South Lyon East making early-season noise

Ninja-like on the hardwood, sticking and moving in the shadows, South Lyon East’s girls basketball team is quietly starting to make a lot of noise out of the Lakes Valley Conference.

The Cougars made quite a statement by demolishing LVC blue-bloods Waterford Kettering (65-22) and Walled Lake Western (54-21) in their first two games. This past weekend, they took their first loss of the campaign to a state-ranked Saline squad 61-52, putting a scare into the host Hornets late.

New and old alike make up the 2021 South Lyon East lady hoops brigade. The new is Detroit PSL transfer Taylor Anderson (Detroit Renaissance), a do-everything junior guard who won a city title last year, and fab freshman forward Anna Lassan. The old is senior captain Nina Pearl, the Cougars’ top scorer on a 14-8 2020 club and junior point guard Ella Kruschka, the program’s tempo setter and a lights-out shooter in her own right.

Ella Robinson is a workhorse and four-year varsity letter winner in the backcourt and junior Madison Black plays scrappy out of the frontcourt alongside young pup Lassan. Anderson is the team’s defensive stopper. She averaged 12 points, six rebounds and three steals per game last winter in the PSL.

Lassan scored 15 points against Saline. South Lyon East travels to Waterford Mott and hosts Lakeland in LVC play this week. Wixom St. Catherine from the Catholic League dots the schedule Wednesday for non-league action.

“We’re playing tough early,” said longtime South Lyon East head coach Rob Leadley of his team’s Week 1 effort. “We’ve got skill and balance. We play physical, but we stay poised. And the chemistry is high with this group, even with the additions to the starting lineup. They really like playing together on the court and genuinely enjoy each other’s com

pany. That’s stuff you can’t teach or coach.

This is Leadley’s 13th season on the bench at the helm of the South Lyon East program. He won a district title in 2015. However, his Cougars have fell in the past few district finals,

such as last season’s defeat to Brighton.

“We want to get over that hump as a program, we’ve been knocking on the door for a little while now,” Leadley said. “What I know is that these girls live to compete.

They want to test themselves. When you’re a competitor like that, you roll the ball out and let the chips fall where they may.”

TIMOTHY ARRICK — FOR MEDIANEWS GROUP Rob Leadley is in his 13th season as head coach of the South Lyon East girls basketball team which has opened the season with wins over Waterford Ketttering and Walled Lake Western.

TIMOTHY ARRICK — FOR MEDIANEWS GROUP Junior Ella Kruschka, right, is one of the top returning players for South Lyon East in the 2021girls basketball season. She has the Cougars off to a 2-1start thus far.