Cut ‘em down: Stoney Creek celebrates first basketball district championship

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

ROCHESTER HILLS — Rochester accomplished a feat that no other team has been able to do in the past four years: Keep Rochester Stoney Creek’s Gabby Yurik from reaching the scoring column.

Stoney Creed was still able to accomplish something Friday that no other boys basketball or girls basketball team in the 10-year history of the school has been able to accomplish: win a district championship.

SKY ABOVE: Rochester Stoney Creek's Lauren Voss and the Cougars captured their first district title in school history Friday with a victory over Rochester. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt

The Cougars cut down the nets Friday night with a 50-35 victory over host Rochester in a Class A district final for their first postseason trophy.

Stoney Creek advances to the Lake Orion regional Tuesday to face Birmingham Marian. The Cougars had lost to Romeo each of the past two years in the district finals after not winning a single postseason game in their first seven years.

The school opened in 2002-03.

The district trophy was special to Stoney Creek coach Brad Crighton and assistant coach Ken Belote, who was the Crighton’s coach at Rochester Adams in the early 1990s.

“It was a program win,” offered Crighton. “It was like getting the monkey off your back a little bit. I think back two years ago, we hadn’t won a district game (until that season). Now we’ve been to three straight championships. Hopefully we can cut down more nets at the end.

“We talk about it every year at districts,” continued Crighton.  “I lost my senior year, we lost to (Pontiac) Northern at the buzzer. And the last two years, we lost in the (district finals). This is something that we had hoped for — for a long time. We’ve been talking to the girls about it and they got one for us.”

Leading only 23-19 at the half, Stoney Creek outscored the Falcons 27-16 in the second half. Sophomores Lauren Voss and Natalie Voss picked up the slack for Rochester’s concentration on Yurik.

Lauren Voss scored a game-high 17 points with eight rebounds and two steals, while Natalie Voss supplied 14 points, 11 rebounds, three blocked shots and a steal for the Cougars.

Yurik still had a major factor in the game, providing eight assists, eight rebounds, three steals and immeasurable floor leadership for the Cougars despite her 0-for-15 shooting night.

Sotoney Creek still held a 33-24 edge on the boards in the game. Keri Scipione added 10 points, four assists and three rebounds and Lauren Bolhuis followed with five points and four assists. The Cougars had 17 assists on 20 baskets and were a crisp 6-for-7 from the line.

“We are used to teams keying on Gabby,” noted Crighton.” If you told me that she wouldn’t score a point and we’d win the district, then I wouldn’t be so sure. But we have a lot of girls that can score. Gabby does so much more for us and score. I don’t know how many assists and rebounds she had, but she does a lot for this team.”

Stoney Creek finished the night 20-for-53 from the floor with only seven turnovers. Rochester (9-14) was12-for-43 from the floor and committed a season-low nine turnovers and only two in the first half.

“I thought we did a great job defensively on Gabby. But they have other girls that can score as well,” said Rochester coach Adam Sheldon. “I am so proud of my girls based on the turnaround that they had and the way we played in the tournament. They were 3-18 last year and started the year 2-8. They still kept working hard and were able to play some good basketball in the second half of the year and in the districts.

“We didn’t shoot very well in the second half, but everybody has games like that and I think you have to credit Stoney Creek’s defense. They did a good job closing in on our shooters,” added Sheldon.

Zhana Randolph scored 10 with six rebounds and five assists for Rochester. Aubrey Konal hit a trio of three-pointers in the second quarter for nine points to go along with three assists and three boards, while Lindsey Larivee added six points and nine rebounds for the Falcons.

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