Portagers
hang on to
defeat Lakers
By DAVID
L. BARBER, Manistee News Advocate
Published:
Thursday, March 4, 2010
MANISTEE — Leading 46-32 with less than six
minutes to play, Onekama Portagers’ coach Nathan Bradford considered
telling his team to slow down its offense and spread the floor — in
short, to run down the clock.
He
didn’t.
Trailing by 14 points, Bear Lake coach
Scott Brown considered telling his team to trap the person who handled
the ball and try to force turnovers — to get quick points.
He did just that.
A little over five minutes later the Lakers
found themselves with the ball and trailing by just one point.
“We had a chance to win it there in the closing seconds, to really win
it,” Brown said. “That’s all you can ask for, to have a chance to win
with the clock running down.”
Unfortunately — if you’re a Lakers’ fan — Bear Lake was not able to get
a last-second shot off and as the final horn sounded, it was the
Portagers who finally danced off the court with the hard-fought,
one-point victory, 51-50, in a Class D district final Wednesday at
Manistee Catholic Central.“We split
our two games with each other this year,” said Brown. “We won on their
court, and they won on ours. I knew we’d probably go back and forth,
back and forth, and that no lead would be safe for either team.
“And that’s just what
happened. We opened a bit of a lead in the first half, but they came
back. Then they opened a big lead in the second half, and we came back.
That’s the way we played each other all year.”
Jumping to a seven-point lead early in the game, Bear Lake took an 11-5
lead at the end of the first quarter and carried a 22-17 lead into the
locker room at the intermission. Then, in the third quarter, the Portagers battled back to outscore the
Lakers 21-8 to take their own 38-30 lead into the fourth quarter. |
Celebrate!
With just under six
minutes to play, the Portagers’ extended their lead to 14 points — 46-32
— at which time Bradford considered slowing the game down, and Brown
considered speeding it up.
And that’s when the fun began.
Senior Ashley Rupert scored for the Lakers, followed by junior Tobi
Schoedel. And with that, the Lakers were off and flying in closing to
within one point with just seconds to play.
“We were fortunate to hold them off there at the end,” Bradford said.
“Give ‘em credit, they never quit battling — they never do. I thought of
spreading the floor there for a few minutes, but I thought it might be
best if we kept attacking.”
Senior Sherece Revolt, who tossed in a pair of long three-points in the
third quarter to help her team open a big lead, led the Portagers with
24 points. Teammate Jennica Mathieu added seven.
Senior Ashley Ruppert paced the Lakers’ offensive effort with 21 points.
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