Mackinaw City girls hold off Inland Lakes, win first-ever regional basketball title

PELLSTON – Big time players tend to step up in the most enormous of games.

For the Mackinaw City Lady Comets, they needed all of their top players to come up huge as they chased history.

Holding a narrow one-point lead going into the fourth quarter, the Comets turned it up when they absolutely needed to against the scrappy Inland Lakes Lady Bulldogs.

And because of it, a culmination of a five-year odyssey was complete for the Comets, who won a first-ever regional basketball championship by earning a 62-53 victory over the Bulldogs in a MHSAA Division 4 final at Pellston.

“These girls have worked so hard and fought so hard. All that time in the gym in the summers, all that extra time they come in for optional practices really came to fruition and paid off tonight,” said Mackinaw City coach Jake Huffman. “I can’t say enough about that group of juniors and seniors – Marlie (Postula), Madison (Smith), Larissa (Huffman), Gracie (Beauchamp), Jersey (Beauchamp), even though she wasn’t a part of this due to injury, and Julia (Sullivan) – the progress these girls have made over the last four years, and their ability to fight through adversity has been amazing."

Two area teams facing off in an electric atmosphere, the Comets (25-1) and Bulldogs (20-6) went back and forth during a thrilling first half, which finished in a 33-33 deadlock. In the third, the Comets outscored the Bulldogs by just a point but took a 42-41 lead into the final quarter.

That’s when the Comets’ stars began to step up early in the fourth, as Postula scored back-to-back layups to put Mackinaw City up five, while Smith made a field goal to extend the lead to 48-41, forcing an Inland Lakes timeout. About a minute later, Larissa Huffman scored a tough inside bucket to push the advantage to 10.

Down but not out, the Bulldogs sliced their deficit to five when senior Natalie Wandrie connected on a three and then made a layup. However, that’s the closest the Bulldogs would get to the Comets, who converted on their free throws down the stretch and sealed the win.

“Inland Lakes has got a hell of a basketball team," Huffman said. "We had to fight for every ounce we got tonight, Daryl’s (Vizina) done an amazing job with that group down there from where they were three years ago to where they’re at now.”

The victory sends the Comets to their first-ever quarterfinal game, where they’ll face Baraga (21-5) – which captured a 53-37 regional victory over Norway on Thursday – in Munising at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 14.

As the final seconds counted down, Smith and her teammates celebrated on the same court they played on five seasons ago, when they lost to St. Ignace in the regional final on March 13, 2019.

This time, it was their night – and they’ll never forget it.

“It feels great. Personally, I’ve been working for it since the eighth grade year, and losing to St. Ignace in eighth grade, and the (2021) year ended up Covid, but it’s great to get past that hump to keep going,” said Smith, who finished with a team-high 23 points and also recorded six rebounds, three blocks, three assists and two steals. “Just teamwork, each of us needed to do our role, and we had to get the boards and cut down the turnovers and just work well as a team and get it done.”

Despite putting up a valiant effort, the Bulldogs fell just short of what would have been the program’s first-ever regional crown.

“We played hard, but that’s obviously a great team and an incredible coach,” said Inland Lakes coach Daryl Vizina. “It’s really disappointing, there’s obviously some emotions, but if we’re going to lose to somebody, Jake’s (Huffman) a class act, they’re great athletes and a great team, and it was a heck of a game. It was back and forth, and they were just the better team and the scoreboard proves that.”

Four Comets reached double figures on the night, including Larissa Huffman, who registered a double-double with 11 points, 14 rebounds, three assists and three steals. Postula finished with 10 points, three rebounds, three steals, two assists and one block, Beauchamp helped out with 10 points, six assists, four rebounds and one block, and Sullivan chipped in with eight points, eight boards, one assist and one steal.

Thursday also marked the end of a sensational basketball career for Wandrie, who scored a game-high 27 points.

For Wandrie and her teammates, they gave it everything they had against a top-notch foe.

“Honestly, they’re a great team. I think they deserved that win, they worked their hardest,” said Wandrie, who became the school’s all-time leading scorer during a regional semifinal victory over Johannesburg-Lewiston earlier this week. “We worked our hardest, and at the end of it they came out of it on top, but we made it a lot closer than the last game (we played them), so I’m proud of us. It was crazy, I think this is the biggest crowd we’ve played in front of this year, and I definitely think it helped keep us in the game.

“It was a win-win because one of us was going to be a first-ever regional champion.”

Freshman Chloe Robinson scored nine points for the Bulldogs, while Brooklyn LaBrecque added seven points, Tara Clancy and Hannah Robinson each netted four, and Ryann Clancy tallied two.

“First off, our seniors, what an incredible group of girls,” Vizina said. “You look at Lauren (Fenstermaker) and her accomplishments in track and just being a really great teammate and defender for us, and then you’ve got Ryann (Clancy), who obviously excels in volleyball and now in basketball, and Natalie (Wandrie), four-sport all-state, all-time leading scorer, and Hannah (Robinson), just her hustle, leave her heart out there for everyone. They’re going to be hard to replace.

“I don’t know if they can be replaced, ever.”

Needing one win to reach Michigan State University’s Breslin Center for the state semifinals, the Comets will have to get past a Baraga squad that’s been exceptional in recent years.

No matter what happens the rest of the way, the Comets know they’ve achieved something no other Mackinaw City basketball team has ever been able to achieve.

“I talked to the girls in practice (on Wednesday) and I said, ‘Look up on that wall,’ and Mackinaw has had a rich tradition in basketball – and this is for all those teams that have come before and have come so close and haven’t been able to close out a regional title,” Huffman said. “This is the first one in basketball, boys or girls, and we’ve had some great teams over the years. I can remember watching and coaching great teams 20 years ago, to the 50s and 60s, and it’s just so amazing that we were able to pull this off tonight and bring a regional title back to Mackinaw City.”

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Mackinaw City girls hold off Inland Lakes, win first-ever regional basketball title