St. Mary's girls basketball moves on, JoBurg and Gaylord fall in district semifinals
GAYLORD ― After months of regular season play and a warmer-than-usual winter in Northern Michigan, it is officially win-or-go-home time for area girls basketball teams as the transition to spring sports begins.
And just like that, the Gaylord area is left with just one team standing.
The Gaylord St. Mary girls are the last ones left in their respective district, looking to make it a district four-peat on Friday, March 8 after their win over Central Lake on Wednesday. Meanwhile, both Gaylord and Johannesburg-Lewiston wrapped their seasons in district semifinal matchups on Wednesday, officially closing the book on the 2023-24 winter sports season for GHS and JLHS.
Here are key takeaways from each district game on Wednesday:
GSM runs away from Central Lake, meets familiar foe in finals
It was going to take quite the effort to keep Gaylord St. Mary's from reaching their home-hosted district finals, and Central Lake did not have the firepower to put up that effort.
It was a big second quarter that helped the Snowbirds take home a 52-24 victory on Wednesday, holding the Trojans to just two points in eight minutes while opening up a 33-9 lead at halftime. Payton Glasby led the way with 26 points, making five 3-pointers in the first half, while Kaylee Jeffers chipped in with 17 points to help GSM to the brink of a fourth-straight district title.
GSM will host Bellaire in the district finals on Friday, March 8, one of four Ski Valley Conference teams to beat the Snowbirds this season. Bellaire won the first matchup 27-24 back on Dec. 19 while GSM got revenge with a 45-23 victory on Feb. 6.
Late 3-pointer ends impressive JoBurg season
The JoBurg girls basketball team has made a habit of exceeding expectations this season, and with under a minute to go in the team's district semifinal matchup with Charlevoix on Wednesday, they had another chance to surprise some people and reach the district finals in a tough Division 3 bracket.
Unfortunately for them, they came up one shot short.
Holding a one-point lead with under a minute to go, the Cardinals let Charlevoix's Bayani Collins get open on the left wing and she hit what would be the game-winning 3-pointer, pushing the Rayders to a hard-fought 29-27 win and knocking JoBurg out of the Divison 3 bracket.
Brittney Fox led the Cardinals with 13 points, followed by Emerson Wertman with 8 and Yolanda Gascho with 6. JoBurg wraps with a 17-6 overall record and finished second in the final Ski Valley Conference standings.
Commitments: Latuszek, Vanluchene latest Gaylord-area athletes to choose college homes
Takeaways: Bayani Collins' late 3-pointer propels Charlevoix to district semifinal victory over JL
Early deficit sinks Gaylord
Playing from behind against good basketball teams is tough, especially for a team like Gaylord who is missing its most effective scorer (Avery Parker).
The Blue Devils fell behind 9-0 early in their district semifinal matchup with Alpena and never could get the deficit much closer than that, eventually falling 46-31 to the Wildcats to end the GHS season.
Gaylord (9-13, 2-8 Big North) never got its feet back under them after losing the reigning BNC Player of the Year to an ACL injury, turning what many had hoped to be a competitive season in Gaylord into a rebuilding one.
The Blue Devils will have to replace five seniors from this year's team, including Parker, Taylor Moeggenberg, Alexis Shepherd, Addison Wangler and Lucy Johnson.
Contact GHT Sports Editor Dylan Jespersen at Djespersen@gaylordheraldtimes.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: St. Mary's girls basketball wins, JoBurg and Gaylord lose in districts
