CCA pulls away from Portagers

by Matt Wenzel, Manistee News Advocate

ONEKAMA — With Crossroads Charter Academy coming off an upset of No. 9 Mason County Eastern, coach J.J. Eads was concerned about his team being overconfident against Onekama.

It didn’t take long for his fear to be realized as the Portagers took an early 8-0 lead.

So Eads called a timeout, essentially told his team to wake up and the Cougars obeyed by pulling away for a 60-40 West Michigan D League win on Tuesday night.

“They responded,” Eads said. “I don’t know if last year we would have done that.”

The Portagers opened strong on the offensive end with 16 points in the first quarter, but managed just 24 over the final 24 minutes.

“We started off all right, then it seemed like we ran out of gas,” said Onekama coach Nathan Bradford. “I give (Crossroads) credit, they shot pretty well from the field.”

Sophomore Malory Carlson scored a game-high 18 points to go with seven rebounds for the Cougars (12-4, 7-3 WMD) before fouling out while Alyssa Larson had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“She’s a great athlete and she’s getting better every day,” Eads said of Carlson. “I think they all are.”

Jennica Mathieu had 13 points and six rebounds for Onekama (5-9, 4-7 WMD) while Hailey Kott scored 11 to go with six boards.
“They have a nice inside-outside combination,” Eads said of the Portagers. “Mathieu always does well against us. She’s a heck of a ballplayer.”

Onekama opened with the first four baskets of the game before the Cougars responded as Carlson scored eight straight and the game was tied at 16 at the end of the first quarter.

“We knew we can do better so we did,” Carlson said. “Everybody started playing like a team instead of each other trying to chase stats.”

After holding a 25-23 lead at hafltime, the Cougars outscored the Portagers 14-5 in the third quarter for a 39-28 lead heading into the final eight minutes where they never let Onekama closer than 11 points.

“I think at times we’re thinking too much about what we have ahead of us,” Mathieu said. “That gets to us and we kind of forget what’s going on. The first half we’re trying to kill it, then it slips away sometimes. That’s just a mental thing we have to get over.”

Although neither team’s press was especially effective, the Portagers committed 20 turnovers in the game (Crossroads had six), many of which came in the front court.

“You don’t let up once the ball crosses half court,” Eads said. “You still have to get after them.”

Bradford thought the Cougars hustled to loose balls more and were better on the offensive glass.

“I told the girls we know we can do it, we’ve just got to play hard,” he said. “If we play hard, good things happen.”

The Onekama junior varsity team beat Crossroads 44-39. Caitlin Zielinski scored 14 for the Portagers while Alexis Tribfelner had 11.

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