Class D: Lakers Press On to Saturday

March 15, 2012

EAST LANSING – For three quarters Thursday, Waterford Our Lady struggled to find the gear that has allowed the Lakers to become Class D’s latest powerhouse program.

With 5 minutes, 32 seconds to play, everything clicked.

Game over.

Champions do that kind of thing. And Our Lady will go for its third straight Saturday after surviving a good scare from Portland St. Patrick before advancing with a 54-44 win.

“I feel like all game we were trying to find our rhythm. It’s an intense atmosphere being here, and you don’t really know what to expect,” Our Lady senior Tori Duffey said. “Something just kinda came over us. … We knew we had to do it now. We’re talented enough that we can do that.”

The No.7 Lakers (22-4) will face either Crystal Falls Forest Park or Athens at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Our Lady never trailed against Portland St. Patrick. The Lakers pushed their lead to double figures three times.

But St. Patrick, which owns six MHSAA titles and has sat in the favorite spot plenty of times, pulled within three points of the lead – 34-31 – with a quarter to play.

The Shamrocks entered the postseason unranked at 19-6. But they were 12-1 over their last 13 games. And it seemed like St. Patrick’s first lead, if gained, might be able to stand until the final buzzer.

“I guess I didn’t feel like they were the favorites coming in. I thought if we played well and took care of business, I thought it would be a two or four-point ball game,” Portland St. Patrick coach Al Schrauben said. “The way we played the second half of the year, I was quite comfortable playing with anybody.”

But with 5:32 to play, and the Lakers lead just 38-34, everything fell back into place for Our Lady.

Thanks in large part to a suffocating defensive press, the Lakers took advantage of five St. Patrick turnovers over just more than two minutes – and pushed the lead to 49-34.

“Even if the shots aren’t going in, and we make a couple of mistakes, the thing about this group is they never hang their heads,” Our Lady coach Steve Robak said. “They continued to play on the defensive end, and eventually good things happen.”

Senior Carlee Cottrell scored a game-high 17 points and had five assists for Our Lady, and junior Ava Doetsch added 14 points and four assists. Junior Lexie Robak had eight points and nine rebounds.

Juniors Tori Goodrich and Courtney Dixon each scored seven points for St. Patrick, and senior Sidney Hill had seven rebounds.

“When we were 7-5, I didn’t think we’d even get a District title,” Shamrocks senior Stephanie Miros said. “I love the girls on this team. We’re great friends. So it’s a great memory.”

Click for the box score. Watch the game and both teams' postgame press conferences at MHSAA.tv.

PHOTO: Our Lady sophomore guard Anna Robb takes a shot Thursday. She scored four points. (Photo courtesy of Terry McNamara Photography.)

Moore Leading Caro's Current Rise, While Helping Build Program's Future

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

December 7, 2022

Adelyn Moore had done enough, even before the start of her senior year, to leave an indelible mark on the Caro girls basketball program.

Bay & ThumbBut Moore isn’t satisfied now with simply winning games and rewriting the Tigers’ record books. She also wants to make sure girls who come through the program in the future have the chance to do the same thing.

“Definitely to build it up,” Moore said of her role in the program. “I know that it kind of sounds cliche, but I really like working with the little kids. This year, I’m coaching a sixth-grade girls travel team. … It’s so much fun.

“The program at Caro had never been a winning program, and I think this is me almost setting an example that it can happen at Caro. I love coaching the kids, and I can see the difference in them and how my class used to be. They want to win. They want to play sports, and play basketball.”

Moore is Caro’s all-time leading scorer, with 1,238 career points following the Tigers’ win Tuesday night against Memphis. She has nearly 750 career rebounds, which coach Jay Riley said is likely a school record, but hasn’t been tracked. If she can average 15 rebounds per game this season, she would certainly become the program’s first player to reach 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

And that’s not that far-fetched. For her career, Moore has averaged 12.7 rebounds per game, including 14 per game as a sophomore.

She’s a three-time Thumb Player of the Year. She’s also been named first-team all-state in Division 3 by The Associated Press twice.

Most importantly for Moore, she’s been part of winning teams at Caro. Her freshman season, the Tigers were 18-3 and won the Greater Thumb Conference West – their first league title in 35 years. Both of the next two seasons were winning ones for the Tigers, and they’re 3-0 to start her senior year.

“Caro girls basketball had won 10 games twice in 20-some years, and she’s been part of teams that have done that in two of the last three,” Riley said. “The only other one was (the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season). I’m confident we’re going to eclipse that this year, too. When she came in, we had a good senior group, but they all knew how special she was and that she was our best player, so they accepted different roles. She’s been part of one of the winningest stretches of Caro girls basketball in a long time.”

Moore (3) drives to the basket Friday against Otisville-LakeVille. It’s winning that drives Moore the most. She said that she couldn’t fully celebrate breaking the school’s record for points, as it came in a loss against Kingston.

Thankfully, the school was able to bring in Lynette Coon, who had set the previous mark in the early 1980s, for the next game to present Moore with a commemorative basketball. That helped create a celebration, as did a win that night against Bad Axe.

“It felt really good to kind of feel like the hard work had paid off,” Moore said. “Then again, a better accomplishment for me would just be to get the win. It was super cool that (Coon) was there. She didn’t even know she had the record. That’s how not big women’s basketball was here. She only knew she had the record for like a week.”

Moore – a three-sport athlete who was also all-state in the shot put and discus as a junior – is committed to play next season at the University of Chicago. While she raved about the coaching staff, Moore was first attracted to the school because of its high academic standing. Moore is on track to be the valedictorian of Caro’s Class of 2023.

“It’s a very rigorous school, and I think that’s where I can get the best education,” Moore said. “Academics are huge for me. Right when I got there, the coaches were so cool. We really connected, and I fell in love with the program.”

Moore said she figures to play the 3 or 4 at Chicago, which she considers her natural positions. At 5-foot-9, she’s played everywhere for Caro, as Riley uses her to create mismatches whenever possible.

“She’s got the ball in her hands a lot – she’s primarily a guard,” Riley said. “If we get any mismatches, we’ll put her down in the post and let her take advantage. Not only can she shoot, but she has great post moves. She’s a mismatch nightmare for anybody.”

Riley said about half of Caro’s games a year ago featured opponents playing a box-and-1 defense to try and stop Moore. One team even played a triangle-and-2, with a pair of players constantly following her.

She still averaged 23.5 points per game to go along with 13.5 rebounds and 4.9 steals. She eclipsed 30 points in both of the Tigers’ first two games this season.

Moore thinks this year’s team can reach the heights her freshman team did, as many of them have been playing together since her sophomore season.

It’s a final chance for Moore to inspire the younger group of Caro girls basketball players with her play on the court, although she’s already done more than enough. Much like she has off it with her dedication to coaching a youth team, which includes multiple practices per week and Saturday games. She’s also a counselor at the Bayshore Basketball Camp during summer.

“She’s been a huge part of our success in turning this program around,” Riley said. “Which I think has sparked some of the younger girls to be more involved in basketball.”

Paul CostanzoPaul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Caro’s Adelyn Moore brings the ball up court last season against Unionville-Sebewaing. (Middle) Moore (3) drives to the basket Friday against Otisville-LakeVille. (Photos by Kaitlin’s Klicks.)