Defense, Doyle lead MCC past Frankfort
for district title
By DYLAN SAVELA
Manistee News Advocate Sports Writer
Published:
Saturday, March 5, 2011
ONEKAMA — Manistee Catholic
Central hasn’t had the opportunity this season for a bounce-back
game. Teams with perfect records rarely do.
But, displeased with an uncharacteristic performance in their Class
D district semifinal win on Wednesday, the 21-0, No. 6 Sabers had
redemption in mind for Friday’s final against the two-time defending
champion, Frankfort.
“We had no bounce in our step on Wednesday,” MCC coach Todd Erickson
said. “I thought tonight these kids could have bounced through the
rafters.”
While they’re up there, the Sabers can now unveil a district
championship banner after topping the Panthers, 37-27, for their
first title since 2008 and a spot in Tuesday’s regional at Traverse
City West against Buckley. "It's crazy," an ecstatic Alex Barnett
said amongst the sea of red-shirted Saber fans that stormed the
Onekama court, "I didn't think we'd ever get this far. We worked
really hard for it. We wanted it. We came out and just wanted it.
“With districts and the 22-0, I
don’t even know what to say.”
The overwhelmed senior guard scored five of the Sabers’ points with
three rebounds Friday while sophomore Haley Doyle led the team with
17 points, three boards and five steals. Freshman Alysha Heck scored
seven with four rebounds.
Contributions up and down the lineup had been key to the Sabers’
unscathed record heading into the final, and certainly were the
theme during it.
“I told the girls it was theirs to take, but they’re all going to
have to earn it like they have all year,” Erickson said. “I told
them what they need to do against this team and I thought they
answered the call real well.”
After Frankfort’s Noel Bigley
gave her team a 3-2 lead with a triple a minute into the contest,
the Sabers held the Panthers scoreless for six minutes before a
Frankfort free throw in the final minute made it 6-4 at the end of
the first.
At that point, the low scoring affair seemingly would be decided by
defense — the Sabers’ zone press against Frankfort’s feisty
man-to-man.
And after the Panthers were held scoreless for the first seven
minutes of the second, taking six points on just 11 field goal
attempts with 12 turnovers by the break, there’s little argument as
to who won that battle.
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A 17-6 lead at the half didn’t give
MCC as much breathing room as it would have liked, but the lack of good
looks seemed to take the Panthers out of any sort of offensive rhythm.
“(The coaches) told us we held them to just 11 shots in the first half,”
Barnett said. “We couldn’t really believe it.”
Collapsing on the Panthers’ post players helped MCC hold offensive
threats Tami Bankston scoreless and Emily Gray to just a team-high 11 by
game’s end.
“That was a big key,” Erickson said. “You can’t give them a good look,
because they’ll beat you. We forced 25 turnovers and that was huge.”
Said Frankfort coach Tim Reznich: “They did a great job at bottling up
our bigs. We’ve been relying on our post players all year.
“We struggled when we couldn’t get it to them at all and we lost our
patience. They did a great job. They stayed with their game plan. They
played good, they played physical.”
Frankfort put up more chances in the game’s latter half, but MCC
benefited from the bonus as early as 39 seconds left in the third.
“Much better offensive production in that second half, but it was just
too little too late,” Reznich said. “We’ve been pretty inconsistent this
season, this unfortunately was one of those nights where we just
couldn’t get it going right. We struggled a little bit and then
panicked.”
After taking a 23-14 lead into the final frame, the Sabers saw their
advantage dip to as close as five as the Panthers converted a pair of
free throws to make it 28-23 with 3:22 remaining.
“The way we matched up with them, win or lose, against Tim’s team I knew
it’d be close,” Erickson said. “And these district finals are always low
scoring.”
Doyle scored the Sabers’ second and last bucket of the fourth to extend
the lead to 30-23 with less than three minutes to play. Despite an
inconstant performance from the line down the stretch, the Sabers made
their way to the charity stripe often and their 10-for-23 performance in
the fourth quarter made the difference.
MCC’s Brooke Etheridge finished the night with four points, seven boards
and four assists while teammates Mimi Modjeski scored three and Jennifer
Alway one.
While losing hasn’t been part of MCC’s M.O. this season, Erickson said
the 22nd straight win is on a level of its own.
“That’s a different season to us,” he said of the 20 regular season
victories. “If you don’t win this game, then fine, celebrate that. But
if you do win this game, that proves that that really meant something
and makes this so sweet.” |
