Petoskey rings in new year with old school win over Cheboygan

PETOSKEY — It might be a new year, but the first game out of break for the Petoskey girls’ basketball team was a step back in time.

Give or take 93 years or so.

Luckily for the Northmen, their game resembled something much more modern and right on par with what head coach Bryan Shaw wants to see out of his team.

Welcoming Cheboygan into the old Petoskey Central Elementary School gym – constructed in 1930 – Petoskey came out firing from the start and shot their way to a 69-14 victory out of break.

While his team didn’t play over the break like some, Shaw had a number of players put in some time still and it showed.

“It was good to come back from break like this,” said Shaw. “I thought the girls worked really hard over break. We had an open gym format, so we played a lot of up and down, all three levels. A lot of the girls were around for most of the time.”

It helped that Shaw’s group got to look forward to playing a night at the old Central School, a place they’ve practiced in the past and have liked shooting the ball.

“This is a good gym for the girls to shoot in,” said Shaw. “We shoot well in practice here. They were excited.”

That much was clear right from the start, as a jumper by Hope Wegmann early and then a 3-pointer from Caroline Guy were both a sign of things to come.

Wegmann went on to knock down three jumpers and a 3-pointer in the first quarter and Guy added two 3-pointers and a deep jumper that was borderline another three, then a basket off a steal as well.

“They can both shoot it,” said Shaw on his talented senior guards. “It was good to see them both get going tonight.”

Guy closed the first with 11 points and Wegmann had nine, as the Northmen pulled out to a 31-2 advantage after one.

It then became a 43-5 game at the half, with everyone seeing the court and eight different players scoring for Petoskey.

In the second half, Shaw continued to share the minutes and his team continued to share the basketball, with Lia Trudeau picking up more action inside and Ellie Stolzenfels knocking down a couple of second half jumpers.

Petoskey later led in a 55-11 game after three quarters.

“We wanted to play well, we wanted to share the ball, which I thought we did at times and we had some intensity on defense,” added Shaw. “We made better decisions. We didn’t throw it into double teams and didn’t dribble into them very often, we found the open girl. So I was really happy tonight.”

Guy finished the night with a game-high 17 points in essentially two quarters of action, while Wegmann added 14 points, Trudeau had eight and Stolzenfels and Sadie Corey each had six.

For Cheboygan, Cassidy Jewell knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to finish with six points.

Petoskey improved to 5-4 overall on the season with the victory, while Cheboygan dropped to 0-8, while coming off a 69-28 loss to Harbor Springs just the night before.

Petoskey will next hit the road for their second Big North Conference matchup of the season on Friday, Jan. 6 at Alpena. The girls varsity will tip off at 5:30 p.m., followed by the boys varsity as part of the new varsity double-header format within the BNC.

“Alpena will be a challenge,” said Shaw. “They’ve got girls back from the team that won district last year, their guards are good. It’s the first trip with the boys, so hopefully two entertaining games.”

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey rings in new year with old school win over Cheboygan