HARTLAND — Denny Butcher came back to Hartland for a second time on Tuesday, and this time he went home with a conference championship.
Butcher coached Hartland for three seasons before moving to Walled Lake Western this season, and has nothing but respect for his successor, Kevin Blouin, and his former players.
“Great people here,” he said. “It’s great to see the young men I coached the last three years. This senior class, I know them well. They’re great young men. I thought this class would be special, and they’ve proven that by getting to this spot.”
But, in basketball, competition trumps nostalgia, and Butcher was happy and a little relieved after his team pulled out a 42-38 overtime victory for the Lakes Conference title.
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“What a battle this game was, and I don’t use that term lightly,” he said. “You could see the desire and the will for each team wo win this game. Both teams really earned their spot and deserved to be here. Fortunately, we made a few more shots.”
For the Eagles (8-10), there was a bit of the game-that-got-away. Hartland led 35-30 with 1:40 remaining.
But Western (15-4) went on a 9-0 run to take the lead for good. Junior Delano Smith hit a 3-pointer, and Greg Windom scored with 22 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
Smith then scored on each of Western’s first two possessions in overtime, and the Eagles couldn’t recover. He fouled out with 15 points.
“He’s a really good player,” Blouin said. “I think we did a decent job overall on defense, but it’s tough to hold them down all four quarters.”
The difference, Blouin said, was on the boards.
“We let the weak-side rebounding on the offensive boards hurt us,” he said. “They had a lot of second chances, and when you give a team like that two tries (to score) every time down the floor, it’s definitely tough to beat them.”
Western’s defense was suffocating at times, no more so than in overtime, when all three Hartland points came at the free-throw line.
The first half was physical with not much to show on the scoreboard. Western led 13-11 at halftime.
In the second half, the Eagles got going, hitting on four 3-pointers, three by Mitchell Brown, and got six more points inside by 6-6 junior Jason Gigliotti.
The Eagles scored 20 points in the quarter and took a 31-25 lead.
“We just played inside-outside,” said Hartland senior Konlan Paul, who had five of his eight points in the third. “In the first half, we weren’t getting it inside as much as we should have.”
But Western adjusted again, and the Eagles scored only seven points the rest of the way.
Western will play for the KLAA title on Thursday night at unbeaten Canton. Hartland will play a consolation game at Livonia Churchill.
“It helps when you have a quick game after a tough loss,” Blouin said, “as opposed to a bunch of practices. Having a game right away is nice, because they can forget about this one altogether.”
The Eagles were a No. 4 seed to get to the finals, a rarity in the KLAA. But in the overall scheme of things, the biggest goals are still ahead.
“Dante (Mattioli), one of our captains, pointed out that one of our goals was to win the district tournament,” Paul said. “That’s still an opportunity.”
