Our Lady rallies past Cardinal Mooney for district crown

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

WATERFORD — The first difficult test came across Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes Friday night and the defending Class D girls basketball champions passed with flying colors.

The Lakers defeated rival Marine City Cardinal Mooney, 42-35, in a Class D district final to advance to their own regional Tuesday.

WOLL (19-4), which captured its sixth straight district title, will face Birmingham Roeper in the regional semifinals.

“Cardinal Mooney came out and made a bunch of shots early, which was different from the last time we played them, but we were able to adjust on them defensively and we did a good job on them the rest of the way,” said Lakes coach Steve Robak, whose team is going after its third straight state title. I thought we did a great job on them defensively, especially in the second and third quarters.

Cardinal Mooney (16-5) was held to only eight points in the middle two frames, including three points in the second quarter.

WOLL went on a 10-3 surge in the second quarter for a 22-21 lead. In the third frame, the Lakers pulled ahead with a 12-5 run, good for a 34-26 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Cardinal Mooney cut the deficit to four points midway through the fourth stanza, only to see Lakes withstand that rally by going 6-of-8 from the line down the stretch.

Ava Doetsch was 4-for-4 from the line in the fourth quarter, while Tori Duffey and Carlee Cottrell each split a pair in the waning moments for Lakes.

Cottrell scored 13 points to lead WOLL. Lexie Robak canned a trio of 3-pointers and added 11 points, Doetsch scored and Duffey twined eight points.

Gabby Troy supplied seven rebounds and Jessica Perry nabbed four boards of the bench to help compensate the Lakers, who were missing starter Anna Robb, out with the flu.

McKayla McCourt scored 13 points for Cardinal Mooney.

“I thought that Gabby Troy and Jessica Parry did a great job off the bench for us. They were very active going after rebounds and loose balls,” praised Robak. “They did a great job filling in for Anna Robb. We needed for someone to really step in and help fill her shoes and I thought they both gave us a lift there.”

Lakes, ranked in the top five all season, is favored in their regional.

“We don’t want to get caught looking too far ahead,” noted Robak. “We feel confident that if we can play our game, then we will be fine. But as we have seen all  over the state, there have been a few upsets in Class D and we need to understand that we have to come ready to play. We have an experienced team, they have been through (the long tournament runs) before. We’re hoping that experience will pay off.”

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