LAKE ORION — It wasn’t a lack of effort that doomed the Howell girls basketball team in Tuesday’s Division 1 regional semifinal.
“A couple of calls go our way. a couple of bounces, and we’re talking a different game,” Howell senior Sophie Daugard said.
Instead, the Highlanders’ season ended in a 47-44 loss to Lake Orion.
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The Dragons will face defending Division 1 state champ West Blomfield in Thursday’s regional final.
It was close throughout, and it was tied at 40 with about 2 minutes remaining when Madeleine Ebbert was fouled taking a 3-point shot with 2:14 remaining. She made all three free throws, and the Dragons never trailed again.
Then Daugard fouled out with 1:58 left, a key loss for the Highlanders (18-7) down the stretch.
“When you lose arguably your best player, it definitely hurts,” Howell coach Tim Olszewski said. “We had some plays we ran for Sophie, and we had to change our personnel. That didn’t work out so well.
“But you can’t look at one play or one call,” he continued. “It’s combination of a bunch of things, a culmination, and they did more things to deserve to win than we did.”
Lake Orion (20-5) led by four points at one point in those final two minutes, which was the biggest lead of the night. The game was nip-and-tuck all the way. The Highlanders had the ball in the final seconds, but the Dragons defense rose to deny Howell a shot on its final possession as the horn sounded.
The game marked Howell’s first appearance in the regionals in seven years, and after the game, the Highlanders talked of progress and a possible next step.
“Last year, after we had lost the district we asked those three, who were juniors, ‘is this how you want to feel?'” Olszewski said, referring to Daugard, Molly Deurloo and Caitlyn Rayl, this year’s senior co-captains. “‘Do you want something more? The work starts now.’ And they did. They bought in and they got us a district title. This game was similar, and we asked the underclassmen. ‘We got (to the regional). Is that good enough?'”
That question won’t be answered until at least next March, but the Highlanders have no shortage of young players, including freshman Gabby Piepho. who had a team-high 14 points for Howell.
For Deurloo, who had 10 points, there were no tears, just memories of a fun season.
There was the district title, of course.
:All the memories we made. I love that team,” she said. “Our chemistry. We were always laughing and having a good time. I think winning is one of the things we love to do, and I’ll remember that.”
