Northern Michigan girls rally past Wisconsin stars at Border Bash

IRONWOOD — The Northern Michigan All-Stars rallied from a halftime deficit to beat Northern Wisconsin 83-69 Monday in the Kiwanis Classic Border Bash.

Northern Wisconsin led Northern Michigan 37-31 at the half, but the Yoopers, headlined by the entire All-U.P. Dream Team, came back in the second half to get the victory.

Reide Osterman of Baraga hit a 3 with two minutes left in the third quarter to tie the game at 50 and Paige Sleeman of Houghton knocked down a triple to make it 53-52 Michigan heading into the fourth.

Michigan took a 71-65 lead on a basket by Tessa Wagner of Carney-Nadeau. Wisconsin pulled within 71-69 with 2:14 left, but they missed at the free throw line with a chance to tie. Michigan missed a couple there, too, but Sleeman made two with 1:38 left to make it 73-69 and she hit a dagger 3 to seal the win with just over a minute left.

Wisconsin coach Jay Aijala of Hurley cited stamina in the second half of the 52-minute contest. With many of them playing softball, some of them may not have played basketball since the high school season, he said.

“They made some changes defensively as well to take away our bigs,” he said. “I thought they did a good job defending that, but the big thing was stamina. We ran out of gas. We weren’t ready for the 13-minute (quarters). I joked with the girls saying we won a normal 38-minute game.”

Michigan coach Tyler Larson of Baraga said his team needed time to adjust to the all-star game rules and to start making shots.

“We were just getting adjusted to the 3-point line (the college distance), the shot clock and the longer quarters,” he said. “At halftime, I feel like they loosened up doing the contests and stuff and then said just keep shooting, keep going, they’ll start falling. We tweaked a few things here and there. And it started to work out, let the girls play the game that’s got them to this point. I think that started to work and feel confident playing with each other.”

Sleeman was named MVP after scoring a game-high 19 points. Natalie Prophet of Westwood had 17, Wagner 13 and Alyssa Hill of Negaunee 12. Larson was impressed by St. Ignace’s Ally Schultz, the D 1-3 Player of the Year in the U.P.

“Just conducting and taking control, just a pure coach on the court, slowing things down when they needed to, telling people where they needed to be, steering people around,” he said. “Natalie Prophet played well, she turned it up in the second half and really just started to take control. And Paige Sleeman also had a good game … it seems like a quiet 19 points. But she was hitting shots when we needed her to. Tessa Wagner played a heck of a defensive game for us, especially in the second when she started getting all those blocks underneath.”

Hurley’s Olivia France scored nine points for the Northern Wisconsin girls and fellow Northstar Kylee Hewitt had seven.

“I thought they played good tonight,” Aijala said. “I stressed how good they were playing all season long — and Kylie being Player of the Year in the conference and Olivia being first team all-conference — but to play at this level on a college court and with other first teamers from Wisconsin and Michigan, I thought they held their own. Nervous at first, but once they got used to it, got comfortable on the court, Liv hit some big shots and Kylee just defensively and being a bruiser on offense. Especially when we went to our traditional 32 offense, I thought that was the difference for us. I liked what I saw with Kylee and Olivia tonight and hopefully they play beyond high school.”

Emme Golembiewski of Northwood led Northern Wisconsin with 12 points. Hurley has seen the 6-1 senior in the postseason a couple of times.

“Emme from Northwood really impressed me,” Aijala said. “It was really nice to coach with her and not coach against her. She’s just another player that has that next level talent, just very savvy offensively and defensively.”

He was also impressed with Aubrey Schiek of Rhinelander.

“Another one, 110% on defense, offensively she found herself around the basket, around the ball,” Aijala said. “She got a couple of steals from behind when her motor just wouldn’t stop.”

Baraga point guard Reide Osterman, the U.P.’s Miss Basketball, also caught his attention.

“I think she’s another next-level player, just brought that team to a next-level both offensively and defensively,” Aijala said. “She had that motor, kind of like Kylee Hewitt.”

The game was low scoring despite a 30-second shot clock and 13-minute quarters. After both teams forgot about it early on a couple of possessions, it had its pluses and minuses as they adjusted.

“I was kind of leaning towards being in favor of a shot clock  for high school, but I don’t know about after tonight,” Aijala said. “That 30 seconds goes quick, especially when you’re used to slowing things down a little bit at times. It definitely was a change, a big change. But it helped at the end, when you’re down four to six points and you don’t gotta worry about them milking the clock. So there’s pros and cons to that as well, but I thought it was fun to implement that tonight.”

Larson said it wasn’t a big deal for their side.

“After the first couple (possessions), it was more of just acknowledging it, because we weren’t really looking to play a slow game,” he said.

Northern Wisconsin — Audrey Schiek 7, Sydney Lund 2, Emme Golembiewski 12, Kate Fitzgerald 9, Kylee Hewitt 7, Olivia France 9, Maddie Rosen 5, Sydney Lehman 8, Sydney Bader 10. FTs: 22-34. Fouls: 25. Fouled out: Lehman. 3-pointers: France 3, Schiek 1, Bader 1.

Northern Michigan — Claire van Ginhoven 2, Natalie Prophet 17, Reide Osterman 5, Paige Sleeman 19, Mary Beth Halonen 2, Natalie Ryvolova 4, Tessa Wagner 13, Ally Schultz 9, Alyssa Hill 12. FTs: 19-32. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Sleeman 3, Prophet 1, Osterman 1, Schultz 1.

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Northern Michigan girls rally past Wisconsin stars at Border Bash