Utica completes comeback vs. Ford II
Chieftains advance to district championship after upset win Wednesday night
The Utica Chieftains never flinched on Wednesday night.
They didn’t flinch when they drew the Ford II Falcons, the MAC White regular season champions who had already beaten them thrice this season — most recently by 21 points.
And they didn’t even flinch when the Falcons went up 18-5 on them at the end of the first quarter.
That toughness and commitment ended with them coming back and outscoring them 36-21 from the second quarter-on to capture a 41-39 upset win to move on in the district tournament.
“We’re resilient,” said Utica head coach Jason Muchortow. “I’ve got a lot of seniors on my team, so even though we may not have had the season that we wanted, we stuck together now.
“If we believe in ourselves, we can do it. And the girls did that. Everyone from person one to 14, the bench stayed in it, everyone was cheering each other on. They knew, hey, just stay together. Stay with it. That’s what we talk about: play united and that’ll give us our best chance.”
The comeback started when Utica held Ford II (16-7) to just four points in the second quarter, scoring 11 of their own. They took their first lead in the third quarter and were tied at 31 going into the fourth.
Utica went up by as many as six points in the fourth, but Ford II responded by getting back down one with under a minute to go. They got a clean look under the basket when Anayya Davis found an open Maria Raciti, but she missed the shot.
Then, with one more chance to tie the game with 3.2 seconds left, Lilah Earl turned the ball over on an inbound, letting Utica survive.
“It means a lot,” Muchortow said. “It tells us how hard our girls worked all year. Our record wasn’t what we wanted, but we saw a lot of growth throughout the season. I’m the new coach this year. We do a lot of things differently.
“It tells them, hey, hard work pays off. Playing together pays off. And if we can do that, we can find a way to upset some people and find a way to do some