L'Anse Creuse North Cruises Past Lake Shore

The girls basketball team won in convincing fashion Wednesday night, beating the by a score of 44-25 and earning a little bit of revenge for an earlier season loss.

“We had lost to them awhile ago and I think (the team) really wanted to make up for that loss,” said Crusaders coach Bob Johnston of his MAC Gold division rivals. “I think they came out with great focus and determination and were aggressive right from the beginning.”

Junior Kelsey Thompson opened up scoring for the Crusaders when she was fouled going up for a shot two minutes into the game. She split the free throws at the line but managed to make sure her team got on the board first.

The Shorians went up 3-1 following a layup by senior guard Alicia Huerta and a foul shot by Mara Chandler but the Crusaders were quick to close the gap when sophomore Marisa Oleksiak sank a pullup jumper at 4:50 to tie the game.

The Crusaders maintained their aggressiveness early, ending the first quarter up by six at 11-5.

“I think they played great tonight and they came out right at the start and took it to us,” said Shorians coach Jimmy Roehm. “There’s not really a lot to say. They came out and were much better than us and we just really couldn’t sink our shots.”

The Shorians scored first in the second quarter, after Huerta banked it in from the right wing to cut the Crusaders’ lead to four points.

The Crusaders weren’t dissuaded from their game plan, however, as they went on a 9-2 run in the final minutes of the second period, including a three-pointer by junior Ashley Dunford, that left them up 22-9 at the half.

In the third period, junior Jazmine Brown put her team up by 15 at 4:19 when she nailed a turnaround bank shot in the paint, making the score 28-13.

The Shorians managed to chip away at that lead for the next few minutes thanks to back-to-back shots by junior forward Jordan Morgan and a free throw by Chandler that cut the Crusaders’ lead to 10.

L’Anse Creuse North quickly regained their focus, though, scoring four points from Brown and Oleksiak in the waning seconds of the third to put the Crusaders back up by 14, 32-18, going into the final period.

“I think we played well as a team,” said Brown, who finished with 13 points. “We really wanted to win and I think we stuck to our game plan the whole time.”

The Crusaders opened the scoring in the fourth quarter, when Dunford drained a long 3-pointer at 7:18. She helped pad that lead to 37-19 at 4:55 when she stole the ball in the Shorians’ zone and took it the entire length of the court for a lay-up.

The Shorians continued to try to come back throughout the fourth quarter, but they never managed to mount any sustained offensive push.

Chandler scored the final points of the game for Lake Shore with 58.5 seconds left when she banked in a shot from underneath the basket.

“We just didn’t play our best game tonight,” Roehm said. He did credit senior guard Lauren Moore for her solid effort on the evening, citing her three steals, several assists and four rebounds in coming off the bench.

For his part, Johnston said he was proud of his team’s overall effort.

“They played with a lot of determination tonight and it showed up on the scoreboard,” he said.

The Crusaders are now 8-2 in the MAC Gold and 11-6 overall. They next play Mount Clemens at home on Friday.

The Shorians fall to 4-6 in the MAC Gold and 8-9 overall. They next play at Lincoln on Friday.