Gaylord St. Mary, JoBurg girls basketball to meet in district finals

ELMIRA ― The third and final matchup between Gaylord St. Mary and Johannesburg-Lewiston in 2026 has been set.

GSM (22-1, 16-0 Ski Valley) and JoBurg (10-10, 7-8 SVC) met twice during the regular season, the Snowbirds defeating their rivals twice while completing an unbeaten conference schedule and securing a second-straight Ski Valley Conference title. After both teams came away with victories in the MHSAA Division 4 district semifinals on Wednesday, March 4, they'll meet one more time with a district title on the line.

Both teams played in the Division 4 District 106 semifinals at Alba High School on Wednesday evening, with GSM facing Hillman in the first game of the night while JoBurg vs. Atlanta served as the nightcap. GSM, winners of five-straight district titles and a potential state title contender, cruised to a 66-17 victory over the Tigers, while JL won 47-21 over the Huskies, setting up the rivalry rematch on Friday, March 6.

GSM pulled away early, running up a 46-6 lead by halftime while letting their starters rest for most of the second half. A trio of Snowbird seniors scored in double figures; Payton Glasby led with 18 points, Kaylee Jeffers had 11 points and Emery Blust had 10 points.

JL, meanwhile, was in control of its matchup with Atlanta for most of the way, widening its lead to as large as 30 points in the second half. Sophomore Emery Lawes continues to lead JL's offense, finishing with a game-high 20 points as the Cardinals cruised to a 26-point victory, setting up another rematch with GSM on Friday.

JL would like nothing more than to stand in the way of their rivals' sixth-straight district title, but they'll need to find a way to score while keeping up with GSM's pressure defense and fastbreak offense. The Snowbirds outscored the Cardinals 122-52 in the two regular-season victories and have been essentially unbeatable over the past month and a half, currently on a 16-game winning streak dating back to mid January.

GSM vs. JoBurg is at 7 p.m., Friday, March 6 at Alba High School.

Gaylord girls season comes to an end in district semifinals

GAYLORD ― With 5:30 to play in the third quarter of Gaylord's playoff matchup with Traverse City Central, a well-run baseline out-of-bounds play set up junior Molly Hicks for an open 3-pointer. She hit that shot, cutting the Trojans' lead to 25-22 and looked to swing momentum in the Blue Devils' favor.

That was as close as the score would get; TC Central scored the next 10 points, the Trojans never allowing their lead to drop to single digits again as the Blue Devils' 2025-26 season came to the close.

TC Central (9-8, 7-5 Big North) pulled away in the second half of the Division 1 district semifinal matchup, finishing a 47-28 victory to move on to the district title game while eliminating Gaylord (11-10, 5-7 BNC) from the 2025-26 postseason.

GHS found offense in spurts, including a 14-point performance from senior Karlee Pretzlaff in her final game as a Blue Devil, but could not consistently find buckets in the second half as TC Central held GHS to just nine points in the final 16 minutes.

Four seniors graduate from the Blue Devils roster, including Preztlaff, Addison McDonald, Makayla Kozlowski and Nora Bethuy.

Contact GHT Sports Editor Dylan Jespersen at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: St. Mary, JL girls basketball to meet in Division 4 district finals