She got off to a slow start in Wednesday’s district semifinal win over Brighton, but finished strong, scoring 17 points and pulling down 14 rebounds.
The secret? She got it from her parents, both former college athletes.
“My parents always tell me to keep playing and have a goldfish memory,” she said, referring to the fish with a very short-term memory. “I kept thinking, ‘Next play, next play, next play.’ They’ll get it in to me or I’ll be there for the rebound and put it back. I just kept thinking that.”
That thinking may come in handy Saturday at 3 p.m., when the Eagles (14-10) take on Howell (17-6) for a district championship at Hartland High School.
Due to scheduling conflicts, The Livingston Post will be unable to broadcast the game. Listeners can hear the game broadcast on WHMI-FM at 2:40 p.m.
Rekowski, who is 6-feet-2 inches tall, proved too much for Brighton to solve in the paint, and a Howell team that has no player taller than 5-9 will face its own challenge.
“We just have to try different methods to try and offset her,” Howell coach Tim Olsewski said. “She doesn’t necessarily hurt you on her first shot, but the offensive rebounds she gathers and puts back are just astronomical.”
The Eagles are coming off a win over a Brighton team they had lost to twice during the regular season, with big efforts from Izzy DePestel, who had three 3-pointers, and Liv Linden, who was held to nine points but directed the Hartland attack with her usual efficiency.
Howell, meanwhile, is a team that likes to run, led by Sophie Daugard, who had 18 points in Howell’s semifinal win over Milford, and Molly Deurloo, who added 10.
“They’re a great team that does a lot of little things right,” Hartland coach Reyna Luplow said. “That’s what we need to match (tonight.)”
The Eagles got there with a 45-39 win over Brighton. The game was tied at 19-19 at halftime, but the Eagles got the lead in the second half and never let go. Molly Copple had a game-high 20 points, but the rest of Brighton’s offense sputtered throughout.
“What happened is we didn’t finish,” Brighton coach Bob Wellman said. “They finished a ton of shots and we didn’t finish like we needed to.”
“They threw a lot of pressure on us,” Copple said. “They threw a zone on us that we worked on in practice, but it was hard for us to execute. I think we were shooting a lot of quick shots instead of looking for better shots wide open.”
Howell, meanwhile, never trailed in its 46-32 win over Milford, although the Mavericks gave the Highlanders all they wanted.
“They made us play defense for a lot of that first half,” said Howell senior Sophie Daugard, who had a game-high 18 points. “I remember feeling gassed. I felt we should have gotten more five-second calls than we did, and our girl did a good job pressuring the ball. I’d say our defense outshined our offense.”
Howell’s guards set the tone early. regularly picking the pockets of Milford’s point guards in the early going.
“They made us work, but I think we were able to keep pressure on more than they were used to, and that led to some buckets for us,” Olszewski said.
Hartland is going for its seventh district title in a row and is playing Howell in a district final for the fifth consecutive year.
“It’s always a big rivalry,” Rekowski said of playing Howell. whom the Eagles split with during the regular season. “I know we can beat them if we do what we did (Wednesday).”
