HARTLAND — It was Senior Night, and there was a little something for everyone on the Hartland girls basketball team on Tuesday night.
All seven seniors got to play extended minutes, and, after a quarter-plus where the Eagles adjusted to different roles, they got back on track and beat Walled Lake Northern handily, 58-33.
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The win lifted the Eagles (16-1) into the Lakes Conference semifinals against a familiar foe — Brighton, which rallied to beat Walled Lake Western 41-35.
It will be the third meeting of the season between the teams, something Hartland coach Don Palmer doesn’t relish.
“How do I put this diplomatically”? he asked. “Paul (Brighton coach Paul Ash) will play us, but I’m not sure either one of us wants to (play) again. The (KLAA) tournament is fun, but I’m not a big fan. The last couple of years, the West has been (dominant). So it’s been Hartland-Howell, Howell-Brighton or Hartland-Brighton. That’ll change (next year), but right now it’s not fun.”
The Eagles had a starting five that had one regular starter, point guard Michelle Moraitis, that played the first four minutes, then another five that played the second half of the quarter.
Northern (5-11) came out in a zone, which the Eagles hadn’t seen much this season, and that, combined with the lineup changes, had Hartland a little off sync. Northern led 9-6 at the end of the first quarter.
At one point, Moraitis, who is all of 5-4, was playing defense in the post, which brought a chuckle from Palmer.
“Michelle ventures to a lot of places I don’t know about,” he said, laughing. “We don’t see zone much, not in the West. You can work on it in practice, but your zone isn’t going to be as good as what you’re going to see.”
But Moraitis, as good a defender as there is in the KLAA, stuck to Northern’s Courtney Callahan most of the night, keeping the Knights’ leading scorer to just a 3-pointer for the evening.
In the second quarter, the Eagles got going, with Graysen Cockerham leading the way. She led Hartland on an 18-6 spurt that gave the Eagles the lead for good, and then Lexey Tobel took over.
Tobel, who had two points in the first half, took advantage of the Northern zone by launching uncontested 3-pointers. She hit three of them en route to scoring 14 points in the quarter.
“It took a little while for me, and everyone else, to get warmed up,” she said, “because we usually don’t play against zones. I think we were a little shook up from Senior Night. Our routines were messed up.”
In all, eight players got onto the scoring parade, including Sam Aprill, a junior who drained a pair of 3s herself.
“Our shots started falling and our defense picked up,” she said.
Palmer paid tribute to his seven seniors.
“Seven is a bunch in this day and age,” he said, “because kids don’t want to make that journey if there’s not a lot (of reward). I get it. It’s hard. It’s a lot of hours to put in if you’re not playing much. To have seven, it’s to their credit.”
The Eagles earned themselves an extra home game with the win.
As far as Tobel was concerned, she wasn’t too worried about playing Brighton a third time.
“Either one works for me,” she said. “I’m here to play some basketball.”
