Howell boys fall to Walled Lake Central — with archived broadcast

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HOWELL — It was the one that got away.

As a result, instead of playing for the KLAA championship, the Howell basketball team will be preparing for districts for the next week and a half.

The Highlanders (12-6) gave up an eight-point lead late in the first half, and Walled Lake Central took advantage, taking a 27-26 lead at half time and taking control in the second half en route to a 60-53 victory.

Click here to listen to the archived broadcast!

Walled Lake Central (13-5) will face Walled Lake Western in Friday’s Lakes Conference championship game.

The Vikings got there largely through the efforts of Runako Ziegler, whose quickness allowed him to blow past Howell defenders time and time again en route to a 32-point performance.

“He did a fantastic job,” Howell coach Nick Simon said. “I can’t give him enough credit. Technique-wise, we were a little off. I wanted to force him into more screens. We struggled more to keep him going into the screen instead of away from the screen.”

Howell got off to a fast start, increasing its lead to 26-18 before Central went on a 9-0 run to end the half.

“That was kind of a turning point,” Simon said. “We let (Ziegler) get into the middle of the lane, and that changed the course of the game. It gave him some confidence when I didn’t think they had a lot going offensively.”

The Vikings got a lift from Anthony Qarana, who scored eight points in the quarter.

“We started playing flat,” Howell guard Josh Palo said. “We didn’t have a lot of energy and our defensive rotations weren’t as good as they needed to be. That was about it.”

The Vikings pulled away in the second half, but the Highlanders stayed close.

“We had the ball down by two four, five, six times, and we couldn’t seem to tie the game up,” Simon said. “We couldn’t quite hit that shot to take the lead. It was down-2 to turnover, down four all of a suddent. Those are big momentum shifts, and eventually you get worn down.”

Palo had 22 points to lead the Highlanders, while Jake Lothamer added 11 and Johnny Shields 10.

The Highlanders finish at Novi on Friday and home against Livonia Stevenson on March 2 in the  consolation round of the KLAA tournament.

“We have to focus on ourselves and get better at what we need to get better at,” Palo said. “We have to be determined and go out and get these wins, even though they don’t mean anything.”

Simon, meanwhile, sees the consolation round as a way to improve for the postseason.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” he said. “I thought for chunks of the game we played really good defense. We’re going to fine-tune things in the next week and make sure we’re ready to make a deep run in the playoffs.”

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