Tawas Area's Gina Gerow (22) drills her fifth 3-pointer of the game with just over a minute left to give the Braves the lead for good over Ogemaw Heights.
The Falcons' Josie Wiltse drives past Tawas Area's Rachel Adaline during Friday's contest.
Brent Baker
Tawas Area's Jenny Jacques can't get this shot over Ogeamw Heights' Ashley Thompson, though Thompson was called for a foul on the play.

TAWAS AREA - Feb. 20, 2009 - Tawas Area's girls basketball team had been rolling unchallenged through the North East Michigan Conference this season.

Not so on Friday.

Ogemaw Heights proved itself more than worthy of playing in this late-season NEMC title-deciding matchup, leading through most of the second half before Tawas came through with a series of clutch plays in the final minutes to take a 50-46 victory. The Braves claimed at least a share of the league title with the win, and need only a win against Pinconning or John Glenn next week to keep the championship for themselves.

The Falcons will finish second, their best finish in at least a decade.

It looked for awhile like it would be the Falcons' night. That was especially true after Ashley Thompson drilled a 3-pointer to end the third quarter and give the Falcons a 39-38 lead, Tawas center Rachel Adaline picked up her fourth foul in the opening seconds of the fourth, and Thompson hit another trey. Josie Wiltse's free throw made it a 43-38 Ogemaw lead, and the Falcons quickly forced a turnover and had a chance to widen the margin further.

Ogemaw wasn't able to get Adaline out of the game, though, and paid for it down the stretch as she scored four of the Braves' next six points and continued to be an imposing defensive presence in the paint.

The Falcons still led 46-44 with 1:10 left when Tawas called a time out to set up a play. It didn't unfold the way Braves' coach Todd Kaems planned; instead, Gina Gerow took the inbounds pass, and given a little too much space by the Ogemaw defense, drained the go-ahead 3-pointer from the top of the circle.

"That was huge," Kaems said. "The play wasn't even set up for her, but they didn't step out to guard her and she took it."

The Falcons had two chances to reclaim the lead. On Ogemaw's next possession, Audrey Thoryk forced a held ball, giving possession back to the Braves, and after running another 30 seconds off the clock Gerow hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it 48-46.

Ogemaw got the ball to Thompson, but Tawas forced her to pick up a screen a couple feet beyond the 3-point circle before she could get an open look, and her shot drew iron. Gerow hit two more free throws with 15 seconds left to clinch it.

"That was a great game to watch, and hopefully a great game to play in," said Ogemaw coach Tim Hansen. "I thought Todd made some good adjustments. We wanted to run a little bit off a delay (with the lead), but they extended their zone, pressured us and we didn't handle that real well. It seemed like 32 (the Braves' Jenny Jacques) had about five steals there at times when we could have built on our lead.

"Hopefully we'll all grow from this and use it as a springboard."

Tawas built a seven-point lead early in the game as Gerow scored three straight baskets, including a pair of 3-pointers, to erase an 8-7 Falcon lead.

Ogemaw closed the quarter with a Thompson trey, two free throws from Kristi Killackey and a Rilee Palm hoop at the quarter buzzer.

The Falcons' pressure defense bothered the Braves, and after Tawas took a 30-26 lead at the half, Ogemaw took the lead in the third quarter as Thompson took advantage of a flurry of Tawas turnovers, converting two into layups and draining a trey for a 33-31 lead.

"Ogemaw was very well-prepared," Kaems said. "They did some things defensively we hadn't seen, did them well and forced some turnovers. We kind of helped them by throwing the ball around a bit, too.

"The girls know they turned the ball over too much. But they got the win against a very good team that has improved a lot."

Gerow finished with five 3-pointers -- three in the first quarter -- and had 22 points, with Adaline adding 18 to lift the Braves to 16-2 overall (8-0 NEMC).

Thompson, with four treys of her own, had a game-high 24, with Wiltse and Palm each adding nine.

The Falcons (14-4, 7-2) travel to Cadillac on Monday and host Whittemore-Prescott to wrap up the regular season on Friday, Feb. 27.