One thing is clear in the Hartland-Howell girls basketball rivalry: Four gams might be too much of a good thing.
“I’m not sure how many state-ranked teams go at it four times a season in the same division,” Howell coach Tim Olszewski said. “So it gets a little bit old because I feel one of the best teams in the state doesn’t get to move on.”
That certainly will be the case tonight when the Eagles and Highlanders meet for the final time this season in a Division 1 district final at Howell High School. The game will be broadcast on The Livingston Post starting at 6:50 p.m. Click here for a link.
“You have to play it,” Hartland coach Don Palmer said. “It’s a district final and you’re proud to be in there, but am I excited about playing the fourth time? Absolutely not.”
The home team has won each of the previous three meetings, including last week’s KLAA championship game at Hartland, which the Highlanders led early in the fourth quarter before Hartland went on a 20-0 run to take the victory.
“It was as combination of things,” Olszewski said. “They had some layups and they hit almost all of their free throws. They got hot from the outside. We rushed a little bit and bad things happened. It was the perfect storm, and we’re going to minimize the chance of that happening again.”
One X-factor is Howell guard Sophie Daugard, who suffered a broken nose last week against Wayne, played Thursday at Hartland, and had surgery to repair the nose last Friday.
“I won’t know if she can play until after school (today),” Olszewski said. Daugard had emerged as a scoring threat to complement Maeve St. John in recent games.
Regardless if she plays or not, Olszewski says the key element in the game might be more mental than physical.
“I think it’s more mental,” he said. “I think the more disciplined team that c an execute its game plan is the team that’s going to come out on top.”
Palmer agrees.
“Some minor mental mistakes can cost you big-time, where in some games you play you get a little more leeway,” he said. “For me, it’s pretty nerve-wracking and I imagine Tim’s a little nervous, too. But the kids, you know, as I’ve said many times, ‘Coaches worry, and players play.'”
Over the last decade. Hartland, Howell and Brighton have gotten used to seeing each other three and sometimes four times in a season when two of the three teams were in the same district.
“It’s a physical challenge because the teams will play exceptionally well,” Palmer said. “It’s a mental challenge because you’ve won these kind of games and you’ve lost these games. So you’ve been on both ends of it. Sometimes you freeze up in that situation because there is pressure and you know it’s self-induced. But these are special teams, and once you throw the ball up and tip it, you just go into your coaching mode. They go into playing mode, and you just hope it’s your night.”
The winner will take on either Milford or Lakeland at Fenton in Tuesday’s regional semifinal.
