‘IT WAS A LOT’
Elia Morgner’s last-second bucket lifts Clarkston past Lake Orion, to district title
WATERFORD >> Elia Morgner isn’t sure if she was more nervous just before tipoff or just before the final buzzer of Friday’s Division 1 district championship game.
Regardless, hitting the bucket the second time felt oh, so much better.
Clarkston’s junior forward hit a layup with 1.4 seconds left in the game, giving the Wolves just their second lead of the game — and the most important one, the final one — as they held on to beat rival Lake Orion, 41-40.
“I think it might have been (more nervous) on that last shot. I gotta be honest. I think my eyes were closed,” the junior laughed. “I’ve never been so nervous.”
She was a little nervous before the game, too, when — just before tipoff — she sprinted toward one of the exits from Waterford Mott’s gymnasium, dragging a waste receptacle out in the hallway, so she could rid herself of the products of her nervous stomach.
“It was really hot in the locker room, and I’m always a little nervous — I get super nervous before my games. And I just kinda … it was a lot,” she admitted with a grin.
A lot of that comes with the territory of playing your arch-rival in a pressure packed game like a district final, and Morgner wasn’t the only member of the Wolves (18-6) who looked nervous at the start.
Lake Orion (15-9) built a 12-4 lead after one quarter, and took advantage of the nervous Wolves’ inability to convert on shots or free throws — 4-for-13 in the first half — to expand the lead to 20-13 at the break, then to 25-13 early in the third quarter.
“Before the game I told the girls defense travels and that’s what we do. So, at any point we can get it back. We knew we could turn the pressure up a little bit too, but the defense was always going to be there,” Clarkston coach Aaron Goodnough said. “We didn’t play bad defense in the first half. We just gave up a couple easy buckets and our first fouls to get them on the free-throw line early were — they were nervous fouls. That’s the only way I can define them. They were nervous fouls. They were that ‘wave at foul, going by’ and so we deserved every one of them. And we knew we couldn’t beat him if they we put them on the line, because Izzy (Wotlinski) can really shoot from the line and they can as a team so we knew we couldn’t do that all night.”
It took a 9-0 run to get the Wolves right back in it, trimming the deficit to 25-22 with 3:57 left in the third, and from there on out, the rest of the way, it was a nip-and-tuck game.
The Dragons led 30-26 headed to the fourth, but a Morgner layup got it within one, 36-35, with 3:51 left. Lake Orion had the ball with a 38-37 lead with 1:23 left, but Clarkston forced a jump ball with 52.1 seconds remaining, and got a driving bucket from Elli Robak with 22 seconds left, putting the Wolves ahead for the first time all game, 39-38.
Ryan Pawlaczyk scored with 17 seconds left to put the Dragons back in front, 40-39, but the Wolves called timeout with 6.2 seconds left to draw up a play.
Goodnough gave his point guard, Brooklyn Covert, two options — to get a 3-point chance for Robak, or a bucket down low for Morgner — and the second materialized.
“It wasn’t necessarily designed to be a last bucket, right? But we knew we didn’t need a 3. It’s run for a 3 or a 2. And they covered the 3 and we got the 2. So I mean, I think we led maybe twice. We led maybe twice the whole game by a point. And that’s about how we played. I mean, we just came out so flat. I don’t know if that was the Lake Orion-Clarkston thing. I’m sure it was, to some extent,” Goodnough said. “We just kept plugging away and we turned up the pressure. That was it. We didn’t necessarily want to do it in the first half. But we knew in the second half, we could turn up the pressure and they’d give it up here and there.”
On the final play, Covert drew the defense to her, and passed it off to Morgner for the game-winner.
“I wasn’t sure if it was coming to me or not. We were trying to get a layup. But I mean, if Elli had an open 3, she’s a great shooter, she would shoot it,” Morgner said. “Brooklyn’s really good at attacking, and she just made such a smart decision to pass it to me, she had the layup and mine was more open. And I’m so proud of both them. And I think it was a good decision.”
The Dragons got a timeout before the clock rolled to zeroes, but with only 1.4 seconds left, the best they could hope for was a catch and heave, and it missed, leaving the Wolves as district champions.
“Last year, we lost to them in the district finals. And I mean, we were both completely different teams. And we were in one and one with them in the reg
ular season. So there was a lot of tension coming to this game. And I mean, I played with some of the girls at Orion for a long time. And I love all of them,” Morgner said. “And I just it was it was a lot, but I think I’m very proud of my team and that we were able to pull it
together after a rough first half.”
Robak finished with 12 points, while Morgner had 11 and Covert eight. Pawlaczyk had 14 points to lead all scorers, while Wotlinski had 13 points, and Nevaeh Wood had five points and 10 rebounds.
“They played their hearts out. We played our hearts out. They just made one more shot that we did,” Lake Orion coach Bob Brydges
said. “You know what? I’m proud of my kids. I lost nine seniors last year. … We were talking about it, we have one kid that has played in a district game coming into this series — one, OK? And only one has ever won a district off of this team. So we’re excited about you know, getting to the summer now putting in the works being right back here next year. … Congratulations to those guys. You
know, best of luck to them in regionals. Do I wish it was us? Of course. Anytime. But you know this one hurts tonight, we’ll get up tomorrow, get back in the gym and go to work.”
The Wolves head to regionals at Milford on Monday, where they’ll face Lakeland in the second regional semifinal of the night. Grand Blanc and Howell face off in the first semifinal at 5:30 p.m.