JOHANNESBURG ― When you can play defense the way Gaylord St. Mary girls basketball does on a nightly basis, the Snowbirds don’t really need to shoot the lights out to come away with a victory.
But, of course, an elite shooting night doesn’t hurt their chances.
No. 2 Gaylord St. Mary (24-1, 16-0 Ski Valley) met Buckley (20-5, 11-2 Northwest) in a Division 4 regional semifinal matchup on Monday, March 9, and that mix of sharpshooting and elite defense proved to be too much for the Bears to handle as GSM ran away with a 66-34 victory, putting the Snowbirds one win away from an elusive regional title.
“We weren’t perfect at all, but they were prepared. They believed in what they were doing, they believed in the system and some nights, it looks like that,” said coach Pat Schultz.
Glasby, Snowbirds heat up from 3-point range
GSM senior Payton Glasby is a gifted scorer.
The No. 2 Snowbirds’ leading scorer in the regular season, Glasby’s ability to shoot from beyond the 3-point line makes her a tough ask for most post players to guard, while her size and ability to score off the dribble make her an impossible matchup for most guards.
If she shoots the way she did on Monday night, there isn’t a player in Division 4 built to guard her, period.
Glasby led all scorers with 26 points, accounting for four of the team’s 12 total 3-pointers in the first half alone. It was a special shooting performance, even by GSM’s standards, leaving Glasby at a loss for words after the game.
“That was crazy, shot after shot was going in. It was just insane to feel that out there,” said Glasby.
Still, coach Schultz felt his team would’ve been fine without the 12 made 3-pointers; it was the GSM defense that wore Buckley down, holding the Bears to just four points in the third quarter as the Snowbird lead ballooned to double digits after halftime.
“Even if you take (the shooting performance) out of it, I think with our press, it wasn’t going ot be the first or second quarter, but I knew we were going to get to them,” said Schultz. “I could tell in the middle of the second quarter, they were doubled over and kind of tired.”
IF GSM can play full-court press defense for 32 minutes as they did on Monday, there aren’t many teams that will have the stamina to keep up with them. If they shoot the way they did, their winning streak, currently at 17 games, may not come to an end until next winter.
Fellow GSM seniors Emery Blust and Kaylee Jeffers added 17 and 13 points, respectively.
St. Mary vs. Frankfort, Round III
After GSM’s win over Buckley and Frankfort’s 65-34 victory over No. 5 Mio, the Snowbirds and Panthers will meet again in the Division 4 regional finals on Wednesday, March 11.
It’s the fifth consecutive trip to the regional finals for the Snowbirds and the third in which they’ll face Frankfort, the Panthers beating the Snowbirds in 2024 (64-37) and 2025 (48-30). In those games, Frankfort dominated the offensive glass while proving to be one of the best teams facing GSM’s vaunted press defense, a recipe that has proven successful against GSM in back-to-back seasons.
However, the Snowbirds are focused on what they can do, not who they play.
“I think we just have to keep doing the same thing, not change anything, and just keep doing what we know to do,” said Glasby.
Contact GHT Sports Editor Dylan Jespersen at Djespersen@gaylordheraldtimes.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: St. Mary uses elite shooting, strong defense to reach regional finals
Reporting by Dylan Jespersen, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
