Holly holds off pesky Hornets
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
HOLLY — Friday was far from a thing of beauty for Holly. As the old adage goes, an ugly win is always better than a pretty loss for a team in a league title chase.
The Bronchos overcame an early 11-7 deficit to visiting Flint Kearsley and eventually held off the pesky Hornets for a 34-32 Flint Metro League girls basketball victory to move to 3-1 in the league and 6-2 overall.
Holly, coming off a 12-pont road loss to Hartland to ring in the new year, fought of three desperation shots by Kearsley and a missed free throw in the final 50 seconds to prevail.
“We didn’t play all that well, to be honest,” admitted Holy coach David Hall. “I thought we did a better job getting the bal inside and attacking the basket in the second half, but we also had a lot of turnovers. Kearsley played us tough. They may be young, but they are better than what their record shows.”
A three-pointer by Holly senior guard Miayan Kerner from the top of the Key with 4:02 left gave the Bronchos a 34-27 lead and proved to be the marginal points as Holly did not score again.
Broke Harthun scored 14 to pace Holly. Kayla Skopek added seven points and five assists and 6-foot-1 sophomore Alyssa Copley chipped in with seven points, seven rebounds and two blocks for Holy.
Copley tipped a shot and snagged around with three seconds left.
“Copley played well in spurts, but she’s our big girl and she needs to mature a little,” noted Hall. “We need her to be more consistent, touch the ball more. We tried to go inside more, that’s the biggest switch we made at halftime. We wanted to go inside first and look to kick it out second.
“I thought that Harthun did a nice job tonight, she got some nice looks and made some key shots,” continued Hall. “We needed someone to make some shots and she did a nice job.”
Flint Kearsley led for most of the first two quarters, before Holly closed the second quarter with a 6-2 run. Harthun’s layup put the Bronchos up 19-18 at the half.
Kearsley, which played four sophomores and returns just one starter from last season, regained the lead briefly at 20-19 in the third quarter on a jumper by Haleigh Morgan.
Holly’s ensuing 6-0 run gave the Bronchos a 25-20 lead — a lead they would not relinquish.
The winless Hornets (0-8, 0-5) did not go away, closing with a 12-9 run, including a 7-0 spurt that ended with a jumper from Mallory Miller that closed the gap down to 34-32 with 3:14 to go.
“We’re getting better. It’s amazing how far we’ve come since the beginning of the season. We were just a play or two away from beating Holly,” said Kearsley coach Debbie Ananich. “I think the girls are starting to gain a little confidence. We’re getting better every game, especially our last 3-4 games. The wins will come. I just like to see us improve, because we are a very young team. We only have three kids that played any minutes last season and a third of our team is sophomores.”
The Hornets will not contend for the FML title, but could be a scary team capable of pulling an upset.
“Kearsley is going to be a good team,” admitted Hall. “They might be undersized, but they scrap. They completely outplayed us.”
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