Onekama and Frankfort will meet for district final

By DYLAN SAVELA, Manistee News Advocate Sports Writer

MANISTEE — Onekama and Bear Lake already played twice in the regular season, but Wednesday night’s Class D district semifinal pitted the two teams against each other again.

Only this time, the season was on the line.

Like the two previous contests, the Portagers wound up with the upper hand, beating the Lakers, 50-40, and earning a spot in the district final Friday night.

“I know we beat them twice coming in, so I told the girls we have to come out and play hard,” Onekama coach Nathan Bradford said.

Senior Stacey Keith led Onekama’s charge with 21 points, seven rebounds and three steals.

“It was probably her best game of the year,” Bradford said.

Keith used the win-or-go-home stipulation as motivation.

“If this was going to be my last game, I wanted to come out and play good,” Keith said. “I just came out and really wanted to play.”

Also scoring for Onekama was Sherece Revolt with seven points, Chelsea Miller with six, Paige Rutowski, Taylor Hagen, and Jennica Mathieu all had four each, while Olivia Bolthouse and Emily Pomeroy dropped in two apiece.

As for Bear Lake, its season ends with a 7-13 record.

“We won more games this year than we have the two previous years,” Bear Lake coach Scott Brown said. “All the games, for the most part, have been five-point, 10-point, 15-point margins, which is less than the last two years.

“It’s always good to cut that gap down. We’re working to build a program and I feel the things that are coming are going to be better and better.”

Laker senior Ashley Crawford led the Lakers with 18 points and four steals in her final high school game.

Also scoring for Bear Lake was Tobi Schoedel with seven points, Ashley Rupert had four, Sarah Hilliard scored three, while Rochelle Diller, Ashley Ringel, Sara Babcock, and Shelby Dansby all added two points each.

Schoedel led the Lakers with 15 rebounds while Jaimey Ferguson grabbed 10.

“The game plan was to take care of the basketball — we didn’t,” Brown said of the Lakers’ 33 turnovers. “When you have 33 turnovers and lose by only 10 points, I figure that’s pretty darn good. In reality, we should have lost by 30, but I’ve got a great group of girls, and we’ve got a great program going.”

Neither team could get the ball in the basket in the first quarter, but the Lakers were able to go into the second with a slim lead, 7-6.

“I think they were a little nervous at the beginning and the ball had a hard time finding the hole,” Bradford said. “I think once we got in a rhythm and got going we ended up being fine.”

Onekama’s Paige Rutowski (right) is defended by Bear Lake’s Ashley Rupert on Wednesday night. The Portagers beat the Lakers, 50-40, and will play Frankfort in the district final. (Dylan Savela/News Advocate)

The Portagers’ rhythm began in the second quarter and continued through the duration of the game.

“We just focused on keeping Crawford from shooting, she’s a good player,” Keith said. “We concentrated on playing defense and getting stops.”

Onekama’s defense was strong, giving up only four points to the Lakers in the second quarter, and going into the half with a 20-11 lead.

Keith scored 10 points in the third quarter to help extend the Portagers’ lead to 17.

But, Bear Lake did their best to make things interesting in the fourth.

After being down 37-20 going into the final eight minutes, the Lakers scored 20 points, including 10 from Crawford, but it wouldn’t be enough to dig themselves back.

The Lakers’ three seniors left the court for the last time, and for Brown, he loses more than just players.

“I’m going to miss all three of them as people and as players too,” Brown said.

“I know (Crawford and Diller) from way back when. I coached them back in middle school.

“Ashley (Crawford) has been a great asset to the program,” he added. “And Rochelle Diller is one of those kind of ballplayers that you can ask them to do anything and she’ll do it and she keeps on doing it — never complains and never whines — she’s a player that will always give you 110 percent.”

Brown added that Rachael Smith has only played basketball for two years.

“She has improved immensely from the time she started until now.” he said.

“Losing any seniors is always tough, because you have an emotional attachment.”