Mackinaw City girls bounce back from first loss, thump Harbor Light at home

MACKINAW CITY – For the first time all season, the Mackinaw City girls basketball team had to respond following a defeat.

After losing a narrow non-conference clash against Ovid-Elsie at Alma College on Saturday, the Lady Comets got back on track immediately by rolling to an 82-14 home victory over Harbor Light in their ‘Hooping for a Cure’ game on Monday night.

The Comets (15-1, 9-0) remained on course to capture a fifth consecutive Northern Lakes Conference championship by topping the Swordsmen (10-4, 7-3), who were in third place coming into the matchup.

“One of their goals is that they want to win a fifth straight title,” said Mackinaw City coach Jake Huffman. “My seniors have been a part of all four of the last four, and this would be five for them, which is really unique because you get to win five conference titles in your career. We’ve got a couple more games, we’ve got to win to get to that point, and obviously they’d like to do it in undefeated fashion as well, so we’re kind of clipping along towards that, but I think the bigger piece of it is this group of ladies is really focused on, ‘Let’s get this conference title done and let’s make sure we are ready for districts,’ because that district is going to be brutal.”

With the contest tied at 6-6 early in the first quarter, the Comets used their trademark pressure defense, turned it into offense, and closed the period on a 20-0 run to take a 26-6 lead into the second.

The Comets were even more dominant in the second, shutting out the Swordsmen completely and taking a 53-6 advantage into halftime.

“This group of girls, they work so hard on defense and taking away dribbling lanes and making sure that we’re pressuring the ball so we’re contesting shots,” Huffman said. “They (Harbor Light) were missing some players, too, and it kind of slows the game down a little bit when that happens, but the girls worked hard. They come out here and do what they’re supposed to do, which is execute defensively, which leads to transition buckets. I was really happy with what we did on the offensive side and defensively.”

Leading the Comets was senior Madison Smith, who finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds, five steals, four assists and one block, while junior Gracie Beauchamp tallied 17 points, five assists, five steals, three rebounds and two blocks, senior Larissa Huffman had 13 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, four steals and two blocks, senior Marlie Postula added 11 points, five rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals, and senior Julia Sullivan recorded 11 points, seven rebounds, three steals and one block.

Mackinaw City’s several other contributors included Jersey Beauchamp (two points, one rebound), Kerry-Ann Ming (two points, three rebounds, one assist), Carla Blake (two points, one rebound), Hanna Hingston (one block, one rebound, one steal), Abby Brown (one rebound), Rian Esper (one rebound), Kenzlie Currie (one rebound) and Alaina Brown (one steal).

Two days after their loss to Ovid-Elsie, Huffman was extremely pleased by the response of his team.

“That’s the big thing with this group of girls, is that they get after it every night, they want to execute and they want to execute well,” Huffman said. “Coach (Jeff) Jakeway runs a nice little program down there at Harbor Light, they were a little shorthanded tonight, and I think he was missing three or four varsity players because of some illness sweeping through, so he came down here with nine girls tonight and five-quartered them and made sure that we had two games for tonight’s event for the Pink Out game.”

During the third quarter, Huffman had the opportunity to provide playing time to several of his junior varsity players, who might have to become varsity contributors as the postseason approaches.

“I’m hoping it really pays off as we move into next year,” Huffman said. “We’ve been able to run a number of JV players – I've got six different girls that have been popping in to some of my practices, and we’ve been able to use the five-quarter rule – plus it’s going to be important as we go along as well where I’ve got to formulate a bench out of that, because after losing Jersey (Beauchamp) for the rest of the year (due to injury), now we’re rolling with five and somewhere in there I’m hoping I can find a JV player or two that can contribute and give me some quality minutes so I can give some breaks to some girls.”

Despite the depth issues, Huffman’s players on the court continue to produce no matter who they’re facing.

“Having a nice rotation of seven or eight is really that perfect scenario, and I told the girls when we were going down to play Ovid-Elsie on Saturday that, ‘We’re going to roll out there and we’re going to play five and see what it looks like,’” Huffman said. “With the conditioning we do, and as good of shape as this group of athletes are in, it worked out alright. I had one of the parents after the game say he overheard some Ovid-Elsie girls saying, ‘We’re really tired after that game,’ and it’s really good to hear that. I’d love to see if we can find somebody that can contribute some consistent minutes or at least give us some breaks right.

“You never know what’s going to happen with foul trouble, but I was exceptionally proud of how hard the girls worked down there, especially when we fell down by 17. They really gritted it out and toughed it out, didn’t have breaks and got themselves into that game.”

Huffman added the ‘Hooping for a Cure’ event put on by Mackinaw City athletics was a huge success.

“It’s a great community thing, the girls did a great job selling t-shirts and finding sponsors,” Huffman said. “We had a great crowd here tonight and I ultimately think we’re going to end up raising ($1,500) for our donations, so I think that’s a great thing for a great cause. So proud of the girls’ effort not just on the basketball court, but as human beings, and they’re such a great group of kids."

Mackinaw City will host Lake Leelanau St. Mary in a non-conference clash on Wednesday night.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Mackinaw City girls bounce back from first loss, thump Harbor Light at home