back and built a ton of confidence in the process.

“This is what we need at the midpoint of the season, I’m not going to lie,” Hansen said. “Rogers City left a bitter taste in our mouth, and with two weeks being off, we were waiting to kind of redeem ourselves. (The time off) was comforting because we had exams last week, so I gave them a few days off practice, too, so I wasn’t so certain how we’d come out. We had a good week of practice (Monday), and we answered the call and showed up and worked really hard.”

CHEBOYGAN BOWLING: Cheboygan girls bowling improves to 3-0 in NMBC, Chief boys capture recent wins

Cheboygan will look to build from Tuesday’s win when it hosts Brimley on Friday night.

In the junior varsity contest, Isabella Hingston scored 23 points and Addison Ptasnik added 11 to help lead Cheboygan to a 43-17 victory. Kyleigh Burt, Elise Markham, Briahna Campbell and Amber Gahn each finished with two. Jazmin Cearlock had one.

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: Patrick, Cheboygan girls basketball top Ogemaw Heights at home