Inland Lakes girls dominate third quarter, pull away against Mancelona at home

INDIAN RIVER – Inland Lakes girls basketball coach Daryl Vizina believes he has a team that can make some noise come tournament time.

While Vizina’s Lady Bulldogs weren’t at their best in the opening half on Wednesday night, they showed in the third quarter just how dangerous they could be in a few weeks.

Sparked by their pressure defense, along with the scoring of senior Natalie Wandrie, the Bulldogs outscored Mancelona 26-7 in the third and pulled away for a 62-34 home victory.

“It’s kind of been our struggle all year, is playing defense, and then at halftime, I think we thought we were just going to come in here and roll,” said Vizina. “At halftime, it was only a five-point game, and I think that was a little bit of a wakeup call. We talked about it at halftime, and they just came out and gave a significantly better effort on both ends.”

Leading 24-19 at the half, the Bulldogs (13-4, 10-2 Ski Valley Conference) played with much more urgency in the third, opening up the period with a 14-4 run to help build a 38-23 lead. After Mancelona scored a basket to cut the deficit to 13, the Bulldogs exploded with a 12-0 spurt to go up 50-25 and put the game out of reach.

Wandrie scored 17 of her game-high 23 points in the third to lead the Lady Bulldogs, who captured their fifth straight victory and have now won 13 of their last 15 games.

Wandrie was the lone double-digit scorer for Inland Lakes, but the Bulldogs saw 10 players hit the scoresheet in a solid display. Chloe Robinson finished with seven points, while Hannah Robinson scored six. Tara Clancy, Ryann Clancy and Brooklyn LaBrecque each netted five, Taylor Jones added four, Lauren Fenstermaker recorded three, and Marissa Kolly and Ashley Murray each chipped in with two.

“One of the things about our team is we’ve only had three girls that have played varsity basketball before the season started, so we’ve got a young team,” Vizina said. “Chloe (Robinson) was playing eighth grade basketball last year, and some of these other girls have maybe played a year or two of JV, but we’re still a pretty inexperienced team, but now we’re starting to get our stuff together.

“I think one of the things that’s most impressive about these girls to me is how much improvement they’ve had. Taylor Jones played well, Marissa Kolly has played well, and Lauren (Fenstermaker) played well tonight, she played hard on defense and created some turnovers, and Ashley Murray had a nice finish at the hoop tonight.”

Following the win, the Bulldogs jumped back up to second place in the Ski Valley, while Onaway (13-4, 10-3), which suffered a loss at first-place Gaylord St. Mary (15-2, 13-0) on Wednesday, dropped to third.

With a few games left in the regular season, Vizina is optimistic about where his squad is heading.

“There isn’t one girl who didn’t play tonight that did not contribute positively, and that’s where I think we could be a tough out going forward,” Vizina said. “Our thought process was that if we could make it to Christmas and be kind of hanging around, we’ll surge in the second half. We’ve won 13 out of 15, so we’re starting to roll, and even the game we lost, we had a ton of bad turnovers against (Gaylord) St. Mary’s, and we were down seven in the second half.

“We seem to be trending in the right direction, and that’s what you want.”

Inland Lakes will look to stay in second when it hosts rival Onaway on Friday night. The second contest between the two foes this season will be known for the first time as the ‘M-68 Championship,’ with the winner taking possession of a custom made belt and bragging rights until the following season.

“We have a wrestling championship belt that we ordered online, it was custom made and designed for both teams, it’s pretty cool, and we’re going to do it every year,” Vizina said. “It’s a rivalry game, and the second time we play the winning team gets to take it home and keep it in their trophy case. It’ll be a little added intrigue to the game.

“It makes it fun.”

Though his Bulldogs beat Onaway in January, Vizina knows the rematch will be an intense battle once again.

“I know we beat Onaway the first time, but I think that was a bit of an upset,” Vizina said. “They’ve had a tough schedule, they have a better record than us, and they’re a half game ahead of us in the conference, so we can’t afford to play like that in the first half against them or Gaylord St. Mary’s or Cheboygan or any of the good teams we have coming up.”

Alyssa Kiel scored a team-high nine points to lead Mancelona (5-12, 3-9) on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Inland Lakes girls dominate third quarter, pull away against Mancelona at home