Late rally attempt falls short for Onaway girls in loss to SVC leader Gaylord St. Mary
ONAWAY – The Onaway girls basketball team refused to quit on Wednesday night.
In fact, the Cardinals staged a rally to make things interesting against Ski Valley Conference leader Gaylord St. Mary. However, the Snowbirds did just enough to stave off Onaway's charge and capture a 53-42 road victory.
“It was definitely a better effort than the last time we saw them,” Onaway coach John George said. “We’ve got the talent, we’ve got the kids to compete with anybody in the league, and (St. Mary) proved that they’re the No. 1 team in the league. At some point or another in that game, we just weren’t getting the bounces.”
In what was an entertaining clash – especially in the second half – here’s some takeaways.
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Fighting back
The Cardinals (11-6, 8-5 Ski Valley) found themselves in a 32-14 hole at halftime against the Snowbirds (12-6, 11-2), who led Inland Lakes (10-5, 10-2) by a half game in the conference standings as of Wednesday night. However, Onaway started to find an offensive rhythm and finished the third quarter with a run to trim the deficit to eight. Getting the Cardinals to within single digits was sophomore Marley Szymoniak, who aggressively drove to the basket and scored a layup just as the buzzer sounded, igniting the Onaway players and home crowd.
“We preach effort, and if we can walk out of the gym and know that we did the best that we could to win a game and it didn’t work out, in our book, that’s a victory in itself,” George said. “Super proud of the kids. It sucks that we didn’t win it, but we’ve got to get ready for Friday when we play Indian River (Inland Lakes) back in town. We’ve got them on our home court, and we need to redeem ourselves with them.”
Ema DeMaestri had a strong night, leading Onaway with 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Szymoniak tallied nine points. Sadie Decker finished with seven, Charlotte Box had six, and Kailyn George and Jayma Domke each added three.
“We’ve been just telling these kids to attack the hoop, and we had (St. Mary) in a little bit of foul trouble,” George said. “It was more of a swing the ball, try to attack gaps and get to the rim and hopefully get to the free throw line. I think we shot more free throws tonight than we did in the last five or six games. If we could’ve had some of those buckets in the first half, I think we could’ve been right there at the end.
“We just missed too many easy shots in the first half.”
Glasby's monster night takes Snowbirds home
It got a little scary for the Snowbirds, who saw their huge advantage fall into the single digits. But whenever the Snowbirds needed a basket to take back momentum, sophomore Payton Glasby provided it. Arguably the biggest one came when Glasby drilled a 3-pointer to put St. Mary back up nine, then followed it up with an inside bucket for an 11-point lead with about five minutes left. Earlier in the game, Glasby capped off a dominant St. Mary first half when she sunk a long-range trey right before time expired in the opening half.
In the end, Glasby led all scorers with 32 points, while Kaylee Jeffers scored 14 for the Snowbirds.
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M-68 belt on the line Friday
The grind continues for the Cardinals when they host rival Inland Lakes for the M-68 title belt on Friday night. Last year, the Bulldogs took possession of the belt by outlasting Onaway at home. The Bulldogs also defeated the Cardinals in Indian River earlier this season.
“We’re always looking forward to it, it’s a rivalry game, and the kids obviously have relationships from 18 miles away, so they know each other very well,” George said. “They’re going to be out to get us. We owe them one, they got us over there, and if there’s ever a time to do it, we’ll gladly take that belt.
“It’s going to be fun and we’re looking forward to it.”
In a 55-26 loss at Brimley on Monday, the Cardinals were led by seven points from Szymoniak, six from George, five from DeMaestri, three apiece from Andrea Ruppert and Box, and two from Decker.
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 battles back but loses to Gaylord St. Mary
