TAYLOR MOORE (31) of St. Mary wrestles the ball away from Northport’s Chelsie Wack in last Thursday’s Cherryland Conference rematch. Northport’s girls basketball team gave St. Mary a better battle, but still lost the war.

The Wildcats lost last week’s rematch 49-39 at home, a much closer contest that the 88-42 loss earlier.

St. Mary didn’t pull ahead until three minutes to go in the third quarter.

Northport started the game with 6-0 run in the first, but St. Mary finally got its first basket two minutes in and was able to pull ahead 14-12 at the end of the first. At the half the Eagles stayed up 22-20.

The Wildcats undoing was the third quarter with the Eagles out scoring Northport 12-9 to take a 34-29 lead into the fourth.

With the win, St. Mary is in the driver's seat for the Cherryland Conference title.

“This was a conference game, a good win for us,” said St. Mary Coach Paula Korson.

YESENIA PEREZ of Northport puts up a shot as St. Mary senior Taylor Moore (31) looks on last Thursday. St. Mary is 2-0 in the league. Both Grand Traverse Academy and Northport already have two losses in the three-team conference.

Northport will play the Grand Traverse Academy tonight.

“This was a major, major improvement over the last time we played,” said Northport Coach Casey Wilcox. “It’s the best basketball we’ve played all season and it’s nice to see them coming together at the end of the season when it all counts.”

St. Mary managed the win in a closer game without one of its top scorers in Rachael Thon, who sat due to foot problems.

Even without Thon, Korson said a goal they had for the night was to keep Wildcat scoring threat Nina Muller under 20 points.

NINA MULLER of Northport shoots over St. Mary’s defender Shayna Sumner on her way to scoring 18 points for the Wildcats. “Nina had 18, so we barely did it,” Korson said. “It was nice to have Megan (Popp) and Shayna (Sumner) step forward with their defense.”

By not having Thon available, Korson said the other girls on the team had to improve their game to get the win.

“The silver lining was the other girls had to step up and help the team out,” she said.

For the night, Taylor Moore scored 20 points and had 15 rebounds. Megan Popp and her sister Sarah each had 12 points, seven rebounds. Shayna Sumner had five rebounds and four steals.

Wilcox said while Muller was her usual steady self it was the play of eighth grader Yesenia Perez that contributed to the Wildcats being so close in this game.

“Yessie came out of her shell a little bit,” Wilcox said. “As an eighth grader to post up against Taylor Moore, a senior who is one of the best players in the county, that is very promising for a coach to see an eighth grader muscle up a senior.”

Muller also had five steals and six rebounds. Perez netted seven points and 10 rebounds. Autumn Huck had six pointss and Ashley Pino grabbed five boards.

Northport also lost to Forest Area Monday 70-38. Muller scored 26 points for Northport.

On Tuesday, St. Mary hosted Brethren and it looked like the Eagles would keep its winning streak going. Korson said St. Mary had a 35-20 edge at the half, and despite a poor third, were still in control in the fourth.

The Bobcats did manage to pull ahead, but with 25 seconds to go Sarah

Popp hit a three to tie the game up 45-all.

“Then Brethren got the ball back, came down the court and shot a two,” she said. “It missed, they got the offensive rebound and hit the basket at the buzzer to win.” The final score was 47-45.

Sarah Popp and Thon each had 16 points, with Thon grabbing six rebounds and four steals. Sumner also had four steals.

St. Mary will host Leland Monday and play at Suttons Bay Tuesday.