Fresh off J.V. win, Brighton girls basketball freshman hits big shots in upset of Hartland

BRIGHTON — As Brighton took the court for its girls basketball rivalry game with Hartland Thursday night, freshman Grace Houck headed to the locker room.

She would arrive late for warmup, needing to change out of her junior varsity uniform into a No. 11 varsity jersey that wasn’t even listed on the roster.

Houck is what has become known as a “five-quarter” player, athletes who are allowed to play up to five quarters a night split between the J.V. and varsity teams.

Most players in Houck’s circumstance see little court time with the big team and are almost never on the floor when the outcome of a game is at stake. If they’re lucky, they’ll see some playing time if the game becomes a blowout.

But Brighton had bigger plans for Houck, who delivered by hitting three big shots in the second half of the previously winless Bulldogs’ 42-35 upset of previously unbeaten Hartland.

Houck played only two quarters of Brighton’s victory over Hartland in the J.V. game, scoring 10 points, which allowed her to play a season-high three quarters for the varsity.

“We got her in a couple quarters one game and she continued to get better and better,” Brighton coach Bob Wellman said. “Our thoughts right now are let’s get her back up. She’s going to be a big asset to us down the road in the future. We’re going to try to get her back into the varsity level. She’ll maybe play a quarter or two on the J.V., because we’re a little light on numbers, but she’s going to be getting better and working with us.”

Houck didn’t dress in the varsity’s first game, but has seen playing time in each of the last five games. With seven points in three quarters against Hartland, she has 19 points in nine quarters of varsity action.

“It’s great for me personally,” said Houck, who had the unique distinction of winning two rivalry games in the same night. “I want to play in college. This is a good start as a freshman getting minutes, playing with seniors, 18-year-olds. It helps with my future.”

Houck gave Brighton the lead for good when she hit a 3-pointer with eight seconds left in the third quarter to break a 28-28 tie.

She made two more shots in the fourth quarter to thwart Hartland comeback bids, hitting a short jumper with seven minutes left to make it 33-29 and a pull-up jumper with four minutes remaining to make it 35-31.

Houck played nearly the entire fourth quarter, coming out with 1:19 left. She not only played in her first varsity rivalry game, but was able to experience the feeling of battling down the stretch to pull out a tight victory.

“I know there’s a lot of pressure, especially being the youngest,” she said. “My teammates really think I have potential. I just think it’s really awesome that they appreciate me and think I’m enough.”

To anyone who didn’t know better, this game looked like a colossal mismatch. Brighton was 0-5, while Hartland was 6-0.

But rivalry games don’t always follow the script.

“It was amazing, because we came into the game 0-5,” said Brighton junior Sophia Heady, who scored all 10 of her points in the first half and grabbed 13 rebounds. “We just needed this win, especially against a rival team. It boosted our confidence a lot.

“It was a little disappointing and frustrating, because we knew what we needed to do and were saying what we needed to do, but we weren’t applying it until now. We just figured it out and clicked all of a sudden.”

The Bulldogs got the fast start they needed, jumping out to a 15-6 lead. Hartland fought back to take a 19-17 lead by halftime. The Eagles extended their lead to 27-23 with 3:07 left in the third, but didn’t make a field goal after Aubree Meyer’s basket with 3:13 remaining in the third.

Hartland was 6-for-12 from the line in the fourth quarter.

“I watched some film and I told the kids they’re a better team than what their record was,” Hartland coach Mike McKay said. “You get into these games on the road and you never know what’s going to happen. We didn’t shoot the ball very well. We didn’t hit a basket from the field in the fourth quarter. Our free throws were a little bit shaky. … We didn’t do the little things we’ve been doing to win the game or close out the game.”

Sophia Moir scored 10 points for Brighton.

Meyer had eight points and Izzy DePestel seven for Hartland.

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Winless Brighton upsets unbeaten girls basketball rival Hartland