DRAGONS, LAKERS IN REGIONAL FINAL
Lake Orion knocks off Howell for first berth in regional title game since 2009
Nothing is more special in high school sports than making memories you’ll talk about with your friends for the rest of your life.
Unless, of course, your friend was in the opposite uniform.
When Maddie Ebbert went up for a 3-point shot late in Lake Orion’s Division 1 regional semifinal against Howell, the defender rushing at her to attempt to block her shot was a friend and travelball teammate, Molly Deurloo, who winced as she bumped into Ebbert’s midsection for the foul.
Ebbert made all three free throws with 2:14 left in the game, giving the Dragons a lead they’d never relinquish, as they held on for a 47-44 win, sealing it when they were able to defend for the final 25 seconds, without allowing the Highlanders to get a shot off.
“Very excited and relieved. Just a really close game and it was just a great win. One of my best friends is on the other team, from Howell also we played AAU together. So it’s just really cool,” Ebbert said of Deurloo. “It’s really fun (playing against friends). It’s also like bittersweet, you know, because like her season ended, and ours is still going but it’s an awesome experience.”
It’s been a long time since a Dragons player has been able to say that.
For the first time since the 2009 semifinalist squad, the Dragons will play in the regional championship game. Lake Orion (20-5) will take on OAA Red rival and No. 1-ranked West Bloomfield, the defending D1 champion, for the regional title on Thursday at 7 p.m.
“It’s awesome just to see how many strides this program has taken especially since my freshman year — like seeing where we were then versus where we are now is unbelievable. And so
we just, game by game, see what we can do,” Ebbert said.
“We just always say like this is where we’re meant to be, just go out and play, give it everything we have and see what happens.”
Tuesday’s game against Howell (18-7) was more than just a battle of friends, it was a battle between two very, very similar squads.
“We kind of talked earlier and I told my team I said, ‘Hey, they’re a mirror image of us.’ I mean, they play great defense we play great defense.
“Both of us can get to the rim and score, both of us can shoot it. I mean, it was it was a great matchup fun game to coach little tense down the stretch,” Lake Orion coach Bob Brydges said.
“I’m super happy for them. More importantly, I get to coach these guys for a couple more days. And that’s important to me. And I’m excited about that.”
In a game that was tied seven times, and had 13 lead changes, there were surprisingly none after Ebbert’s trip to the freethrow line.
The Dragons led 13-11 after one quarter, then Taylor Dinda beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to tie it at the
half, 24-24. Howell led by just one, 36-35, headed to the fourth, but the Dragons tied it up on a free throw by Chloe Wiegers, and took the lead with 4:07 left on a pair of Wiegers shots from the line. Sophie Daugard tied it up with two free throws with 2:42 left, then Ebbert put the Dragons back in the lead 28 seconds later — for good.
Dinda split at the line with 1:44 left to make it 4440, but Deurloo scored with 1:29 left to cut it back to two again, 44-42.
Dinda re-established the four-point lead with a back-door cut and a layup with a minute left, making it 46-42, but Caitlyn Rayl hit a pair of free throws
with 30.8 left to make it a one-possession game, 4644. Kyle Heck’s split at the line made it 47-44 with 24.6 left, but Grace Sullivan’s defense forced the ball out of the hands of Howell freshman Gabrielle Piepho, and the Highlanders never got a shot off before the clock expired.
“We have a couple of plays designed for Sophie (Daugard) in those situations. And with her being fouled out, we adjusted and changed some personnel around. And it just didn’t go exactly the way we wanted it to,” Howell coach Tim Olszewski said.
“It was a little disheartening at the end to get bumped off the ball and not
get a shot off. It hurt a little bit. But like I told them, you can’t look at one play one thing, one call, it’s a combination of a bunch of things, a culmination. They did more things to deserve to win than we did.”
Ebbert finished with 19 points to lead the Dragons, while Wiegers and Dinda both had 11. Piepho had 16 for Howell, while Deurloo had 11 and Daugard nine.
“We talk about it all the time: ‘Are you ready for your season to be done?’ Because if you’re not, play like it, and you know what? They did, they played like they weren’t ready to be done,” Brydges said.
“And I’m very proud of them.”