MAPLE CITY — Glen Lake outscored Manistee 12-4 over the last 3:40 to pull away for a 55-47 victory in a game that was otherwise back-and-forth all evening.
Lydia Fosmore’s three-point play put the Lakers up for good, 46-43, in Wednesday’s Division 3 girls basketball district semifinals at Glen Lake.
Manistee had just tied the game 43-43 on Madalyn Wayward’s baseline 3-pointer with 3:55 remaining.
“Good, exciting district tournament basketball game,” Manistee coach Kenn Kott said. “That’s what people pay to see.”
The two teams were never separated by more than seven points in the opening half, with the Mariners closing on a 9-2 run to go into halftime deadlocked at 24. Lindsey Gardner’s left-wing 3-pointer put Manistee up 23-22 1:21 before half.
After three quarters, Glen Lake clung to a one-point lead after a Delanie Dembowski bucket.
“We knew we had to bring that energy,” Lakers junior Lydia Fosmore said. “We’ve had that energy in the past three practices. We knew it was going to be a gritty game, and we were just kind of flat coming out, but putting our heads together and just getting down to work, we carried through to the end.”
The Lakers (15-8) advance to host Kingsley (18-4) in the district final Friday evening.
“They’re really tough team, and we’re going to have to get ready for them,” Lydia Fosmore said of Kingsley. “They’re a great team. But if we go to work and get after it, we can beat them.”
Nora Ciolek hit Avery Flores for a bucket off an inbounds pass for a 43-40 lead with 4:24 left.
“Nora Ciolek did a really good job,” Lydia Fosmore said. “She did a great job distributing the ball and helping bring it up to court for us, as well as Alayna Ottenbacher, she also did both of those things very well.”
The two programs hadn’t faced off since a January 2016 game won by Manistee 58-51, one of only two regular-season setbacks for the Lakers that year before falling in the district final to a Traverse City St. Francis team that would go on to the state championship game.
“They’re a senior dominated team, and they worked the ball well,” Glen Lake coach Brad Fosmore said. “We tried pressing to begin the game, and they didn’t really crack under the pressure. It was kind of ineffective for us, so we pulled it back in the second half and said we’re just going to play a half-court defense and try to get after it that way.”
Lydia Fosmore led the way with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Grace Noonan added 10 points, Flores pitched in six points and five rebounds, Alayna Ottenbacher produced eight points, eight assists and three steals and Laila Shimek had four points.
Alyana Edmondon scored 17 points to lead the Mariners in her final high school game. Gardner scored eight, Maya Goodspeed, Shalyn Harmon and Wayward each had five, Avamae Fett four and Gabby Senters three.
“They just kept getting after it,” said Kott, who started coaching varsity at Manistee in 1996. “That’s their attitude of we don’t want to lose. We refuse to lose. And they kept going after it and going after it. They were going to go down fighting one way or another.”
The Mariners graduate seven seniors — Edmondson, Gardner, Senters, Harmon, Wayward, Fett and Georgia Haag.
“We had some girls in there just specifically for defense,” Brad Fosmore said. “Nora Ciolek did a great job on (Fett) and that’s her role for us, get in there and just stop people.”
The Lakers came into districts on a two-game losing skid and having lost three of their last four, with losses to Division 4 No. 2-ranked Gaylord St. Mary (21-1), Division 4 No. 15 Buckley (18-4) to split the Northwest Conference title and Harbor Springs (18-3).
Kingsley knocked down nine 3-pointers in a 64-39 win over Traverse City St. Francis.
“They all can just shoot it,” Brad Fosmore said. “Seeing all those three-point shooters, they’re just a good, athletic team. Emilee Robinson is a tremendous athlete, and then everybody else is good. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge Friday night.”