Avondale cruises past Troy for first district trophy since 2006
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
TROY — It must have been hard for Waterford Kettering and Waterford Mott to watch Troy get out to a commanding early lead Monday and Wednesday in the district tournament.
Troy played the other role in Friday’s final.
Auburn Hills Avondale hit some early shots and forced 13 first-half turnovers, taking an early lead and never looking back t win a Class A district championship game over host Troy, 57-38.
Avondale, now 21-2 on the year and winners of 21 of their last 22 games, will face Romeo at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Waterford Mott in the regional semifinals. Romeo advanced with a 50-30 trouncing of Rochester Stoney Creek.
Avondale got out to the early start with a barrage of 3-pointers in the first half. The Yellow Jackets often hit these 3-pointers in transition, before Troy could close out.
“We’ve been hitting 3s all season, but the big key was when Loreal Farris (started hitting shots). We’ve been pushing her to take shots, and she did tonight. Once she hit it, everyone else rode the coattails,” said Avondale coach Dave Muczynski.
Troy knew that Avondale’s attack featured both an outside and inside game. The Yellowjackets twined eight 3-pointers in the game to deliver the venomous poison to the Colts.
“We knew what they could do; we just couldn’t stop them no matter what they tried,” offered Troy coach Dennis Koch.
Koch had to call time out when, in the first 2:22 of the game, Avondale scored a 3-point play, inside layup, and 3-pointer to go up 8-0.
Sabria Cotton and senior Liz Siepker added 3-pointers in the next minute to get Troy back into the game, but Avondale’s second triple with 1:26 left put the Yellow Jackets in front 15-9.
When Troy was on offense, Avondale ran a fierce 2-3 zone defense that prevented any sort of inside offense on Troy’s part. Once Avondale’s early offense died down, the Yellow Jackets scored six of their points in a 12-3 run directly off of steals, with the other six came from a pair of 3-pointers.
“We knew who their shooters were, and when they got the ball, we closed out right away,” said Muczynski, mentioning Cotton (one 3-pointer), Moss (one 3-pointer), Siepker (three 3-pointers) as possible threats. The coach said as late as Thursday he didn’t know what defense he would run, and after that day’s practice he consented to his players’ desire to run a zone.
“We had open looks, and we needed to move better without the ball,” Koch added. “We needed to move the ball around the zone better.”
Avondale kept up the zone in the second half, forcing Troy into a lot of long 3-point shots. Troy still managed to hit three long balls after the break, but in 17 attempts.
The Yellow Jackets held Moss to four points — none in the first half — though the junior did grab seven steals.
Farris and Courtney Williams both scored 13 to lead three Yellow Jackets in double figures. Andrea Strauss added 12 points, all of three-pointers, while Hannah Little scored nine and Moriah Schroll chipped in with seven points.
Troy trailed 28-12 at the half, managing only three points in the second quarter, where Avondale scored 15.
Avondale had an answer for all three of Troy’s second-half triples. The Yellow Jackets countered Moss’s early 3 with two long balls of their own, Siepker’s triple with five straight points, and Siepker’s last with stifling defense.
“We’d make a couple plays, but then they’d make a couple more plays,” said Koch. “We could never close the gap.”
“We knew it was going to happen,” added Muczynski of the run. “We said, ‘Don’t hang your heads. Don’t get worried.’ We’ve exhibited discipline all year.
Avondale led 45-26 through three quarters and led by as many as 24 points the second half.
Siepker led Troy (14-9) with 15 points and eight rebounds in her last game with the Colts. She’ll play basketball for Hope College next season.
Category: Auburn Hills Avondale, High School, Prep Wraps, Troy
