HARTLAND — After the first three quarters ended in a 35-35 tie, the Howell girls basketball team got the first five points of the fourth quarter. In a tight defensive matchup, it looked like the Highlanders might be on their way to the KLAA girls basketball title.
Until the wheels fell off.
“When you’ve got a five-point lead at their place, it’s time to take care of business, and we didn’t,” Howell coach Tim Olszewski said. “That falls squarely on my shoulders.”
The Eagles, playing in their final home game of the season, scored 20 consecutive points to take a 55-40 lead that proved insurmountable as Hartland won the KLAA basketball title for the second year in a row, 63-48. at Hartland High School.
Click here for the archived broadcast!
The seeds for the Hartland rally were planted early in the third quarter after trailing 25-18 at the half.
Coach Don Palmer drew up a play where Lauren Sollom would take a 3-pointer on the team’s first possession of the second half.
“When he said I would be shooting the 3, it showed he trusts me, and I really appreciated it,” Sollom said.
The Eagles (19-1) got rolling from there and kept going.
“They’re a great team, and they baited us into some quick shots we shouldn’t have taken,” Olszewski said. “If you know anything about Hartland, they score 60 percent of their points in transition. Boy, we fed into that. We threw the birdseed out and they went and got it.”
That especially applied to Leah Lappin, who had 14 of her game-high 22 points in the second half, Amanda Roach (12 of 14) and Gracey Metz (10 of 12). After missing three of four free-throw attempts in the first three quarters, Hartland hit 16 of 18 from the line in the fourth quarter.
Sollom might have lit the fire with that early 3, but Palmer’s words of encouragement surely had an effect.
“I told them, ‘Keep shooting the basketball,'” Palmer said. “‘Don’t doubt your abilities. Don’t hesitate. Keep shooting.'”
Meanwhile, the Hartland defense swarmed all over the Howell defense, harassing point guard Maeve St. John on every shot she took and keeping standouts Molly Duerloo (eight points) and Sophie Daugard (seven) in check.
Daugard was a surprise starter for the Highlanders. She sustained a broken nose in two places while going after a loose ball in Monday’s win at Wayne. Olszewski said late Wednesday afternoon the plan was for Daugard to have surgery on Friday, which would put her on the shelf for two weeks.
Around 9 p.m., Daugard called OIszewski and said she was cleared to play after talking with her parents and Howell’s athletic training staff.
“With the team we have right now, I didn’t want Monday to be my last game of the season,” she said. “So I had to come back and play.”
She wore a plastic mask on her face and played well over half the game. although the mask did create one problem.
“It was really weird,” she said. “Every time the ball was thrown below my waist, I was like, ‘Where is it?'”
:She’s a tough, tough kid,” Olszewski said “Great basketball player and a consummate teammate. Believes in the team. Didn’t want to let the team down, You can’t keep a competitor like her out. She came in and gave us everything she had wth a busted nose.”
St. John had 14 points to lead Howell (15-5), including four 3-pointers, and Amelia Storm added 11.
Hartland’s win was a successful swan song for four players — Roach, Sollom, Lappin and Metz — who played all four years on the varsity
“This was our last (home) game, and it was against our rivals,” Sollom said. “It played out perfectly. This game prepares us for the district tournament and the whole playoffs. Games like this is what we’ve been preparing for and what we’ve waited to play in.”
And a fourth matchup is certainly possible. Hartland plays Linden (14-5) in Wednesday’s district semifinal at Howell. The Highlanders will play the winner of Monday;s Fenton-Holly matchup in the other semifinal, and if Hartland and Howell both win, they would meet in next Friday’s district final, something both teams were acutely aware of after the game.
“When we went through the handshake line, (St. John) said ‘We’ll get you in districts,'” Palmer said afterward. “And I said, ‘Probably,'”
