Livonia – There’ll be no need for a GPS to help Livonia Ladywood find its way to U-D Mercy Calihan Hall Sunday for the CHSL A-B Division championship game against Farmington Hills Mercy. Tip off is 3 p.m.
The Blazers have been there four of the last five years, winning it all in 2005 and 2006.
The 2006 game may be a bitter memory for Mercy, however. That’s the last time the Marlins made it to the title game – and their opponent was Ladywood, 39-37 victors.
The teams split the season series, Ladywood winning one game by five points, Mercy the other by three.
Marlins 42, Falcons 37
In the opener of the A-B semifinals yesterday at Madonna University, Mercy and Dearborn Divine Child set the tone for the day with clutching defenses and sporadic rushes of offense, flavored at times with just plain sloppiness.
Divine Child sped to an 8-2 lead to start the game, saw that dwindle to 11-8 by the end of the first quarter, bumped up to 22-18 at the intermission, and another notch to 29-24 after three quarters.
“We were struggling with our shooting, lucky not to get too far behind,” said Mercy coach Gary Morris.
The tempo picked up in the fourth quarter, led by Mercy’s senior guard, Janelle McQueen. Relatively quiet with seven points to then, she “stepped up huge” (in the words of Morris) with 13 of her game-high 20 points. McQueen scored nine of the Marlins’ final 11 points – on a jumper and seven of eight free throws.
In fact, of the 26 points by both teams in the last quarter, 16 came from the charity stripe.
That proved to be the downfall for Divine Child. “Poor free throw shooting (11 of 23) and turnovers did us in,” said Falcons coach Mary Laney. “We handed the game to them.”
McQueen’s first two free throws gave Mercy its first lead in the game, 33-32, at the 2:50 mark. The Falcons’ Cara Miller’s two free throws regained the lead, only to have Britney Malinowski sink two to get it back for Mercy at 35-34. The Falcons’ Blair Morgan’s free throw tied the score at 35.
With 52 seconds to play, McQueen’s jumper gave Mercy the lead for good, 37-35. She added five free throws to round out the scoring.
“Kudos to the kids,” said Morris. “They hung in there.”
Rosanna Reynolds had nine, and Blair and Hayley Stempien seven apiece for the Falcons.
Blazers 43, Mustangs 31
The first half of the Ladywood and Bloomfield Hills Marian semifinal was a snoozer. The players trudged off the court at the half with Marian up 17-16.
“It wasn’t pretty,” said Ladywood’s first year coach, Tony Coratti.
“We didn’t have a good flow,” said his Marian counterpart, Mary Cicerone. “We just didn’t click.”
The wake-up call came from the Blazers’ senior guard, Alyssa Anastos. She led her fellow seniors in a pep talk that her sister, sophomore Andrea, said “fired us up.”
“Was it a ‘win one for the Gipper,’” Alyssa was asked.
Her expression said it all: Who is that? Although her mother standing nearby said, “I know.”
Question re-phrased: what did you say?
“We had to be mentally strong,” Alyssa said. “We had to dig deeper, to have more heart.”
“Our seniors took ownership,” was Coratti’s critique.
Alyssa set the example. Her triple early in the third quarter put Ladywood ahead for good, 21-18, and sparked a 16-6 run that put the Blazers up 34-24 heading into the final eight minutes.
Marian cut that deficit to 35-31 midway through the fourth quarter, but six straight points – a basket by senior Katy Rooney and a basket and two free throws by Andrea Anastos – restored the lead to 10 points and the eventual victory.
Alyssa had a game-high 13 points and Rooney 11 for Ladywood. Mara Mulroy’s nine points (none in the second half) was the best for Marian.
