Waterford Our Lady tops Kingston for D4 regional title
The Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes Lakers turned up the offense in the second half and defeated the Kingston Cardinals 45-37 to clinch a Division 4 regional title.
Trailing 24-23 at halftime, the Lakers got some movement in their offense and started making shots. Our Lady of the Lakes opened the second half on a 13-4 run to take an eight-point lead at 36-28 and never trailed after that.
“We put in a few new sets recently, and we went to those in the second half,” Lakes head coach Steve Robak said. “What we really liked is even more than the movement is we were getting girls into rebounding positions. In the first half, we had some good looks. We just didn’t make anything, and we didn’t get hardly a single offensive rebound. In the second half, we made a few more shots and also got some rebounds on the offensive end.”
One constant for the Lakers was their defense, led by the hustle of junior guard Irene Mackowiak. The Cardinals hardly got an easy basket all night, having to work for everything they got — which was not much in the second half.
“We talked about our defensive effort. It has to be there at this time of the year especially. There’s going to be nights you can’t make a shot, no matter how good the shot is, and defense can win,” coach Robak said. “Our defense kept us in it, and we got it going (offensively) a little bit in the second half.”
At the other end, the Cardinals concentrated their defense on the Robak cousins, trying to shut them down. For one half, it seemed to work. But once the Lakers started moving the ball in the second half — everyone started making shots.
Therese Mackowiak led the Lakers with 17 points. Quinn Robak added 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds, and Brooklyn Robak
chipped in eight points.
Ella Retan led the Cardinals with 13 points and Isabell Hurd had 11 points.
With the win, the Lakers (12-3) advance to the Division 4 quarterfinals for the first time since 2018, where they will face Petersburg Summerfield. Game time is 6 p.m. Monday at St. Clair Shores Lakeshore High School.
“We’ve worked really hard as a team to come this far, and we’ve
had to go through quarantines, and injuries, and lots of absences. And so to be able to play through the adversity, and we came in with a game plan and we just executed really well, and I’m really proud of our team,” senior captain Brooklyn Robak said.
“It’s been really awesome for the team to just start coming together. We really worked as a team this game, and it showed,” sophomore captain Quinn Robak said.