Portagers fall short to Frankfort

Posted by Dylan Savela, News Advocate

Onekama’s Quinn Matthews (left) drives to the basket against Frankfort’s Kole Hollenbeck on Friday. (Dylan Savela/News Advocate)

March 8, 2013
MESICK — Three minutes into the second quarter Friday, Joe Eno split a pair of Frankfort defenders and banked in a runner for the game’s largest lead yet.

Separation had been hard to come by, but the shot gave Onekama a four-point cushion and maybe the momentum.

Then the opposite occurred.

Frankfort closed the half on a 12-0 run and never looked back in a 60-50 Class D district final win for its second straight championship. The Panthers (18-5) move on to play Baldwin in a regional semifinal at Traverse City Central on Monday, while the Portagers (14-9) finish the season just short of snapping a 10-year drought in the district tournament.

“That’s the difference, and we talked about it on the ride over here,” Portagers coach Jim Hunter said. “That’s their M.O. They have one spurt and the rest of the game you’re just chasing.

“You close a little, and they pull ahead.”

The Panthers’ Owen Stratton led the way with a game-high 24, including 10 in the second quarter spurt, while David Loney scored 20.

Onekama was paced by seniors Derek Hobart with 18 points and Bryce Reckow with 14, 10 boards, six assists, four steals, and three blocks. Eno scored nine with three steals, Jarett Sovereign had five points and two blocks, and Quinn Matthews scored four with three steals.

“They hit their shots and we didn’t. It was that simple,” Reckow said. “I thought we showed that we belonged here and that we could play with these guys.

“All year I don’t think people thought we could do anything, but we beat some good teams, and hung with them twice,” he added, citing a 65-60 loss in the regular season when Frankfort was ranked No. 8 in the state. “We feel like this was a team we could have beat, too, but I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.”

Reckow sunk a fade away on the baseline for the game’s first bucket, but it was Hobart who paced the Portagers to a 14-13 lead by the end of the first frame.

The sharp-shooting senior hit two long 2-point jumpers and the first of his four triples as the quarter wound to a close.

Hobart hit an early 3 in the second, shortly followed by Eno’s runner, but those were the last points they’d score before the break.

Stratton tied the game at 19 with back-to-back breakaway layups off of steals, and, after a bucket by Loney, sunk a pair of triples to close the half with his team up 27-19.

“They just tightened up a bit,” Hunter said of the Panthers’ pressure. “They came out aggressively, and for three of the turnovers, they just picked us.

“Those were on us, because we didn’t adjust to them tightening up,” he added. “They made us look bad for a couple minutes, and that was all it took.”

While Frankfort coach Reggie Manville was pleased with the defensive effort before the break, he stressed that his team keep the peddle to the floor considering Onekama’s ability beyond the arc.

“We went about six minutes without them scoring, and after that 12-point swing it was just a matter of us staying on top of them,” he said. “That’s a hard team to do that with because they shoot the 3 so well, and stretch you out so far, it comes down to ‘well, how far out do we want to guard them.’

“You can’t relax,” he added. “Just because we went into a more disciplined offense, it doesn’t mean we were relaxing. In fact, we were probably working harder with their defense coming out on top of you.”

Frankfort extended the lead to 10 early in the third, which is where it pretty much stayed until Stratton closed the quarter with five straight points for a 43-29 advantage.

The Portagers fought to keep their season alive in the fourth by connecting on some big 3s, and getting to the line. However, Hobart went down hard with 5:40 remaining and sat out the rest of the way with a significant knee injury, and, despite cutting the gap to eight at the two minute mark, Onekama made just 2-of-6 from charity stripe in the fourth as part of a 3-for-11 night.

“They’re a talented team, and those kids were patient and attacked when they needed to attack,” Hunter said of Frankfort. “But, the couple times they left the door open for us, we’d miss the free throws we needed to make, we missed some layups we really needed at the time, and just didn’t help our own cause.

“Losing Derek at the end hurt a lot too. He had the hot hand, and when he does, he can bring you back in a hurry.”

While Onekama bowed out short of its goal, the team can hang its hat on two district wins this week which snapped a postseason drought dating back to 2009.

“Tonight was a little bit like the season, where the kids played hard like they have every night,” Hunter said. “But, against the real good teams, we hung in tough but couldn’t find away to get over the top. There were a half a dozen games out there that were just like this.

“The kids don’t need to hang their head about it though. You expect them to play hard, and they did.”