MANISTIQUE — The celebration isn’t over just yet.
Even when it looks like it might be, it’s clearly not over until the Petoskey girls basketball team says it is.
Just days after earning a comeback victory in the final minute of their district championship, Petoskey’s girls pulled off another comeback in a Division 2 regional semifinal Monday, March 9 in Manistique.
Meeting a 23-1 Negaunee team, Petoskey fought back from 12 down entering the fourth, put together a 23-4 advantage in the final quarter and advanced on a 49-42 victory over the Miners.
Having played a number of close games this season, including recently, Petoskey coach Brooke Carlson delivered a message of that experience at halftime with her team down against Negaunee.
“I said, ‘We’re good, we’re fine.’” Carlson said. “We had some girls in foul trouble. We were down five in the final minute against Sault Ste. Marie, I said, ‘We’ve got 16 minutes to come back from this deficit.’ So I said we’re fine. I did not know we would get down 12.”
After trailing in a 23-19 game at the break, Petoskey had trouble getting things going offensively in the third quarter still.
But in the game’s final quarter, things clicked. Although, it came on the defensive end first.
“This team has been locked in defensively like they know defense is going to win games,” Carlson said. “Sure enough, they clamped down again in the fourth to give themselves a shot and make things happen on offense. And, they did it.”
Freshman Elaina Flynn took off in the final quarter, nailing a pair of 3-pointers, while notching 13 points in all in the quarter, leading in the game with 18.
Sophomore Lyla Janes also got going, hitting an early 3-pointer, while going 3 for 4 at the line.
Petoskey also leaned on freshman Ella Sulitis in the second half and she finished with 16 points in all.
“Ella was unstoppable,” Carlson said. “They didn’t have an answer for Ella and if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
A shocked Negaunee team closed the season with a 23-2 record, while Petoskey plays on for a regional championship.
It comes as the first time Petoskey’s girls will play for a regional title trophy since the 2009-10 season when they fell to Kingsford in a 42-34 Class B regional title game.
The last regional title for Petoskey came back in November of the 1999 season when they earned a 58-45 win over Reed City. They later fell to DeWitt in the Class C quarterfinals.
Next up for this Petoskey (21-3) team will be a strong Big Rapids (20-4) squad at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 11 in Gaylord. Big Rapids defeated Clare in a 50-33 regional semifinal.
While the two likely don’t know much about each other, that’ll soon change. Heading back on the bus Monday night, Carlson was already getting ahead on learning the Cardinals.
“It’ll be a lot of work tonight and tomorrow,” she said.
Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey girls pull off another comeback, push season into regional finals
Reporting by Drew Kochanny, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
