Lake Leelanau St. Mary girls basketball team defeated Onekama in a regular season finale 61-39 on Friday, March 1.
Three Eagle players had double- doubles: Delana Kirt was the leading scorer with 16 points and 10 rebounds, Kyla Barnowski scored 15 points and had 11 rebounds, Leah Fleis had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Della Bunek had 10 points, Muriel Korson 6 points and Cathryn Mikowski added 4 points.
The Eagles played Grand Traverse Academy (9-10) yesterday as of press time. St. Mary is the favorite to win the district. The defending MHSAA Div. 4 State Champion, Glen Lake (147), would have to defeat Leland (10-12) to set up a rematch between the Lakers and St. Mary on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m., hosted by Leland.
Glen Lake lost to the Eagles 52-42 at the end of January. St. Mary went up as many as 18 points in the first half before Glen Lake got within five points of taking the lead. If Leland doesn’t play spoiler against the Lakers, Friday nights game would be the biggest game between Glen Lake and St. Mary in program history. The Eagles defeated Glen Lake for the first time since at least 2003 when they beat the Lakers in January.
Perhaps the winner of Friday night’s game prove they are state championship contenders.
Mick McCabe, a legendary Detroit Free Press columnist and sports reporter, predicted the Eagles to be crowned state champions.
“How can you not root for a team from Way Up There (near Traverse City) that comes Way Down Here (way south of Detroit) to play games at Ottawa Lake Whiteford and D-1 Temperance Bedford? Those games were a hop skip and a jump away from Toledo, yeah, the one in Ohio. St. Mary also has a number of impressive victories,” McCabe said in a March 3 Detroit Free Press article ‘MHSAA girls basketball tournament 2024.’
