Hoops roundup: GSM battles LLSM, JoBurg splits conference games

GAYLORD ― As the calendar flips to February, the basketball games remaining on each area team's schedule become much more important as regular season schedules begin to wind down.

For Gaylord St. Mary's and Johannesburg-Lewiston, they are beginning to wrap up their respective Ski Valley conference schedules, with both the St. Mary's boys and girls hoping to claim another conference title while the JoBurg girls look to stay alive for the Ski Valley Championship.

Meanwhile, the St. Mary's boys wrapped the week with a matchup with the top-ranked team in Division 4.

See how they fared this past week with important matchups on the line.

St. Mary's girls keep winning, dominate Bellaire and Lake Leelanau St. Mary's

No area team has found its stride quite like the Lady Snowbirds have this season.

After dropping their first two matchups of the year, the St. Mary's girls haven't been tested much, rattling off 11 straight victories coming into the week while winning all 11 of those games by double-digits and taking firm control of the Ski Valley title race.

That has drawn some attention, with Lady Snowbirds coming into the week ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press high school basketball poll for Division 4.

This week, they had two more chances to prove themselves as one of the top teams in the state with matchups with a conference foe in Bellaire on Tuesday, February 1 and a battle of St. Mary's with Lake Leelanau St. Mary's visiting on Friday, February 3.

They had proved themselves pretty well by the time the week ended.

Another two games ended with another two wins for the Lady Snowbirds, earning another two blowout victories after defeating Bellaire 57-30 and LLSM 87-43 for wins 12 and 13 in a row respectively.

The win against Bellaire was the Snowbirds' 11th straight conference victory, keeping them undefeated against Ski Valley foes and in control of the top spot in the standings.

It was another dominant night for senior point guard Macey Bebble, finishing with a double-double with 19 points, 12 steals, nine rebounds and five assists. Fellow senior Ava Schultz added 18 points, seven rebounds four steals and two rebounds. Sydney Grusczynski, another senior, added 10 points, four steals and two rebounds in the victory.

St. Mary's followed that with another big victory on Friday, this time taking down Lake Leelanau St. Mary's with their highest-scoring output of the season, winning 87-43.

It was a mix of great shooting and dominant defense that led to the Snowbirds' 40+ point victory. As a team, they ended the night shooting 17-for-33 (51%) from the field and 12-for-29 from 3-point range (41%) while holding the Eagles to 17-for-55 (31%) from the field and 3-for-21 (14%) from three.

Senior Emma McKinley had one of her best performances of the year, leading the team with 24 points while shooting 5-for-9 from 3-point range. Bebble had another double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds) while Schultz had a double-double of her own (13 points, 13 rebounds).

Now 13-2 overall and 11-0 in the conference, St. Mary's begins the final stretch of the regular season before their ultimate goals are put on the line in the playoffs.

JoBurg blitzes Pellston, falls to Onaway late

Another team looking to stay in the Ski Valley title hunt is the Johannesburg-Lewiston girls, coming into the week among the four teams still alive for the conference crown (JoBurg, St. Mary's, Onaway and Inland Lakes). With matchups with two conference foes in Pellston and Onaway, the Lady Cardinals had an opportunity to set themselves up well headed into the final month of the regular season.

They started on the right foot with a blowout 59-3 win over Pellston, but after leading most of the way against Onaway on Friday, surrendered their lead late in the fourth quarter in an eventual 67-65, heartbreaking loss.

The Pellston Hornets are at a transitional point in their program with many young, inexperienced players making up their roster. That means they can struggle against well-coached, experienced teams like JoBurg, and that's what accounted for the lopsided victory on Tuesday night.

Senior Jocelyn Tobias led the way, finishing with 21 points and nine rebounds, while junior Jayden Marlatt added 14 points and four rebounds. Senior Gloria House added six points and seven rebounds as well.

On Friday, the Cardinals had a great shot to put themselves right in the middle of the Ski Valley title race if they could upend Onaway on the road, one of two teams tied for second place at 9-2 in the conference.

After three quarters, it looked like they had a chance to do just that, leading 37-32 heading into the final quarter. But Onaway's offense eventually found life in the fourth, eventually storming back to take the lead late and the eventual 47-45 victory.

JoBurg held a seven-point lead early in the final quarter, but a 6-0 Onaway run helped the Bulldogs come back and eventually take the lead. A late 3-point attempt would've given JoBurg the victory had it fallen, but it fell off the back iron to secure the Onaway victory.

Jocelyn Tobias led the way again with 14 points, three rebounds, four assists while Jayden Marlatt had 13 points six rebounds and four steals.

The loss doesn't eliminate the Lady Cardinals from the Ski Valley race, but at 7-4 in conference play, they'll need all the help they can get if they wish to track down St. Mary's in the final month of play.

St. Mary's boys fall in battle to top-ranked D4 teams

The St. Mary's boys have been arguably just as dominant as the girls this season, coming into the week on a 12-game winning streak and atop the Ski Valley Conference Standings. However, they came into the week eyeing a bit of a different challenge, hoping to stay in control of the Ski Valley while preparing for a top-ten matchup with the top-ranked team in the state for Division 4, Lake Leelanau St. Mary's, on Friday.

They started on the right foot, blowing out Forest Area 72-35 on Tuesday to stay undefeated in the Ski Valley, but could not find their way out past a strong Eagles team on Friday as they fell 75-63, snapping their winning streak at 13 games.

It was a dominant night for multiple Snowbirds in the win over Forest Area, led by senior Gavin Bebble's 20 points and senior Brody Jeffers's 19 points.

In the loss to LLSM, Jeffers had 20, Bebble had 19 and Daniel Jacobson had 15 points in the top-ten matchup.

The Snowbirds are now 13-2 overall and 9-0 in conference play. They have seven games left on the regular season schedule, all conference games, so what happens in the month of February will decide who wins the conference title.

Other Scores

Boys basketball

Johannesburg-Lewiston 27, Inland Lakes 75

Johannesburg-Lewiston 40, Mancelona 63

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Gaylord St. Mary's battles Lake Leelanau St. Mary's, Johannesburg-Lewiston splits conference games