Fleming had another monster night to lead the Rogers City girls basketball team past Frankfort 54-51 in a girls Class D regional semifinal game on Tuesday at Grayling High School.

The Hurons built leads throughout the night, but in the end, the game became a lot closer than Rogers City would have liked. They were able to hang on to win after Frankfort’s late surge came up just short as Raegan Thorr missed a three at the buzzer.

In the end, the Hurons had just enough to survive and advance to Thursday’s regional championship game against Bellaire. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

“We’re happy to be moving on, but we know we have to clean some things up,” Rogers City coach Duane Pitts said. “We had a chance to put the game away and we made a couple big mistakes late and didn’t execute well.”

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Rogers City's Taylor Fleming (33) scores underneath the hoop while being defended by Frankfort's Abby Hodge (24).

The Hurons took a 41-31 lead into the fourth quarter and looked to be in control, but Frankfort showed why it had been to this point the past five years as a program. The Panthers battled back to cut the lead to three with five and a half minutes left as Kayla Rabeau committed her fifth foul and exited the game.

From there, Rogers City turned to its top player and Fleming answered the call as she scored eight straight points for the Hurons and found ways to disrupt the Panthers all night as she finished with 28 points, 18 rebounds, seven steals and six blocks.

“Taylor stepped up big time and we definitely needed that with Kayla fouling out early in the fourth,” Pitts said. “Taylor’s play and the steady play of Sydney (Purgiel) tonight was key for us.”

Rogers City held 51-45 lead with under a minute and a half to play. The Panthers didn’t panic and the Hurons did late.

Frankfort cut the lead to four with 46 seconds left when Jayna Hance was fouled and sent to line. Hance missed the front end of a one and one, but fortunately the Hurons came away with the rebound and got the ball inside to Catheryn Hart who was fouled on a shot attempt.

Hart cashed in on both free throws to give Rogers City a 53-47 lead with 30 seconds left.

The Panthers quickly answered with a basket and stole the ensuing inbound and Thorr made a layup to cut the lead to 53-51 to force Pitts to use a timeout with 20 seconds left.

After the timeout, Hance was fouled again and split a pair of free throws giving Frankfort another chance. 

The Panthers nearly saw its final chance slip away as Fleming stole the inbound, but missed an open layup.

Frankfort drove the length of the floor and had a ball deflect off the Hurons setting up an inbounds play with three seconds left on the clock. The inbound went to Thorr and she fired up a shot that hit the back iron and rattled off the front of the rim as Rogers City breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“Frankfort played hard and they’ve been here a lot over the years,” Pitts said. “We just did enough to survive and I’m happy with that. We’ll get another day to prepare and come back here Thursday.”

Despite Frankfort hitting a three to open the game, the Hurons led the rest of the way as the scored 11 unanswered points after the Panthers started the game with a three.

Rogers City’s largest lead of the night was 12 points in the second quarter, but the double digit lead didn’t last long as Frankfort cut the lead to five at the half.

Along with Fleming’s performance, Purgiel finished with 10 points and Rabeau added nine points.

The Panthers were paced by Thorr who finished with 11 points, Riley Thorr added 10 points, Abby Hodge scored eight and Sydney Sheaks and Brook Dall chipped in with seven points apiece.

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ROGERS CITY (54): J. Hance 0 3-10 3; K. Rabeau 4 0-1 9; M. Hincka 0 1-2 1; H. Fleming 0 2-2 2; T. Fleming 13 2-5 28; C. Hart 0 2-2 2; S. Purgiel 4 0-0 10.

FRANKFORT (51): H. Myers 1 0-2 2; S. Sheaks 3 1-2 7; R. Thorr 5 0-0 11; A. Hodge 3 2-2 8; E. Loney 2 2-4 6; B. Dall 2 3-5 7.