After persevering during a bruising KLAA West Division race, the Howell girls basketball team will try to reap the dividends in tonight’s KLAA championship game.
The Highlanders (14-7) take on No. 4-ranked Belleville (18-2) at Northville in a game that will be broadcast by The Livingston Post starting at 6:50 p.m. Click here for the link.
Unlike Howell, Belleville rolled through its regular season, going undefeated in the KLAA East. The only close games the Tigers played were against perennial contender Wayne Memorial, whom Belleville beat 61-50 and 59-31. The rest of the time Belleville blew out its opponents, including an 88-4 humiliation of Westland John Glenn, which forfeited the second scheduled game.
“They’re a good team,” Howell coach Jason Piepho said. “They’re athletic, they’re long, they’ve got a freshman who’s one of the top players in the nation. They’ve got plenty of talent. It’s going to be a challenge.”
But Piepho thinks his Highlanders will pose a challenge, too.
“I think we’re a different team than what they’ve seen,” Piepho said. “I think we are sneaky athletic and we shoot well, and I don’t think they’ve seen a lot of that. It will be interesting to see which team adjusts to the other faster.”
Howell, meanwhile, will stick to what’s been successful so far.
“Any time we can control the boards, it gives us a really good chance to win,” Piepho said. “We’ve got to contain their dribble penetration because that creates kick-out opportunities and that leads to offensive boards. So we’ve got to do a good job in both of those aspects.”
The Highlanders are led by Piepho’s daughter Gabby, a sophomore, along with juniors Allison Farr, Kylie Pung and Lexie Le, the only senior on the team. Another emerging player is Mackenzie Duthie, another sophomore getting quality minutes at forward.
It’s the regular-season finale for both teams, and playing for a title adds that extra bit of spice going into the state tournament next week.
“It makes it a lot of fun,” Piepho said. “We’ve already won our division, which is always one of the top accomplishments of the season. That’s about being good consistently vs. being good for one night. Now we get to play for a championship against one of the top teams in the state.”
