No. 6 MCC pulls away from Onekama
By MATT WENZEL
Manistee News Advocate Sports Editor
Published: Friday, February 11, 2011
MANISTEE — The shot goes up and it
hits ... nothing.Or the
top of the backboard.
Or nothing but the bottom of the net, only it didn’t go through the
rim first.
No, Manistee Catholic Central won’t be stringing together a
highlight reel of its shooting performance in the first quarter.
"Very cold," is how MCC coach Todd Erickson characterized it.
More like frigid as the Sabers
shot just 11 percent and tallied all of four points.
But, MCC made up for all the shots it missed early with the ones it
eliminated Onekama from taking as the Class D No. 6 Sabers pulled
away for a 40-29 win Thursday to stay unbeaten.
“Well, we weathered the storm there,” Erickson said with a laugh
about the early scoring woes that led to a season-low point total.
“The whole key is you have to keep shooting.”
Alex Barnett paced the Sabers (15-0, 13-0 WMD) with 10 points and
eight rebounds and Jordan Barnett scored seven.
Onekama senior Taylor Hagen led all scorers with 15 points to go
with a pair of blocks.
The Portagers (8-8, 7-7 WMD) shot the ball well early and led by as
many as nine points before taking a 11-4 advantage into the second
quarter.
“We started off really good,” said Onekama coach Nathan Bradford,
“then self-destructed a little bit in the second.”
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MCC’s pressure forced Onekama into 13
second-quarter turnovers and led to just three points for the Portagers.
Onekama managed just 32 shot attempts total in the game.
“When we can’t hold onto the ball, we
can’t run a play and that really hurt us,” Hagen said. “We just need to
take care of the ball, that’s what it amounts to.”
After shooting 2-for-18 in the first quarter, MCC bounced back with 17
points in the second quarter as the Sabers reclaimed the lead and took a
21-14 advantage into halftime.
“I don’t know what was going on, but we came out really flat,” Alex
Barnett said. “But, once that second quarter came around, we picked it
up and definitely got going.”
The Sabers led by as many as 11
early in the third before Hagen scored seven straight to pull Onekama
within four. But, she was the only Portager to score in the third and
MCC closed the quarter on an 8-0 run for a 12-point lead.
“We battled back and got close again,” Bradford said, “then we had a
couple breakdowns.
“I told them ‘don’t hang your heads. We played hard and had our chances.
We know we can play with them if we just took care of the ball and
rebounded.’”
Jennica Mathieu finished with six points for Onekama, Danielle Ward had
five and 15 rebounds, Kelly Koon scored two and Nicole Slater one.
MCC’s Haley Doyle had six points and eight rebounds, Brooke Etheridge
scored six to go with six steals, Jennifer Alway and Alysha Heck had
four apiece and Amber Robke three.
The Sabers were never threatened down the stretch and were deliberate in
their offense.
“I was very impressed with the fourth quarter,” Erickson said. “When we
had to run what we need to finish ballgames, those kids ran it.”
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