Avondale on fire in ousting Troy Athens
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
TROY — When it comes to postseason upsets, they most often occur in the early rounds of a tournament.
That’s why as Troy sprung an upset on Waterford Kettering Monday night, Auburn Hills Avondale girls basketball coach Dave Muczynski made sure his players were anywhere but inside the gymnasium during that game.
The idea was to keep his Yellowjackets focused on their first-round opponent, Troy Athens.
Muczynski didn’t have to worry about his team being one of those first-round upset victims. The Yellowjackets, who were a fine 18-2 in the regular season, came out on fire and cruised to a 67-41 win over Athens in a Class A district opener at Troy.
Avondale (19-2), winners of 19 of their last 20 games with its only loss to Class B top-ranked Birmingham Detroit Country Day, will face Pontiac at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals, while Troy will play Waterford Mott in the 5:30 p.m. matchup. The district finals are Friday at 7 p.m.
“From my experience as a soccer coach, in districts, if you get a team that watches a district game, they forget about their game. And they get all caught up in it, and that kind of thing,” said Muczynski. “We got ourselves a classroom here and I had videotape going, but I don’t believe the girls were watching. They were dancing in here to get loose.”
Muczynski scouted the previous game, as Troy took down 19-2 Kettering, one of the two teams to defeat Avondale this season. But his own squad looked like a team capable of making a long run and not a team sputtering out in the postseason.
The Yellowajckets nailed four 3-pointers in the opening frame, including a pair from Andrea Strauss in the first two minutes, and used its speed and team defense to wreak havoc on Athens the whole night.
Avondale, which made four of its first seven 3-point attempts, led 20-11 after the first quarter and 32-20 at the half. The Yellowjackets finished 26-of-51 from the floor (51 percent) and 7-of-15 from beyond the arc.
The lead increased to 51-27 through three quarters and ballooned to as many as 28 points in the second half.
“I don’t know what we shot, but whatever it was, it was ridiculous,” Muczynski admitted. “If we get the open looks, we’ll take them, and we’ll knock them down. The thing is, though, our girls don’t force shots. If it’s not there, no problem. They’ll move the ball around, get somebody else a look, because in the end, they know they’re going to get theirs.”
Avondale also forced 22 turnovers, 14 in the first half, and held Athens to a horrid 16-for-43 shooting performance (37.2 percent).
Junior forward Hannah Little finished with 18 points, including 16 in the second half, with eight rebounds. Courtney Williams added 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals and Strauss added 11 points, nine off three-pointers, with four steals, three assists and two blocked shots.
Athens, which was outrebounded 35-22, had problems the whole night. Junior center Sinclair Russell finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, but she was ineffective for long stretches of the night as the Red Hawks’ guards could not get the ball inside. Senior guard Haley Svrcina added seven points and five rebounds for Athens (11-9), which finished a dismal 8-for-21 from the foul line and just 1-for-9 from outside the three-point arc.
Athens finished the season losing four of their last five games, and struggled down the stretch to gain much offensive production.
“We knew that, and we were hoping they would miss a few more shots than they did,” said first-0year Athens coach Lindsay Noble. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well at all and Avondale came out and it seemed like they hit a lot of shots.”
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Category: Auburn Hills Avondale, High School, Prep Wraps, Troy Athens
