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Chips edge Spartans in OT of district quarterfinal

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Manistee’s Annie Fuller (11) collides with Mason County Central’s Kassidy Jensen during the second half of Monday’s district quarterfinal. (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)
Manistee’s Annie Fuller (11) collides with Mason County Central’s Kassidy Jensen during the second half of Monday’s district quarterfinal. (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)

MANISTEE — There’s a key to shooting when the shots aren’t dropping.

Keep shooting.

After missing the potential game-winning layup at the buzzer, Emilee Kott didn’t hang her head.

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Instead, the Manistee freshman guard remained confident and buried a 3-pointer from the corner early in the extra session to help propel the Chippewas to a 50-48 overtime win against Mason County Central in a Class B district quarterfinal on Monday night.

“I just shot it and hoped it went in,” she said, “and I had confidence it was going to go in.”

Emilee Kott wasn’t the only Chippewa who needed a short memory as Manistee shot just 23 percent (17-for-72) from the field, but made just enough baskets to pick up its first district win since a double-overtime victory against Ludington in the 2010 championship.

“The layups, the put-backs, nothing was falling and we managed to hit a couple big shots when we needed to,” said Manistee coach Kenn Kott. “It seemed like we’d get a couple shots, they wouldn’t fall, then we’d come down and someone would hit one and it would spark us again.”

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The Chippewas (13-7) advance to the semifinals and will host Benzie Central (12-7) in a 6 p.m. semifinal on Wednesday. Kingsley, which beat Cadillac 56-50 on Monday, will play Ludington in the other semifinal.

What would have been the biggest shot of the game for MCC didn’t count. After a Manistee (13-7) turnover late in regulation, the Spartans (12-9) brought the ball up the court and coach Mike Weinert called a timeout just before Payton Bladzik hit a mid-range jumper that would have given MCC a two-point lead with less than 10 seconds to play.

“I called it well before she got the ball,” said Weinert, whose team turned the ball over after the timeout, leading to Emilee Kott’s missed layup. “They don’t know that and they’re probably not going to forget that for a while.

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“That was tough to see go in, tough to see go in.”

Emilee Kott led the Chippewas with 13 points to go with eight rebounds and four assists and Annie Fuller, who hit a pair of free throws in overtime that proved to be the difference, scored all 10 of her points after halftime. Emma Burns chipped in eight points, four blocks and three steals, Jessica Gustad grabbed eight boards and Emily Thompson led Manistee with five assists.

Madison Geers led MCC with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Caroline Rossi had 10 points and Kassidy Jensen nine points and nine rebounds.

Burns carried the Chippewas offensively with six points in the first quarter in the paint before the Spartans limited her touches in their zone, which gave Manistee plenty of outside looks that simply didn’t fall.

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“I told our kids all week, ‘they’re going to dare you to shoot Monday night, we’ve got to be ready,’” Kenn Kott said. “I thought we had good looks, we were in rhythm and just too many times it just wouldn’t go in.”

Manistee, which beat MCC 61-42 on Nov. 26, shot just 7-for-32 from 3-point range and the first two that went in were courtesy of the bank.

“They hung in there the whole game, they stuck to the gameplan and I think it was a good one,” Weinert said of his team. “We slowed Manistee down, they never got on the break once the whole night and that was kind of what we wanted to prevent because they’re a great team when they run.

“They’re a good-shooting team, but we were going to take our chances from the 3 instead of layups.”

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The game was tied at 10 after the first quarter and late in the second Stephanie Smogoleski gave Manistee a boost off the bench with a pair of triples, to go with one from Emilee Kott, as the Chippewas led 25-19 at halftime.

“Every time we went into a timeout, everybody just kept saying ‘keep shooting, keep shooting; you can’t miss every one,’” Emilee Kott said.

The Spartans scored the first six points of the third to tie the game at 25 before Manistee scored the last five and a basket by Megan Vander Weele staked the Chippewas to a 35-30 lead heading into the fourth.

Although the Chippewas weren’t shooting a high percentage, they were getting second and third chances and finished with 20 offensive rebounds.

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“Our rebounding was key, especially when you’re missing that many shots,” Kenn Kott said. “If we would have been one-and-done every time down the floor, we’d have been in big trouble with that kind of percentage.”

A score in the paint and triple by Fuller gave the Chippewas their biggest lead of the night at 40-32 with 6:07 to play, but the Spartans answered with a big run. MCC’s experience might have showed late against a Manistee lineup in which seven of the 10 players were in their first postseason game.

“We allowed them back into the game and that’s where we should have took control and it didn’t happen,” Kenn Kott said. “If we did lose a little bit of our poise in the game, that might have been the one point where we did.”

While the Chippewas struggled taking care of the ball, the Spartans clawed back into the game and Kylie Mount scored on a backdoor cut to knot the score at 45 with 1:07 left. Smogoleski slipped driving baseline for a turnover before Bladzik’s shot that came after the timeout.

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Burns got a steal and Manistee called timeout with 5.5 seconds left to set up a play to cover the length of the court. The play drawn up didn’t work, but Emilee Kott was able to get to the basket for a left-handed layup attempt over Geers, it just didn’t drop.

“We got a little bit lucky there so we’ll take that,” Weinert said. “I think maybe we deserved a little luck at that point after that shot (after the timeout).”

After putting the extra four minutes on the board, Emilee Kott pulled the trigger on a corner triple early in overtime that put the Chippewas ahead for good.

“There’s a lot that goes on in the minds of these young players and for her to miss that game-winning layup and not be devastated inside is something that I’m just tremendously proud of her,” Kenn Kott said of his daughter. “To be able to come out and say ‘I’m going to take that 3-point shot and get us back in the lead and make up for it,’ rather than going to take that shot and say, ‘oh my goodness, I don’t know if I can make it now,’ that’s quite a difference.”

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Although the Chippewas have struggled at the line this season, they shot 8-for-11 on Monday, capped by Fuller’s pair with 35.9 seconds left for the 50-45 lead.

“Big free throws by Annie,” Kenn Kott said. “Huge.”

Bladzik buried a triple with 17 seconds left to keep the Spartans in the game, but they never fouled after the made shot, despite Weinert saying that was the plan. Manistee gladly ran out the rest of the time to earn a rematch with Benzie.

“The biggest thing I tell the girls all week long is every game we play it’s another step in our experience,” Kenn Kott said. “They all looked at me in the locker room and said, ‘that was an experience, coach.’”

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