Onekama Girls Basketball 2006

Onekama beats Mesick in the
regular season finale

The Onekama girls’ basketball team didn’t want to lose their final home game of the year on Thursday night, especially for the three seniors who were laying in front of their animated Portager fans for the last time.

So, seniors Marlee Herkelrath, Stephanie Ashworth, and Ronnie Maidens made sure they went out on a winning note and into the district with some momentum as the Portagers beat Mesick, 60-44.

Herkelrath led the Portagers in scoring and rebounding with 13 points and 11 boards.

Kelsey Acker had 11 points and six assists, Stacey Keith had 10 points, Alyssa Cole had nine points, Ashworth had seven points and ten rebounds and Maidens had a well rounded game with six points, eight rebounds, five assists and seven steals.

Onekama started the game a little slow and wasn’t making too many of their shots. The score was 8-8 after the first quarter and they went into halftime trailing 19-16.

However, a different team came out in the second half. Onekama scored as many points in the third quarter (19) as they scored in the entire first half. And, they topped that by putting up 25 points in the fourth quarter.

“We finally were looking to attack them,” said Onekama coach Candace Turk. “We came out more aggressive. In the fourth quarter, we were converting, we mixed things up and we pushed the ball.”

Turk said she was proud of her team’s effort and proud of her seniors for playing well and going out with a win on the emotional night.

Onekama avenged an earlier loss this season to Mesick. They finished the year at 10-8 overall and 8-4 in the league. ...Coach Turk