Marquette’s Amber Manitowabi Huebner, front, performs a layup and scores against Traverse City Central Friday night, March 3, 2017, at Marquette Senior High School. (Journal photo by Rachel Oakley)

MARQUETTE — The Marquette Redettes held off a second-half comeback on Friday night to defeat Traverse City Central 47-40 and win a Class A girls basketball district championship.

Marquette head coach Ben Smith said his team showed resilience during Central’s second-half comeback to finish the job in a game where the Redettes never trailed.

“We needed to compete every single possession,” Smith said. “A lot of times, players get ahead of themselves thinking about winning the game and districts, but you have to keep competing.

“I don’t know if we got nervous in the second half or kind of forgot what we were playing for, but we mishandled some things and made it interesting. But we were able to come through with some big free throws at the end to win it.”

The Redettes were coming off a game just one night earlier when they sank six 3-pointers over Petoskey, and they continued that success with baskets from beyond the arc by Amber Huebner and Izabelle Peterson in their first two possessions.

Marquette jumped out to an 11-0 lead, which both coaches agreed was a deciding factor.

The streaks just kept coming, with the Trojans scoring nine straight points of their own, but Marquette put together an 8-0 run to end the quarter and double up TC 18-9 at the first-quarter buzzer.

Trojans head coach Greg Farmer said the slow start haunted his team.

“Marquette’s 3-pointers early on was basically the difference in the game,” Farmer said. “Whether it was from the bus ride or our defense lacking, we weren’t playing the same.

“We couldn’t get the ball into our posts like we normally do. It’s hard to take advantage of anything when Marquette is disciplined and doing the right things.”

After a back-and-forth second quarter, the physicality began to pick up in the second half when the Trojans started cutting into Marquette’s 18-point halftime lead.

Mary Drake started Central’s rally with a quick triple to start the half, while Marquette’s offense stalled out, not scoring in the first six minutes of the third quarter.

Farmer said his team made adjustments in the closing moments of the first half that paid off after the break.

“We were switching up our defenses,” Farmer said. “We threw in a 1-3-1 zone defense at the end of the second quarter and it cut the score down.

“It was confusing Marquette’s girls. We could see Huebner trying to get in position, but the rest of them didn’t know where they were supposed to go.”

Margot Woughter, who led Central with 20 points, sank a triple to start the fourth quarter, pulling the Trojans within 34-31.

But Huebner became too much for the visitors.

She responded to Woughter’s triple by running the ball the length of the court for a layup and drawing a foul, staking the Redettes back to a six-point lead after she made the and-one free throw.

It was a sign of things to come as Huebner earned three trips to the foul line late in the game, finishing with 22 points to put the game out of reach.

Huebner picked off Drake on a Trojan sideline out-of-bounds play in the closing seconds, completing what she said was a special moment for her team, but especially its seniors.

“We wanted to work hard knowing it was our last game on our home court,” said Huebner, one of those seniors. “We wanted to go out with the win.

“I was tearing up when I got the steal at the end of the game. It was a nice feeling.”

With the district championship, Marquette (20-3) advances to the Class A regional semifinals to face Midland Dow (20-2) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Gaylord. A win sends the Redettes to the regional final in Mount Pleasant two nights later.

Huebner said her team has unfinished business in the regionals.

“We’ve been taken out in the (regional) first round the last two years, so this year we know what it’s going to be like,” she said. “Hopefully myself and the four other seniors can lead the team further.”

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