Lakeland captures first district crown since 2015
It’s easy to enjoy overnight success when you can get it. But there’s often deeper satisfaction to be drawn from having put in the time to steadily improve into a winning form.
For the Lakeland girls basketball program, the climb back to a point of contending for district titles took several years. Having endured some challenging seasons of late, the Eagles finally cashed in on their hardships and hard work Friday to earn their first district crown since 2015 with a 52-34 victory over Walled Lake Northern.
“We took our lumps the last two years, but I knew with my core group of freshmen I kept around and the sophomores we had back then, I told them we’re going to get better and better and we’ll learn to win,” Lakeland coach Mike Leitheim said, thinking back to when he took over the program before the 201819 season.
“This year, we started that progression … It’s like winning builds confidence. Now that we’re doing that, they’re starting to realize, hey, we’re a pretty good team.”
On Friday, the Eagles outscored the Knights in every quarter, beginning with a 9-2 opening frame that forced Northern to try
and play catch-up the entire night.
Leading by eight at halftime, Lakeland began the third quarter with a 16-5 run to really create some separation on the scoreboard. From there, Northern never got within 11 points again as it struggled to slow down the Eagles’ offense.
“If you would have told me we’d score 34 points tonight, I would have said we’d have a better than average chance of winning,” Knights coach John Sharpe said. “We haven’t given up 52 points in a long time. Our kids worked very hard tonight, but they hit their shots and we didn’t.”
Lakeland senior Mati Sardi did her best work in the first half as she recorded 10 of her game-high 16 points when the outcome was still in question. After halftime, Eagles junior Grace Goodnough took
over some of the heavy lifting by scoring all 11 of her points.
“We got great contributions from Ashlyn Dostal coming off the bench, just playing huge minutes. Ashley Bonjanowski too,” Leitheim said. “Mati Sardi, who is our Italian transfer, is really our unsung hero and team bonder. She’s a heck of a basketball player and I kept telling everyone we’ve got a good one here, luckily. This was by far her best game of the year and she got us going.”
Senior Jenna Baer added 11 points in support for the Eagles (11-6).
“We’re going to miss the heck out of Jenna Baer, who emotionally fueled us the past few weeks,” Leitheim said of his most experienced player. “She knew her time was running out and she played inspired basketball. We fed off of it. I’m so proud of Jenna because she went through all four years with me and it’s just great to see a kid like that get the reward at the end.”
With its district championship trophy now in hand, Lakeland advanced to the Division 1 regional semifinals where it will have the unenviable task of facing unbeaten Hartland (17-0). The game will be played Monday at Holly High School at 5:30 p.m.
“At the end of the day, this was our goal. You have to take stepping stones and this was our goal once we were out of the [Lakes Valley Conference] league race. We knew we could win this district,” Leitheim said.
For Northern, seniors Kelly Hickey and Andie Wolfe led the way with nine and eight points, respectively, Friday.
The Knights concluded the season with a 10-5 record and will lose four seniors Sharpe spoke highly of following their final game.
“I know Andie (Wolfe) stands out. She’s had a great career here,” Sharpe said. “Kelly Hickey was the straw that stirred the drink. Sara Malak did a great job. She was the unsung hero of the season. She played a lot of different roles. And then Haley Rinehart did a great job. She played inside and outside for us. I couldn’t be more proud of the seniors. They bought into the year and they pulled the younger kids through.”