Avondale allows little drama in ousting Athens
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
AUBURN HILLS — Most upsets have tendency to happen in the first couple nights of the postseason. Auburn Hills Avondale made sure it didn’t allow any such event to occur Monday night in the opening round of the Class A girls basketball tournament on its own floor.
The Yellowjackets overcame a slow start, leading just 2-0 after nearly three minutes of play, before catching fire to roll past Troy Athens, 57-32, to advance to the district semifinals.
Waterford Kettering defeated Waterford Mott, 52-16, in Monday’s other district quarterfinal, and the Captains will face Pontiac at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Avondale will tangle with Troy in the first game at 5:30 p.m..
“We are a different team than last year,” admitted Avondale coach Dave Muczynski, who led his team to the Class A regional finals last year but lost four key players to graduation. “We might be a little deeper, and if anything, that allows us to run more players (defensively) and keep fresher legs. We have the ability to wear other teams down.”
Athens, a team of mostly juniors and sophomores, struggled to hit shots all night. The Red Hawks (3-17) shot 25 percent from the floor (11-for-44) and couldn’t get the benefit of the roll of many layup attempts. The young Red Hawks struggled with Avondale’s pressure defense, which forced 31 turnovers.
On the offensive end, Avondale sent nine players into the scoring column and shot 25-for-58 from the floor (48 percent).
Sophomore Sabrina Douglas was one of only two Yellowjackets to reach double figures with 11 points. Junior Quennece Garrison had a fine all-around game with 11 points, five assists, five rebounds and three steals.
Junior Carolyn Gracey added nine points and four rebounds, junior Daja Whiteside followed with seven points and four boards, and senior Hannah Little collected five points, six rebounds and four steals for Avondale.
Athens 6-foot-1 senior Sinclair Russell bowed out with another solid game that featured 21 points, 10 rebounds six blocked shots, three assists and a steal. She finished 6-for-24 from the floor, as the Oakland University recruit constantly fought through double- and sometimes triple-teams and contested shots all night.
“We’ll miss her next season,” said Athens coach Lindsay Noble. “We lose a 30-point player. She scored 30 points a couple of times this season and is our leading rebounder and shot blocker. She will be hard to replace.”
Russell is one of the top payers to don a Red Hawks jersey and is the school’s all-time leader in blocked shots and ranks in the top five in several categories in the school record books. Senior Sharda Griffin added four points and five rebounds, but only five Red Hawks scored points in the contest.
“I thought their quickness hurt us. We are such a young team and they are very fast,” admitted Noble. “We couldn’t get our layups to drop and they seemed to be hitting everything. I thought we did a good job with our zone to try to slow them down, but when they are hitting their shots and we’re missing on the other end, it’s hard to stay in the game.”
Avondale (15-6) turned its early 2-0 lead into an 18-3 advantage with a 16-1 run over a four-minute span and eventually led 20-6 after the first quarter. The Yellowjackets forced turnovers on six of Athens’ first 10 possessions of the game and forced nine in the first quarter alone.
In the second frame, the Yellowjackets led 24-10 with 6:24 to go in the half before blitzing the Red Hawks with a 15-6 buzz to build a commanding 27-16 lead at the half.
Avondale essentially put the game away in the third quarter with a 13-6 run, forcing 10 more turnovers in the period before calling off the attack in the fourth quarter.
Athens outscored Avondale 10-7 in the fourth quarter.
“I think I am blessed with some pretty good players,” smiled Muczynski, whose team has to defeat Troy Wednesday for the third time this season to advance to the district finals. “We have great leaders. Hannah Little is our hardest worker and she brings it to every practice and game. Loreal Farris is another great leader. She runs the point and know exactly what we want out of our offense. And we’ve had other players step up this season. That’s the reason why we have been a good team this season, even though we lost a couple of key players from last year. It all starts with the seniors.”
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