Lake Leelanau St. Mary continued its undefeated start to the girls basketball season with a tough road test against Northwest Conference contender Buckley Monday 51-43.
The Eagles pitted their speed against the Bear’s size to seize St. Mary’s third win in-a-row.
“Our defense is coming along and that’s what really helped us out. (Buckley) is young, they are going to be good for the next few years,” St. Mary coach Matt Barnowski said. “We took advantage of the situation when we could, we got a couple fast break points early.”
Buckley and St. Mary sparred in the first half as the Eagles went into the break with a 20-18 lead. St. Mary senior Kyla Barnowski started the game on fire from the perimeter that resulted in interior points for several Eagle slashers.
“We knew they were really tough and we had to beat them on the boards and play tougher than they were in the first half .... then we really stepped up in the second half and we knew what we wanted and that was a big win,” St. Mary senior Kyla Barnowski said. “Defense is going to be really good for us this year ... Sit low and attack them.”
The Eagles would turn it up another notch in the second half, taking a double digit lead into the fourth quarter (36-27).
St. Mary struggled from the charity stripe all night long, which kept Buckley in the game. St. Mary went 8/19.
“We are definitely going to be shooting a lot of free throws today at practice and conditioning a lot,” Kyla Barnowski said.
Barnowski led the Eagles with 24 points, 13 coming in the first half.
She is coming off a 28 point performance against Cedarville Saturday in another win for the Eagles.
St. Mary’s several other scorers include Lydia Bramer, 11 points; Cathryn Mikowski, 7 points; Mackenzie Schaub, 3 points.
Schaub held her own against tall Buckley girls during the physical game.
“It was a good win and was one that we needed, I think it’ll bring out our confidence too,” Schaub said.
The Eagles scored 16 points in the third quarter and 15 in the fourth to hold off the Bears who had a chance to tie the game multiple times during late stages of the fourth quarter.
Buckley center Lucy Moyer led the bears with 15 points , followed by Mikayla Kulawiak with 8 points; Kayla Milarch 12 points; Maddie Snider 6 points.
St. Mary held Buckley to six points in the first quarter and nine points in the third quarter that proved to be the difference in the game.
“It was a good win for us. The girls pushed themselves ... I’m also super happy with the way the girls handled the press as well,” coach Barnowski said.
The Eagles have nearly 10 days off until they play in a tournament in Romulus at Airport High School Friday and Saturday, Dec. 28-29.
St. Mary dominates Cedarville
Saturday, St. Mary defeated Cedarville 64-28.
Barnowski led the team with 28 points, followed by Mikowski’s 13 points; Mackenzie Schaub 10 points, and Muriel Korson six points.
