Emmy Walden’s winner over Cousino gives Royal Oak first district title
With Friday night’s game against Warren Cousino tied at 41, Royal Oak senior Megan Haun described the last 18 seconds as something of a time vortex.
Following an inbounds on the opposite sideline, Haun caught the ball at the perimeter, then drove left past the free-throw line before she was cut off wide of the paint.
“When they closed in, I felt really small,” Haun said of the double-team that came. “Like time had frozen. At the same time, I knew the clock was against me. Everything around me felt slow, but my head felt fast going through every option.”
Avoiding a strip or a tie-up from Cousino’s tandem of sophomore Demaya Asberry and junior Kasi Pearson, Haun went overhead to hit a wide-open Emmy Walden under the basket with over five seconds left.
It was the game-winner, as Asberry’s heave from just inside half-court that would have beaten the horn went off the backboard, and the Ravens beat the host Patriots 43-41 for their first district title in program history.
Added Haun, “Originally, it was like, ‘Oh boy, there’s two of them on me. That means someone’s gotta be open. You just need to stay calm and find the person.’ It was like a light in the darkness when I heard Emmy screaming, ‘Megan, Megan.’ And I found her right under the basket.”
“She was double-teamed and I just saw an open block and ran right to it,” said Walden, surprised how open she was. “I just shot it up there and it went in.
“This just means the absolute world. All our blood, sweat and tears were put into this. We really deserved it.”
Cousino denied the primary option on the winning sequence, Royal Oak junior Lucy Freytag, with Ravens head coach Brian Sopata admitting it was “not how we drew it up.”
“In the moment of chaos, I love that Emmy took her time and knocked that thing down,” Sopata said. “[Cousino’s Chloe Sakalas] was coming after her, she kept her cool and knocked it down.”
The Patriots (17-7) erased a fourpoint lead in the final two minutes leading up to the ending sequence.
First, Sakalas was fouled off a baseline inbounds pass and made a pair of free throws with 1:35 left. A turnover gave the ball back to Cousino, who had a short baseline shot by Pearson that refused to fall, and her follow-up drive resulted in a tie-up, the possession arrow pointing to the Ravens with under a minute left.
Royal Oak proceeded to commit an off-ball foul getting the ball, lead
ing to a drive by Asberry that tied the game with 34 seconds left. Asberry then swiped the ball from a Ravens player, rebounded her own missed shot, and the Patriots couldn’t save the ball and possession after another attempt was off the mark with just over 20 seconds remaining, giving the Ravens the ball and leading to several timeouts before the go-ahead play.
“I wouldn’t even call it a breakdown,” Cousino head coach Amy Mitchell said of the ending. “[Our girls] defended well and knew who Royal Oak’s scorers were. Obviously, they keyed in on them and just left [Walden] open for a split-second. I thought they did a great job. Our girls battled for 32 entire minutes, and that’s what they’ve done all season long. I’m super proud of them and to be their coach.”
Neither team did much to separate in a third quarter where the sides shot a combined 3 of 9 from the charity stripe, but Royal Oak (18-6) grabbed some much-needed momentum after the Patriots ran off the first six points of the second quarter to take a 16-9 lead.
Freytag, who ended with a team-high 14 points, helped Royal Oak punch back with 3-pointers on consecutive possessions, part of a 10-0 run that helped give the Ravens a one-point lead at the half.
When asked about the shot selection in the second quarter, Mitchell responded, “We usually have a period of the game where we make bad decisions and kind of need to regroup, and that happened again tonight. But I wouldn’t look at that tiny period and say that’s what did it, because it was back and forth the entire game.”
Asberry, just a sophomore, played with a composure throughout the contest and ended with 19 points.
“She’s the reason that, probably out of 23 or 24 games, most teams haven’t pressed us,” Mitchell said of the 5-foot-7 guard. “We rely on her so much and she is fearless.”
Sakalas and Pearson ended with 11 and nine points for Cousino, respectively.
“We have five juniors and a sophomore back next year,” Mitchell said, “and those juniors, the sophomore, the kids coming up from JV know what’s expected from them moving forward because this senior class has set the standard. Some teams play with each other, this team plays for each other.”
Friday was a special moment for the Ravens, and especially Sopata. He’s guided the program since the closure of Dondero High School in 2006, which prompted the merger with Kimball High School where he was coaching at the time.
After coming up just short in several previous district final appearances, including a talented team in 2018-19 that lost by just two points to Marian, the Ravens have reached new heights.
“History, that can weigh on you a little bit,” Sopata said. “This is for all the kids that came close, who built this program. I can’t even name how many alumni we have here tonight. There’s a ton of them.
“It’s very thrilling. My parents are in the stands. I’m happy for the program, for my assistants. We worked very hard. These girls have this for the rest of their lives. We get to hang a banner that says district champs, and that’s important.”
Royal Oak will take on Grosse Pointe North at Marian in a regional matchup on Tuesday.