ROCHESTER HILLS ─ You’ve seen it happen before, a contest with pre-game hype falling short of expectations.
The clash Friday, Feb. 13, at Oakland University’s O’rena for the Catholic League Bishop Division girls basketball championship featured the league’s two best teams, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep and Jackson Lumen Christi. Each had 15-2 records. St. Mary’s was 8-0 in the Central West division, Lumen Christi 7-1 in the Central East. In the statewide rankings, St. Mary’s is No. 8 in Division 1, Lumen Christi is No. 2 in Division 3.
Lumen Christi sped out 4-1 in the opening three minutes. The Eaglets responded for a 7-6 lead. Then the complexion of the game changed drastically. The Titans went on a 9-0 run to go ahead 15-7 by the end of the first quarter, 35-18 at halftime, and the eventual winning score of 48-36.
Leading Lumen’s offense was Keena Hunt, a talented 5-foot-9 sophomore point guard who has had more than a dozen colleges expressing an interest in her since she was a starter for the Titans as a freshman.
St. Mary’s juniors Allie Crighton and Megan Asmussen had the enviable task of keeping track of Hunt in the Eaglets one-for-one defense, which might have affected their below par offense, seven points between them, Crighton in particular, nearly 15 points below her season average.
Junior Laney Larsen (team high 14 points), senior Brooke Shockey and a triple (one of seven attempts) by Crighton had the comeback-minded Eaglets down by six points, 42-36, with 3:45 to play.
Hunt scored the last six points of the game (she had game honors with 22) to give the Titans their first CHSL basketball championship since joining the league three years ago.
“It always starts with defense for us, and I think that and our effort, winning 50-50 battles in the first half, that got our offense going,” said Lumen Christi head coach Scott Stine, who had coached Ypsilanti Arbor Prep to three state titles in the last four years. “And anytime somebody wants to guard Kenna man-to-man, I think that’s to our advantage.”
“Kenna, we know she’s a great player,” St. Mary’s coach Brad Crighton said. “And we knew we just couldn’t let her get deep in the lane, and that's what she did. But we were still in the game. It was a six-point game with four minutes left, so yeah, it was frustrating.”
About his daughter Allie: “A lot of teams focus on her,” Crighton said. “Allie got a few good looks. She played hard. All the girls played hard offensively. It’s one of those things where the consistency wasn't quite there.”
St. Mary’s (15-3) has two home games remaining on its schedule before state tournament action begins March 2: vs. Frankenmuth (10-7) Feb. 17 and vs. Birmingham Groves (14-4) Feb. 26.
Lumen Christi (16-2) has four games left, all at home: versus Detroit Country Day (9-5) Feb. 20, Rockford (16-1) Feb. 24, Detroit Mumford (8-7) Feb. 26 and Beaverton (15-2) Feb. 28.
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected]
