MANISTIQUE — Emilee McDaniel shined like an Emerald on Senior Night here Tuesday, helping the Manistique girls escape with a 50-44 overtime basketball victory over the Rapid River Rockets.

McDaniel scored 23 points to go with six rebounds, six assists and five steals in this non-conference matchup. Brooke St. John added 18 points and nine rebounds and Olivia Kingren grabbed 10 boards.

“Emilee is the one who put us on her shoulders tonight,” said Emeralds’ coach Dave Winkel. “She played her heart out on Senior Night. This is an important win for our team. This feels pretty good. We’ve been playing better. I’m proud of the way our girls finished the game tonight. One of our goals is to keep making progress.”

The Emeralds led 7-3 after the first quarter and the contest was tied at 13 at halftime.

“It was a pretty frustrating game,” said Winkel. “I thought we had decent looks, but the first half had a lid on the basket. The whole game was played very close. I think we got more aggressive at crunch time. Fortunately, we were able to grind it out tonight.”

Natalie Belanger hit 20 points and Kristin Goodacre had 15 for the Rockets.

“Natalie played well around the basket,” said Winkel. “We were caught scrambling a lot and she was able to get free and score off that. She did a nice job making herself available and had a nice touch around the basket.”

Manistique (6-11) held a 46-28 rebounding advantage, hit 20-of-57 field goals and committed 17 turnovers. Rapid River (5-9) was 18-of-65 from the floor and had 10 miscues.

“This was a pretty evenly matched contest,” said Rockets’ coach Scott Goodacre. “I am proud of our girls for showing up to play hard. We scored more points tonight than we had in a bit, so it was nice to see them get going.”

The Emeralds, who also won the JV game 47-32, host second-ranked Westwood Friday. The Rockets host Mid Peninsula Monday.

Rapid River 3 10 9 16 6 — 44

Manistique 7 6 10 15 12 — 50

Rapid River — K. Goodacre 15, Pilon 5, Belanger 20, E. Goodacre 4. FT: 7-12; F: 17; Fouled out: Keys; 3-point field goal: Pilon.

Manistique — Barker 2, Fleck 2, McDaniel 23, Kingren 5, St. John 18. FT: 9-21; F: 11; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goal: St. John.