GAYLORD ― This is the year the Gaylord St. Mary girls basketball program has been building towards.
The Snowbirds have been the team to beat in the Ski Valley Conference over the past two seasons and have made back-to-back trips to the Division 4 regional final. Entering 2025 with a trio of senior leaders in Payton Glasby, Kaylee Jeffers and Emery Blust, this is the season GSM looks to take a step forward, break through that ceiling and make a run deep into the Division 4 postseason.
If game one was any indication, the Snowbirds look to have taken that critical step forward into elite status.
Last season, GSM was outmatched by a highly-ranked and highly-touted Harbor Springs Rams team, losing by 16 points on the road to one of the top teams in Division 3. Starting 2025-26 by hosting the Rams, it was GSM that looked like the higher division team as it pulled away in the second half for a 49-43 victory.
Here are the key takeaways from a key Snowbirds win on the opening night of the season.
Snowbirds’ press holds Harbor to two points in third quarter
If you play GSM, you’d better be ready to handle a fullcourt press for all 32 minutes. Harbor handled it well, but it was a third-quarter scoring drought that led the Rams back and helped the Snowbirds pull away.
Leading 26-25 to begin the third quarter, GSM’s press defense really started to affect the Harbor offense. As GSM’s offense started to get going in the second half, the defense began swarming the Rams. Harbor was held scoreless for the first six minutes of the quarter and only had two points for the entire third quarter, leading by 13 points entering the fourth.
GSM’s offense will come and go, but that swarming press defense is a constant that makes it a threat to beat any team that comes in unprepared for it.
Jeffers scores 21, Glasby 11 points away from 1,000-point club
St. Mary’s seniors dominated the stat sheet; point guard Kaylee Jeffers led the team with 21 points, Allyra Cook added 7 points and Emery Blust had 4.
Senior Payton Glasby, meanwhile, scored 13 points, bringing her career total to 989 points. She has a good chance to reach the 1,000 point club on Wednesday vs. Grand Traverse Academy.
If Jeffers, Glasby and Blust can stay healthy, there won’t be many Division 4 teams that will have the defensive ability to match all three of them on a nightly basis.
Foul trouble limits Beach, Brey and McChannock pick up scoring slack
Sophomore Makayla Beach showed flashes of how special she can be for Harbor Springs this season. However, it was foul trouble that kept the talented underclassman from breaking out against the Snowbirds, finishing with four total points.
It was two fellow sophomores, Makenna Brey and Lillian McShannock, who picked up the scoring slack. Brey led the team with 14 points while McShannock ended with 13 points.
The Rams will still be a formidable opponent in the Northern Shores Conference under new head coach Ethan McCarthy. Whether or not they can go undefeated in the league and win another district title will play itself out as the season progresses.
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: Key takeaways from St. Mary’s opening night win over Harbor Springs
Reporting by Dylan Jespersen, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
