Foley upends Shrine for district title
For most every basketball team, its season ends in defeat.
It’s what a team takes away from a season-ending loss that’s of the utmost importance. Madison Heights Bishop Foley didn’t enjoy how the 2020 season ended, with a 60-43 loss to rival Royal Oak Shrine. But coach Ray Joseph’s girls took something away from that defeat.
And on Wednesday night, the Ventures applied those lessons and came away with a 63-57 win over the Knights in a Division 3 district championship game at Shrine High School.
“Last year, our freshmen played like freshmen and it showed,” said Joseph, whose team captured the school’s first district title since 2015. “Down the stretch (tonight) we handled the ball. We learned from our mistakes. We have a young team. We’re now just starting to get things together.”
Bishop Foley used a 14-4 run, spanning the end of the third quarter and the first half of the fourth, to build what seemed to
be a commanding 53-41 with 4:29 to play. Sophomore Alyssa Samartino had five points and sophomore Lauren Bartkiewicz and freshman Ryan Moorer each had three during that stretch.
But just as quickly as the Ventures built that double-digit lead, the Knights cut it in half with an 8-2 run over the next 2:18. Junior Ella Proctor hit a 3-pointer to get things going and junior Bridget Murray hit a layup and subsequent free throw
to make it a 55-49 game with 2:03 left in the game.
“One thing I asked of the girls was to play hard, and I couldn’t have asked them to play any harder than they did,” Shrine head coach Lindsay Noble said. “Some of our shots just didn’t fall, and that’s going to happen. I’m proud of them. They didn’t give up.”
Moorer and Samartino then calmly knocked down a pair of free throws to push the lead back to 10 points and the Ventures fended off another Knight rally to hold on for the win. Samartino finished with a gamehigh 21 points to lead Bishop Foley (8-5 overall). Moorer had 16 and Bartkiewicz added 11 in the victory.
“A typical, Foley-Shrine game,” Joseph said. “It doesn’t matter how much talent there is (on the court), when these two teams meet, it’s just an allout battle. Our girls stepped up and I’m real proud of how they played tonight.”
Joseph said Wednesday night’s win was especially gratifying, considering Shrine has dominated the Ventures in the state playoffs over the past five years. The Knights ousted Foley each year, from 2016-20.
“It’s been six years that they’ve been dominating us,” Joseph said. “That didn’t sit well with us. This is what we
talked about all year, playing Shrine in the district final and being prepared. You learn (from the losses). You learn as players and you learn as coaches. When today came, we just put it together.”
Sophomore Maura Gum led Shrine (10-7) with 18 points. Bridgette Drouillard and senior Lily Hotts each added 10 points.
“They’re our cross-town rivals and we didn’t get a chance to play them this year like we normally do,” Noble said. “With everything going on these days, we’re just grateful that we had an opportunity to play tonight. So we’re going to take this and learn from it for next season.”
The Ventures will now advance a regional which it is hosting, and will play the winner of the Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest district, Monday at 5:30 p.m.