- Michigan
Brennan hits game-winner, as St. Clair Shores Lakeview beats L’Anse Creuse North in MAC Blue/Gold tourney title game
GROSSE POINTE — Once she puts it all together — and gets the confidence to go with it — St. Clair Shores Lakeview center Joslyn Brennan is going to be an issue to deal with.
As it was Saturday, she was far enough along in her development to take the game-winning shot — and hit it with 58.9 seconds left — as the Huskies won their second Macomb Area Conference Blue/Gold tournament title in three seasons, beating L’Anse Creuse North, 42-41, at Grosse Pointe North.
“Well that’s the growth of her. Two months ago, she shrinks down, and we don’t even have her in the game. She wants to stay in now,” said Huskies coach Joe Charrette of his 6-foot-6 junior, who already has Division I offers, despite her being a relative newcomer to the sport, and not playing AAU ball. “I’d worry about her next year, because she’s going to be a load — she’s in the gym every day.”
Lakeview (14-4, 8-2 MAC Blue) and L’Anse Creuse North (14-5, 6-4 MAC Blue) finished second and third in the MAC’s Blue Division in the regular season. Anchor Bay (13-5, 9-1 MAC Blue) won the regular-season divisional crown.
The Crusaders won the first meeting, on their home floor, 48-46, but the Huskies claimed the second regular-season game, 51-49 in overtime.
“It was exactly the same game. All three of them were like that. We’d jump out, they’d take it back. All three were a carbon copy of this. Just two evenly-matched teams playing hard. They have a really good player (Brooke Daniels) we tried to contain, and she makes the plays,” said Charrette, whose team has been in the Blue/Gold final each of the three years they’ve held the tournament, winning the first two years ago, and losing last year.
“We had to play three really good teams to get there. Marine City was well-coached. St. Clair was well-coached, really good. And L’Anse Creuse North is well-coached, really good. So I’m proud of the girls.
“This is always a goal. We want to win the city, we want to win our league, we want to win a MAC championship, and we want to win districts. So we just keep on moving forward.”
LCN led 21-19 at the half, but the game was tied at 28-28 going into the fourth.
Brennan scored on a putback with 1:30 to go to put the Huskies up, 40-39, but five seconds later, Daniels was fouled, and hit both free throws to put the Crusaders on top, 41-40.
It would stay that way until Brennan hit her hook shot with 58.9 seconds left.
L’Anse Creuse North had three cracks at the basket on the other end, but came up empty.
Brennan finished with six points for Lakeview — all in the second half — while Kelly Wandzel had 11 and Taedom Stein had 14.
“Because they’re tough kids. Those two are just tough kids. We don’t have many what I’d call alpha dogs, and they’re as close to is as we get. They’re tough kids, and they want to compete,” Charrette said of Wandzel and Stein, also pointing out the maturation of sophomore point guard Kayla Austin. “Kayla’s grown. When we played before (Daniels) just roughshod her. Today, she got us in to sets. The first two times, we had a hard time getting into sets against them. She’s developed. She’s only a sophomore.”
Daniels led all scorers with 18 for LCN.
Brennan’s growth has been both literal and figurative. Charrette said she was 6-2 as a freshman, without any basketball experience. Now she’s got a full-ride offer from Wayne State and one from Miami (Ohio).
SILVER/BRONZE
ROSEVILLE 32, WARREN MOTT 29
GROSSE POINTE — The top two teams in the Silver Division battled it out for the Silver/Bronze tournament title, with regular-season champion Roseville coming out on top, 32-29.
Warren Mott (11-8) led by a slim 12-11 margin after a low-scoring first three quarters, but Roseville (14-4) outscored the Marauders, 21-17, in the final quarter to get the win.
DeBraya Edwards scored 15 of her game-high 20 for Roseville in the final period, while Olivia Vanderham scored four of her six. Bridget Bogden scored all nine of her points in the final period for Warren Mott, while Nia Nelson scored seven of her team-high 17.
