District play continues in Rogers City; JV squad to play for host Hurons
Nobody could have predicted the result of the Class D district opener in Rogers City between Hillman and Posen. The games were tight during the regular season and are expected to be in the coming years as well as both programs will continue to be strong.
That line of thinking did not play out on the court as Posen’s tenacious defense took Hillman (15-5) out of its rhythm and the Lady Vikings (19-2) rolled to a 49-20 win to advance to Wednesday’s district semifinal against Wolverine, with a chance to move on to the championship game Friday night.
“We did what we wanted to,” said Posen coach Karl Momrik following the game. “Defensively, just a great job. Offensively, we got a lot of good looks. Scoring 49 against Hillman, that’s a good total for us.”
Cami LaTulip made some big plays on defense and scored eight first-quarter points before heading to the bench with two fouls. Her replacement Jolene Reese picked right up where she left off with a jumper with one second left in the quarter with two defenders all over her. The shot fell and Posen was up 12-5.
Hillman got back in it with a 9-4 run at the start of the second. It’s about the time when Jenna Hincka found the bottom of the net on a 3-point try, after missing a few attempts from downtown. That made the score 19-14.
Kayla Lenard got in the scoring with a sweet looking jumper, and with a second left on the clock in the first half, she drained another to give the Vikings a 23-14 advantage.
Posen was feeling it and Hillman was not. That momentum rolled into the second half.
Posen allowed only one Hillman field goal in the third at the 2:27 mark when the game was already out of hand.
“We just don’t let teams to get real good looks,” said Momrik.
Brooke Ciarkowski knocked down a pair of treys and Hincka added another to boost the lead to 38-16 at the end of three.
“It was just a great team performance,” said Momrik.
“I was not expecting what happened tonight,” said Hillman coach John Kuzewski. “I give Posen a lot of credit. They put some pressure on us, which caused some issues. But more importantly, they executed really well and got us out of our rhythm.”
Hincka had 15 and LaTulip 12.
With the win, it extended Posen’s season and now gives Hincka a shot at establishing a new record for steals in a season. She had 153 going into Wednesday’s game, needing four to break Lori Darga’s record of 156 set in 1983.
Cards finish regular season strong
Onaway 9-11 picked up a win in its regular season finale – a makeup game at Central Lake (CL). It was close throughout.
The Lady Cards were down 1
It would take a strong fourth quarter by the Red Birds to put it in the win column, 37-31. Head coach Marty Mix got a balanced attack. Jade Galer had nine, while Taylor Ehrke had eight. Zebany Box had six.
“It was a total team effort,” said Mix. “The kids were distributing the ball well, working well defensively, and we held a team that had been putting up big points of late, to only 31 points.”
Mix was gearing up to play host Rogers City in a district semifinal. “We’ll see what we can do.”
Rogers City was dealing with a situation this week as head coach Gary Bisson stepped down and junior varsity players were going to be filling varsity roster positions after several players were removed from the team.
“Some of our varsity girls basketball players were involved in an incident. As a result the JV girls team will be stepping up to fill the remaining roster spots for district basketball competition. While we are certainly disappointed that this happened during district week, it is going to be a good experience for the team. Coach Bisson and myself had a discussion during practice after the opening night of district competition. The result of the conversation was that Mrs. (Sarah) LaFleche will coach the remainder of the season,” Rogers City athletic director David O’Bryant.