EAGLES ON THE RISE
Lakeland gets district win on home floor vs. Walled Lake Northern
Strategic fouling and grinding tempo all paid off for Lakeland down the stretch in a 37-34 victory over Walled Lake Northern to open district play Monday evening.
The Eagles left the door open for a comeback by making just two of eight free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter, including a missed pair with 27.3 seconds left that gave the Knights the ball back down three.
Most of that time evaporated, however, through a timeout, then two timely fouls by Lakeland, who had several to give without sending Northern to the line. With 8.1 seconds to go, Northern inbounded from the sideline, but an off-balance shot by senior Antonio Hatcher didn’t result in points or a whistle for a foul.
“They were yelling ‘foul,’ and they tried to foul us … I kind of thought it was,” Knights head coach Ryan Negoshian said. “But hey, we’ve got to make shots regardless. We had a lot of opportunities to make shots, we worked our offense. Credit to them, they made those shots.”
Lakeland head coach Ron Thompson discussed the lategame strategy and also referenced back to a defeat to the Knights in the last game of the regular season a year ago when his team elected not to foul and Northern hit a 3-pointer for the win.
“We were trying to milk the clock, get it down to 15 [seconds],” Thompson said. “At 15, we wanted to give one foul and at 10 another. Believe it or not, at five we were going to let them shoot two free throws. Luckily, we didn’t foul and they didn’t knock down a shot.”
Northern led 20-16 at halftime, but a five-point lead evaporated when freshman Ethan Rowley connected on a wing triple with 2:30 left in the third quarter. Then, operating with a one-point advantage early in the fourth, Thompson gave his team the red light as the Eagles held the ball around the perimeter for nearly a minute.
It paid off: Rowley made the possession count with a 3 to make it 33-29 with 5:30 left as Lakeland never trailed again.
“They’re a tough team to defend, and we had a one-point lead there, so hey, they had to come get us,” Thompson said. “We felt like if they did come at us, it would open up some seams. They were sitting back in the zone all night and it was hard to get the ball inside to where we wanted to. But Ethan hit an amazing shot there.”
Rowley equaled senior Zach Reppuhn with a team-high 10 points for Lakeland (8-15). Junior Stone Seyburn also had 10 to lead Northern in scoring, and he provided some much-needed firepower in the third quarter, but it wasn’t enough overall per Negoshian.
“We executed our gameplan pretty well, but you’ve got to score more than 34 points to win,” Negoshian said. “Our defense was great, but that’s kind of been our thing all year. We’ve played great defense all year, but we’ve struggled offensively, and we did again tonight.”
Dylan Kramer and Drew Smith added eight and six points respectively for the Knights, who finished the year 7-16.
Lakeland gets rewarded with Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (20-1) in the district semifinal Wednesday night.
“It’s awesome to get an opportunity to play against those athletes,” Thompson said. “We’ll be staying up all night watching film to come up with a plan, just like any other game. This time of year, anything can happen, and we’re excited to get the opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the state.”