SENIORS-LED DAKOTA TOPS CHIPPEWA VALLEY IN SEMIS
Any game between Dakota and Chippewa Valley is going to mean more.
Add onto it a spot in a regional championship game with each team’s seasons on the line, and you’ve got a recipe for a big night.
That’s what we had on Monday — this time, it ended with the Dakota Cougars knocking out their rival Big Reds 57-48 to advance to Wednesday’s championship.
The game was competitive from the tip. Dakota raced out to an early lead before Chippewa Valley went on a run to take their first advantage at the end of the first.
Then Dakota bounced back, out-scoring the Big Reds 15-9 in the second quarter to lead 28-22 at halftime.
Rinse and repeat — the squads traded leads all night. At least until the fourth quarter, when Dakota senior Samone Andrews knocked down consecutive 3-pointers with sophomore Gabby Brooks-Foster to put the Cougars up 45-43 with 4:48 to go. And though they ended up tied 46-46 shortly thereafter, Chippewa Valley never led again as Dakota scored 11 of the next 13 points to put the game away.
“You have to have seniors that want to step up,” said Dakota head coach Phil McCune. “If you don’t, you’re going to go out early. Samone, she’s been a leader for us since her freshman year. She started as a freshman all the way through. She lived for this moment. Quite honestly, she put the team on her back alongside Gracie Maloney on the boards and Tambre Williams on the boards. They were fantastic. Gabby Brooks-Foster, Brookyln Garavaglia and Teagan Malloy all came up with big plays in the game.”
Andrews got into foul trouble early, capping her production. After having just two
points at halftime, she finished with a teamhigh 14, including eight in the fourth quarter.
Brooks-Foster finished with 13 and Brooklyn Garavaglia had eight. The rest of the Cougars’ points came from seniors.
The shoe was on the other foot for Chippewa Valley — all but five of their points on Monday came from players slated to return next season. Gracyn Carrier, who led all players with 17 points, is only a freshman.
“Just proud of them. Just so proud of them,” said CVHS head coach Jackie Maurer. “I couldn’t have asked them to come out and play a better game. Obviously maybe put a few more baskets in, have more points at the end, but other than that we did what we wanted to do tonight. We kept a game until the end. Congrats to Dakota for moving on, but my kids deserved that just as much
as they did.”
McCune was complimentary of Maurer and Chippewa Valley.
“In my mind, Chippewa has come leaps and bounds from the beginning of the season and that’s a tribute to Jackie Maurer,” McCune said. “You’ve got to give her a ton of credit, how far she’s taken this team. Chippewa should be very proud of what they did tonight. They had us on the ropes.”
The Big Reds finished the season 15-10. Dakota will now look ahead to Wednesday, when they’ll return home to host the Division 1 regional championship game against Stoney Creek, who eliminated Bloomfield Hills on Wednesday.
The game is set to tip-off at 7 p.m. The winner will advance to the state quarterfinals next week.