Aubrey’s triple helps Gazelles avenge Everest Collegiate WITH VIDEO

ON THE MOVE: Clarkston Everest Collegiate's Megan Luttinen (No. 13) and arina Nallamothu lead the fast break past Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart's Natasha Aubrey during Thursday's CHSL contest. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

CLARKSTON — In the span of a month, Clarkston Everest Collegiate and Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart have formed quite an intense girls basketball rivalry.

After dropping a 40-35, double-overtime, contest to Everest earlier this month, the Gazelles returned the favor with a 38-33 CHSL Tri-Sectional victory Thursday over host Everest Collegiate, a third-year school but only a first-year varsity program.

The two teams are now tied atop the divisional standings at 4-1.

Senior guard Natasha Aubrey finished with five points and one assist in the final 59 seconds, including the go ahead basket, in leading Sacred Heart (5-4) to the comeback win.

“She’s our best shooter. We wanted to run our base offense and wanted to get the ball to the middle by the foul line and try to pound the ball inside. It just so happened that she was open for three and she has the green light every time,” said Sacred Heart coach Mike Jenkins.

Sacred Heart, which closed with an 11-3 run, was held to only two points for the first 4:15 of the fourth quarter, yet the Gazelles trailed only 30-27 with 3:45 to play.

Later in the frame, Aubrey fed Teanna Shells in the post for a quick bucket and a 33-32 lead with 59 seconds left.

Everest freshman Mary Jo Allen split a pair of free throws to tie the game at 33-33 with 24.8 seconds left.

Aubrey responded by drilling a three-pointer from the right corner with 7.5 second s left for what proved to be the game-winning shot. She added a pair from free lunch with 3.5 seconds left to seal the deal.

“We’ve been working on a lot on protecting the basketball. We’ve had an enormous amount of turnovers (this season) and if we can kind of hold that in check, it gives us a chance to win,” said Jenkins.  “We did that in the second half.

“We had a slow start. We were down 8-0. We could have folded,” added Jenkins. “We battled back through perseverance. We ran a half court trap. With our length and size I think it disrupted the flow in their offense a little bit.”

Sacred Heart had 39 turnovers in the contest, but still made its comeback.

Everest Collegiate, off to a surprising 8-3 start, opened the game on an 8-0 but could not sustain the pace. The Mountaineers went into the locker room tied at 16-16 at the half.

Sacred Heart used a 9-7 edge in the third quarter for a 25-23 lead entering a wild fourth quarter.

“There were a lot of similarities. It went right down to the end. We got the shots we wanted to, they just didn’t go in,” said Erin Hearn, who had coached Everest to its fine start for a debut program.

The Mountaineers struggled from the floor after scoring eight points in the first four minutes. Everest finished the night 13-for-67 from the floor.

Allen finished with 11 points and eight rebounds for Everest. Angie Mastermatteo added a fine floor game with seven points, six rebounds, nine steals and two assists for the Mountaineers.

Everest has already exceeded expectations and find themselves in a position to perhaps share a division crown. With both teams beating each other by five points, if the two win out, there will have to be a series of tiebreakers to see who gets the higher seed in the CHSL playoffs, which will take place in mid-February.

“We’re really excited to be our league (race) the first time, It’s nice to be able to play good competition,” said Hearn. “I think the (playoffs seedings) will go down to points, but I am not positive.”

Rebecca Statler had 11 points, eight rebounds and three steals to lead Sacred Heart. Aubrey added eight points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals, while Shells and Rebecca Bazinski scored six apiece for the Gazelles, who posted a 44-28 rebounding advantage.

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Tags: featured, girls basketball, prep girls basketball, video

Category: Clarkston Everest Catholic, Prep Wraps