Marquette’s Ellie Hicks, center, looks for a teammate to pass to as Petoskey’s Isabel Anderson blocks Thursday night at Marquette Senior High School. (Journal photo by Rachel Oakley)

MARQUETTE — With their season on the line, the Marquette Senior High School girls basketball team put together possibly its most dominating performance of the year Thursday night.

The Redettes downed Petoskey 49-26 to punch their ticket to tonight’s Class D district tournament championship game against Traverse City Central, a 57-37 winner over TC West on Thursday. Both game were makeups after bad weather forced postponements on Wednesday.

“The win was a balanced effort as a group,” Marquette head coach Ben Smith said. “We knew Petoskey has great size and we’d have to limit their opportunities around the bucket.

“We ran a good rotation that got to them in the first half, and it allowed us to switch out players with another big game (today).”

The Redettes jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead, and built on it by continuously raining triples on the Northmen.

Marquette sank six shots from beyond the arc in the first half, seven for the game, and held an 18-6 lead after the first quarter thanks to three girls scoring five points each — Amber Huebner, Kellsey Grange and Stasha Warchock.

Warchock ended Marquette’s scoring in the first quarter, shooting over a jumping Petoskey defender to nail a triple from the corner.

Smith said that while he doesn’t want his team planning on 22 attempted 3-pointers every game, it helped open up Petoskey’s defense.

“It’s a fine line playing like that,” Smith said. “You want to catch and shoot when you’re open, but you don’t want to fall in love with the jump shot. When you have a few that go in, you can set your defense and force (Petoskey) to come at you and open up some driving lanes.”

Though it took almost three minutes for Marquette to score their next basket when Claudia Hale sank a triple identical to Warchock’s, the Redette defense held Petoskey at bay and didn’t allow the vistors to score in double digits in any quarter.

The Northmen, who have three girls more than 6-feet tall, couldn’t get more than six points out of any of its players.

Smith said the defense’s success resulted from his players’ ability to keep up with Petoskey’s aggressive offense.

“We wanted to make sure we turned their ball handlers over,” Smith said. “We were aware of players in the post, and we didn’t want them to be the deciding factor in the game.”

Petoskey had no answer for Marquette on their home court, as the Redettes held a 33-11 lead at the half.

With a 33-11 lead at halftime, MSHS built a lead big enough to let Smith rest his starters for at least the final minute of each quarter.

And a 45-20 lead with six minutes left prompted the coach to pull his starters for good as they were welcomed back to the bench by a standing ovation from the crowd.

Grange led Marquette with nine points, followed by Huebner with eight. Freshman Avery Ledy, who was called up to the varsity team midway through the season, led the Redettes with nine rebounds.

“Everyone chipped in with effort,” Smith said. “It’s good to get everyone that kind of experience at this point in the season. It will be a big benefit with the quick game coming up.

“We have to rest and hydrate,” Smith said. “We have a few sick kids, but we’re going to work on getting healthy fast.”

Smith said Traverse City Central will present different challenges.

“It’s a much different approach from (Petoskey),” Smith said. “Instead of just players in the post with decent size, Traverse City has good and fast guards as well as solid post play, and we need to compete every possession.

“That’s the goal. We’re not focusing on winning the game, but winning every possession in front of us.”

Ray Bressette can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 251. His email address is rbressette@miningjournal.net.