Detroit – In about as wild and wooly a girls basketball game you might not see anytime soon, Farmington Hills Mercy overcame a 12-point halftime deficit to win its first CHSL A-B Championship in 28 years, 46-42, over Livonia Ladywood.
Ironically, it was Ladywood that the Marlins defeated in 1983, and it was Ladywood that beat Mercy in its only other appearance in the finals, in 2006.
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Bodies were flying all over on U-D Mercy’s Calihan Hall court, resembling football or rugby, certainly not gentlewomanly basketball. Thirty-eight fouls were whistled, and to the untrained eye, there appeared to be as many more could have been called.
Mercy coach Gary Morris said maybe it was a little bit of nervousness in the third quarter that became a statistician’s nightmare with all the turnovers and missed shots and mayhem all over the floor by both teams.
The only basket in the first four minutes was made by the Marlins’ spunky freshman point guard, Candice Leatherwood – but it was nullified because she was called for a charge. She would redeem herself with five critical points and her floor leadership in Mercy’s frantic 18-point fourth quarter that left Ladywood staff and players stunned.
A tame first quarter wound up 13-13 before the Blazers used a 12-2 run in the second quarter to build a 31-19 advantage and take all kinds of good feelings about themselves into the locker room at the half.
Ladywood’s energetic point guard, sophomore Andrea Anastos, scored the last eight points on slashing drives and put-back rebounds – while getting smacked down time and again scrambling for loose balls or wrestling for jump balls.
She accounted for 15 of Ladywood’s 31 first-half points. Except for the all-out physicality of her play, her offense cooled down to only five points in the second half for a game-high 20.
Once the ball started dropping in for Mercy in the third quarter, "it energized us," said Morris.
Junior forward Sarah Benson hit a free throw to tie the score at 39-39 and followed that seconds later with a basket to put Mercy in front 41-39. She had a team-high 13 points.
Leatherwood made a couple of free throws to increase the lead to 45-41 before fouling out with 28 seconds left in the game. Anastos and Mercy’s Lauren Reinhold made off-setting free throws for the final score.
The ball did not drop for the Blazers, however. They managed just 11 points in the second half. Morris credited his team’s "sound defense" for that.
Tony Coratti, Ladywood’s first-year coach, had that deer-in-the-headlights look about him after the game. "Mercy did a great job taking it to us. We made some uncharacteristic mistakes."
MERCY – Elena Vlachos 0 1 /2 1; Abbey Lovat 2 1/3 5; Lauren Reinhold 2 1 /2 5; Janelle McQueen 2 (2) 2/5 12; Candice leatherwood 1 3/6 5; Sarah Benson 6 1 /2 13; LaRae Prater 2 1 /2 5. Totals: 15 (2) 10/23 46.
LADYWOOD – Teresa Wojnarowski 2 4/5 8; Morgan Chops 1 0/0 2; Briana Combs 1 1 /2 3; Alyssa Anastos (1) 2/2 5; Andrea Anastos 4 (1) 9/14 20; Kiley Gorski 2 0/0 4. Totals: 10 (2) 16/23 42.
