BOYS BASKETBALL: Our Lady of the Lakes cruises past Lansing Christian for second straight regional crown
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
LANSING — Members of Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes boys basketball team are trying to make amends this season after falling short of its ultimate goal a year ago.
The Lakers took another step in that direction Wednesday night.
Our Lady of the Lakes captured its second straight Class D regional title with a 70-53 victory over host Lansing Christian.
“Our free throw shooting carried us tonight,” offered Lakes coach Paul Robak. “They started to foul us hoping to close the gap but it worked in reverse. We were 24-for-32 from the line in the fourth quarter alone. That helped us pull away, really.”
The Lakers (20-4) lost only one game last season, finishing 25-1 following a one-point loss (53-52) to Morenci in the state semifinals. Our Lady of the Lakes is now one win away from reaching that plateau again and three wins away from a state title.
“that was rough,” recalled Robak of the semifinals loss. :There was a lot of pressure last year being undefeated going into the (Final Four). We had an off-shooting night and came up short. This year we have the four losses, so there’s no where near as much pressure.”
The five straight tourney wins this year came after the Lakers lost two games to close out the regular season, losses to Royal Oak Shrine Catholic and Flint Academy-West.
“That helped us focus a little bit,” said Robak. “We were cruising along and then we had that bad week with two losses. We are playing a whole lot better right now.”
Associated Press fifth-ranked Lakes jettisoned out of the gate with a 14-2 run and never looked back in ousting the Pilgrims.
Lansing Christian countered with a 16-8 run in the second quarter to close the gap down to 22-18 at the half.
Our Lady blew the game open with a 48-35 second half.
Senior forward Andrew Kline scored a game-high 31 points in leading the Lakers. Devin Senerius added 12 points and Clay Senerius also reached double figures with 10 points for Our Lady of the Lakes.
Kline is averaging around 23 points, eight rebounds and six assists an outing for WOLL this season.
Forrest Bouyer scored 16 points Lansing Christian, Preston Granger chipped in 15 points and Matt Harvey swished 11 points for the Pilgrims(14-10), who entered the postseason with just an 11-9 record.
“Lansing Christian is a little bit young, but they are a tough matchup. They start one senior and four juniors, so they will be very good next season,” noted Robak, who will graduate eight players this season after seeing five players depart in 2015. “They play hard and gave us a good challenge. We started fast and then they closed it down to four in the second quarter. I thought our leadership, our seniors took over in the second half. Our free throw shooting carried us.”
Our Lady of the Lakes will face Marine City Cardinal Mooney Catholic in the state quarterfinals next Tuesday at West Bloomfield. Lakes defeated Mooney 61-58 in the CHSL playoffs semifinals last month.
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