CLARKSTON HOLDS ON TO WIN REGIONAL SEMI, 39-27
>> The third-quarter buzzer might as well have been the kitchen timer on Lakeland’s run of momentum.
Buzz, and it was done. Cooked. After falling behind Clarkston by double digits early in the third quarter of Monday’s regional semifinal, the Eagles ripped off 12 straight points to take a 24-22 lead just before the period clock went to zeroes, riding a wave of emotion.
Then the buzzer sounded, the Wolves regrouped in the break, and within the first 32 seconds of the fourth, were back on top again, this time for good, outscoring Lakeland 17-3 over the final eight minutes to win, 39-27, and move on, advancing to the regional championship game.
“Worst thing ever,” Lakeland coach Mike Leitheim said with a wry chuckle.
“Momentum is a great thing. And we were feeling great about ourselves and playing hard and doing the things we talked about and just grinding it out. We knew we had to find a way to make it more our style than their style. We knew they wanted to get out and transition — and they kind of did that when we weren’t playing well, turning it over, taking quick shots — and we kind of got back to what we had to do to try to win this one.”
It just didn’t last.
It wasn’t some great Vince Lombardi-esque speech by Aaron Goodnough that made the difference in that short rest, though. In fact, it wasn’t much from him at all.
“To be honest with you, that was the players in the huddle. Between the third and the fourth, they led it — they led the huddle. And that’s when I know we’re still OK. You know, when they’re talking more than you are, and they’re shouting out the things — ‘What she said,’ ‘What she said’ — then you’re like, we’re in good shape. So they they weren’t rattled at all,” Goodnough said.
“That’s why I always say we play a tough schedule, we play a lot of tight games, they don’t get rattled. Even if we had gone down six or eight. I’d be like, ‘OK, well, you know, a couple of turnovers, we’re OK.’ But they talked it out, in the timeout between the third and the fourth, and then just took off from there.”
For the Wolves (19-6), Wednesday’s appearance in the regional finals — facing Saginaw Valley League champion Grand Blanc (20-4) — is the fourth since 2013, and third in the past seven seasons. Clarkston hasn’t won a regional title since 2018. The Bobcats
(20-4), coached by former Oakland University women’s basketball coach Bob Taylor, were a 44-39 winner over Howell in Monday’s first regional semifinal.
Both teams knew going in that it was going to be a defensive struggle, especially since the two programs know each other so well — Goodnough’s daughter, Grace, played on the Lakeland team just a few short years ago — and it was that way from the start.
Lakeland (20-5) jumped out to a 4-0 lead, then Clarkston ripped off eight straight points, and led 10-6 after one quarter, expanding that lead to 17-11 in the second quarter, getting a buzzer-beating layup by Brooklyn Covert to outscore the Eagles by two in the low-scoring period.
Clarkston scored five of the first six points of the third to push the lead to double digits with 4:51 left, but the Wolves wouldn’t score again in the third, going from up 10, to down two in that five-minute span.
“I just I wish we could just run some things in the half court — we have such a tough time, like, locking in, we talk about it in the huddle, and by the time it gets about 30 feet away, the gerbil on the wheel in their head is like, jumped off. So it’s just, we just need to get to a point” where we can score in half court, Goodnough said.
Brynn Talercio hit a pair of free throws with 3.2 seconds left in the third to put the Eagles ahead 24-22 — their first lead since 4-3 — but they wouldn’t score a point from the field through the first four minutes of the fourth.
Ellery Hernandez hit two free throws to tie the game seconds into the fourth quarter, then Elli Robak had a three-point play opportunity with 7:28 left to put the Wolves ahead again — as it turned out, for good.
“Defensively, I knew he would throw some wrenches at us whether it was a half-court trap or jump trap like he started to, and I knew that would kind of, obviously take us out of our rhythm getting downhill. — because that’s what kind of got us back into it.
It was it was us being able to be aggressive, get to the paint and get some of those calls,” Leitheim said. “And so when they went to that trap, I knew we were gonna have to hit some jumpers. And that’s the tough one, when you’re trying to scratch and claw, to hit and you’ll be calm enough to hit some jumpers.”
Aubrin Miller hit a hook shot in the lane with 3:55 left to cut the deficit to 2927, but the Wolves would score the final 10 points of the game, to close it out.
Robak had 11 points for the Wolves, Hernandez had 10 and Covert had nine.
Maddie Borders had 11 points to lead the Eagles, who finished with a school record for wins, and a share of a league title and a district title in the same season for the first time in program history.
“We talked about wanting to show people we belonged on this court. …
We’re as tough as anyone in this gym. There’s no question about it,” Leitheim said of his four seniors, who won three district titles and one league title.
“I think they started (believing) after the (South Lyon) East game, it became we can win the tough, grind it, close games we weren’t winning in the past. We started getting an edge about us. … They don’t panic anymore. You know, we were down here down 10, 12. And it was just saying ‘Let’s get to work.’ And so that’s the beauty of it is how far we’ve come. In years past, that turns into a 30-point loss. And this one we just said ‘No, we’re gonna get back into it.’ And we did. And I think we just kind of ran out of gas a little bit there too. But Clarkson’s just so good defensively and big and strong and fast. We lost to a very good team.”