South Lyon East sweeps season series against rival Lions
Cougars jump back into first in LVC
SOUTH LYON >> It’s been a while since the South Lyon East girls basketball program had to crane its collective neck to look UP at anyone else in the Lakes Valley Conference standings.
The Cougars certainly didn’t want to have to drive back down Lafayette Avenue on Friday evening, still having to look up at anyone, especially not their fiercest rival.
And a 47-41 win over their crosstown foes, the previously oncebeaten South Lyon Lions, ensured they wouldn’t have to, putting the Cougars back in first — alone — for the first time in a month, and extending their intracity win streak to 16 games.
“We knew coming into this it was gonna be a tough game. They were No. 1 in the conference, we were No. 2. They have a bunch of good players. And we knew coming into this that the thing that we had to have is heart, and we had that,” said East senior Anna Lassan, who’s never lost to South Lyon in her four-year career, but saw the Lions pull within one early in the fourth quarter, before the Cougars could get some separation again.
“It’s hard, really. It’s a crosstown rivalry game. And we’re also playing for first place in the conference. So a lot of heart went into this game from everybody on the team. And I think it just took over when we saw that score getting closer and we all just kinda said, ‘We’re gonna win this game.’”
The Cougars came into the season having won each of the last three LVC titles in girls basketball, and losing just once along the way. When the Lakeland Eagles beat East for the first time ever back on Jan. 9, the Cougars were actually looking up at three teams in the standings — the unbeaten Eagles and South Lyon, along with Walled Lake Northern at 3-1.
Three days later, when the Cougars beat the Lions for the first time this season, it was down to just one team ahead of them — Lakeland — then by Jan. 19, it was a virtual fourway tie for first, with four one-loss teams, narrowing down to just two on Jan. 31, when East got its revenge at Lakeland.
On the strength of two extra league games played, South Lyon came into the night percentage points ahead of the Cougars, though, at 10-1 (.909) vs. 8-1 (.888), a situation that reversed itself at the final buzzer.
The Cougars (12-4, 9-1 LVC) led from the jump, up 9-2 early, and 15-8 after one quarter. The Lions (15-2, 10-2 LVC) narrowed it to just four points, 26-22, at the half, but were down 36-27 after a low-scoring third quarter.
That’s when junior Izzy Nooe took over, scoring 11 of her 23 points in the fourth quarter, and getting the Lions within one, 40-39, with a drive to the bucket 4:20 left in the game.
Lassan answered with a huge defensive rebound and a coast-tocoast bucket with 3:17 left, putting the Cougars back up three, then hit two free throws with 2:40 left to expand the lead to five, 44-39.
The University of Detroit signee Lassan finished with 18 points to lead East, along with a bucket-full of rebounds, while Nyla Lake had 14 points.
“She’s just a ball hawk, you know. She’s gonna go after it. And she’s gonna work hard. And she loves that part of the game that she probably had more pride in,” East coach Rob Leadley said of Lassan’s rebounding, something she herself brought up at senior night, noting the 22 boards she pulled down earlier in the season to set a new single-game school record.
“Anna has always come through for us. She’s a player for the moment, the big moments. And she’s been like that, probably since she was a freshman. She played a couple games that I remember, 27 points against really good teams, just kind of came out of nowhere. And a lot of times when she does that, it’s like, you don’t you don’t even realize it. And then all sudden, you look at the scorebook and say, ‘Wow, she scored a ton of points’. But more than that, good defensive presence, rebounding, that senior leadership. I mean, she’s all of that.”
After cutting the deficit to one, the Lions wouldn’t score again until Nooe hit a driving basket with 40 seconds left.
“At the end of the day, when two good teams meet, you are going to have to knock down shots. I wasn’t necessarily disappointed in our execution. I wasn’t disappointed in the toughness of the girls, playing super hard. So, don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel great. But you are gonna have to knock down shots to beat good teams. We just didn’t do that,” said South Lyon coach Chris Schroudt, whose team won a dozen games last year for the first time in a dozen years, and now have 15 wins this season.
“We’ve obviously made a lot of progress in a relatively short amount of time and it’s just a credit to (the fact that) our girls are super tough, they put work in. So as far as the culture of the team, and what the mood was in the locker room, obviously the girls are disappointed, but I know they’re gonna come in and work on Monday and so trying to be ‘glass half full,’ I suppose.”
Despite the disparity of the rivalry, the games have been close in the past two seasons.
“I’ve been here since the start. And the start was rough here, for East, and we lost them quite a few times in a row. And then we kind of turned things around and a couple of times were close and but I think we’ve done a pretty good job of turning things around here,” Leadley said. “Obviously, they’ve improved tremendously, South Lyon, and give them credit. I mean, they really get the most out of their players. I was telling coach that before the game. He’s done a great job with his program.”
South Lyon travels to Lakeland and Milford next week, while the Cougars have home dates against Walled Lake Central and Walled Lake Northern.