Lakeland Girls Basketball Team Loses Divisional Battle

WATERFORD - There is very little separating Waterford Kettering from this year on the basketball court according to their records. So after Kettering won the first game by one point in White Lake in January, it only made sense for this one to come down to the closing minutes.

In the end it was Kettering’s defensive pressure that turned the tide in the fourth quarter in a 43-35 victory over the Lakeland Eagles in a KLAA North showdown. The win gives Kettering a two-game first place lead over Lakeland in the divisional standings.

The Eagles had nine fourth quarter turnovers, many of which came against the Captains’ full-court pressure.

Four straight free throws off defensive turnovers gave Kettering a 10-point lead with one minute to play, its biggest lead since midway through the fourth quarter.

The loss offset another strong offensive performance by senior Stephanie Lock, who scored 18 points. Starters Rose Deren and Ciara Schultz fouled out in the final three minutes.

“The story is pretty easy – we had too many turnovers,” said Lakeland head coach Mike Head. “When we don’t have all those turnovers we are a pretty good team. Tonight we had too many.”

A steal midway through the fourth led to an Arjanai Washington basket for the Captains (14-0, 8-0). Then, Allison Bicknell’s triple gave Kettering a seven-point lead with just over three minutes remaining. Down the stretch Lakeland did not get enough looks in its half court offense outside of Lock who took the majority of the shots. But that wasn’t the problem offensively, according to Head.

"Stephanie can make those shots and she made a lot of them tonight,” Head said. “The problem was that we didn’t have anyone to grab rebounds when we did miss them.”

Kettering had a balanced scoring attack led by Bicknell with 14 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Four other players scored at least seven points for the Captains. Marlayna Malvich scored nine for Lakeland (11-3, 6-2).

“They are different than any other team we’ve played this year with the defensive pressure they put on you,” Malvich said. “We have to learn to settle down. We need to execute better on offense as a team.”

It looked early as if the Captains might cruise to a win. Hannah Huff and Erica Schwarz hits consecutive three-pointers, and Hannah Stinson converted a three-point play to give Kettering a 16-4 lead. Lakeland responded after some early turnovers against the Kettering press, and ended the quarter on a 6-0 run on two baskets from Lock and a baseline jumper from Schultz. That cut a 12-point Kettering lead in half.

“We looked up at the scoreboard and (Head) told us that this isn’t Lakeland basketball,” Malvich said about falling behind early by 12.

“You know the saying, when you fall behind by that many points early it takes a lot of effort to come back," Head said. "We were trying to fight back all night.”

The Eagles continued to play tough defensively in the second quarter, allowing just four points. The Captains also seemed to be taking quick shots but Lakeland missed 5-of-6 free throws in the first half, which prevented the Eagles from leading at the break. As it was, Malvich’s two offensive putbacks cut Kettering’s lead to 20-19.

The defensive focus continued in the third quarter. Bicknell scored five straight points, including a deep three to make it 27-20 Kettering with three minutes to play in the quarter. The Eagles though ended on a 5-0 run, including a banker from Lock as the buzzer sounded.

After falling behind early Lakeland never recaptured the lead. Its only lead for the game was 2-0.

“We thought we had the deeper bench and that’s why our press was pretty effective,” Kettering head coach Scott Woodhull said. “Those turnovers at the end made the difference.”