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Orchard Lake St. Mary's is headed to the next round of the MHSAA girls basketball tournament.
St. Mary's (20-3) advanced Friday, March 6, after defeating White Lake Lakeland (15-9), 54-28, in its Division 1 district title contest. The win snapped Lakeland's eight-game win streak.
It's the Eaglets' first district title in Division 1, and their third overall.
"We knew this was going to be a tough team," said junior guard Allie Crighton, who finished with 17 points. "Coming into it, we were really focused and we knew we had to play as a team to win. That's just the biggest thing we executed tonight which led to us winning today."
MORE FROM DISTRICT 1: Gabby Gocjaj, Madison Repicky lift Utica Eisenhower to 17th straight win
No. 7 St. Mary's used its size advantage to build an early lead en route to a 22-10 lead at the half. OLSM junior forward Reese Holton had seven points at the break.
In the third quarter, Crighton got things going offensively, scoring eight points in the quarter after only three points in the first half. It was exactly what her coach, Brad Crighton, had anticipated his star player would do.
"'The outside's gonna open up a little bit," the coach said he told his team at halftime. "'So make sure you're ready. You're open, knock it down.'"
OLSM's 3-point shooting continued to flow in the fourth quarter, forcing Lakeland coach Mike Leitheim to call a timeout early in the quarter.
With roughly two minutes left in the game, Crighton began pulling his starters out, as the game was all but over.
Leithiem credited the OLSM defense for halting star Aubrin Miller from getting going early.
"Defensively, they're just so sound," Leitheim said. "And keying in on Aubrin all night … we went into a little lull there, which we feared."
Miller also finished with 17 points but felt she could've done better early on.
"I knew that they were going to be guarding up tight," she said, "so first half, I wasn't as aggressive. I took a shot when I had it," she said. "But second half, I knew I was gonna need to pick up the intensity to help my team."
Miller's season is over early this year, but she did accomplish some personal milestones. Last month, she became Lakeland's all-time leading scorer as the first player in program history to score 1,000 career points, following a victory over West Bloomfield on March 4.
The regional tournament isn't new for Allie Crighton and the rest of the Eaglets. She believes her team's experience and chemistry will help in the next round – the Eaglets will face Utica Eisenhower, which is riding a 17-game win streak, on Monday.
"I think my freshman year, we were kind of feeling things out, we all didn't really know each other," she said. "But now it's been three years. We basically have the same group … so this year I think we're coming back stronger and ready to play."
Nominate a high school athlete for the Detroit Free Press boys and girls athlete of the week.
TO YOUR INBOX: Sign up for our weekly Michigan Preps newsletter to get high school sports and news sent directly to you!
Eric Guzmán covers youth sports culture at the Free Press as a corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support this work.
Contact Eric Guzmán: [email protected]; 313-222-1850.Follow him on X and Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Orchard Lake St. Mary's takes down W.L. Lakeland for D-1 district title
Continue reading...
St. Mary's (20-3) advanced Friday, March 6, after defeating White Lake Lakeland (15-9), 54-28, in its Division 1 district title contest. The win snapped Lakeland's eight-game win streak.
It's the Eaglets' first district title in Division 1, and their third overall.
"We knew this was going to be a tough team," said junior guard Allie Crighton, who finished with 17 points. "Coming into it, we were really focused and we knew we had to play as a team to win. That's just the biggest thing we executed tonight which led to us winning today."
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MORE FROM DISTRICT 1: Gabby Gocjaj, Madison Repicky lift Utica Eisenhower to 17th straight win
No. 7 St. Mary's used its size advantage to build an early lead en route to a 22-10 lead at the half. OLSM junior forward Reese Holton had seven points at the break.
In the third quarter, Crighton got things going offensively, scoring eight points in the quarter after only three points in the first half. It was exactly what her coach, Brad Crighton, had anticipated his star player would do.
"'The outside's gonna open up a little bit," the coach said he told his team at halftime. "'So make sure you're ready. You're open, knock it down.'"
OLSM's 3-point shooting continued to flow in the fourth quarter, forcing Lakeland coach Mike Leitheim to call a timeout early in the quarter.
With roughly two minutes left in the game, Crighton began pulling his starters out, as the game was all but over.
Leithiem credited the OLSM defense for halting star Aubrin Miller from getting going early.
"Defensively, they're just so sound," Leitheim said. "And keying in on Aubrin all night … we went into a little lull there, which we feared."
Miller also finished with 17 points but felt she could've done better early on.
"I knew that they were going to be guarding up tight," she said, "so first half, I wasn't as aggressive. I took a shot when I had it," she said. "But second half, I knew I was gonna need to pick up the intensity to help my team."
Miller's season is over early this year, but she did accomplish some personal milestones. Last month, she became Lakeland's all-time leading scorer as the first player in program history to score 1,000 career points, following a victory over West Bloomfield on March 4.
The regional tournament isn't new for Allie Crighton and the rest of the Eaglets. She believes her team's experience and chemistry will help in the next round – the Eaglets will face Utica Eisenhower, which is riding a 17-game win streak, on Monday.
"I think my freshman year, we were kind of feeling things out, we all didn't really know each other," she said. "But now it's been three years. We basically have the same group … so this year I think we're coming back stronger and ready to play."
Nominate a high school athlete for the Detroit Free Press boys and girls athlete of the week.
TO YOUR INBOX: Sign up for our weekly Michigan Preps newsletter to get high school sports and news sent directly to you!
Eric Guzmán covers youth sports culture at the Free Press as a corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support this work.
Contact Eric Guzmán: [email protected]; 313-222-1850.Follow him on X and Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Orchard Lake St. Mary's takes down W.L. Lakeland for D-1 district title
Continue reading...
