Morenci, Tecumseh girls basketball claim regional titles

The winter sports season in Lenawee County will go the distance as the Morenci and Tecumseh girls basketball teams will enter the final week with MHSAA regional championships.

Division 2

CHARLOTTE — There's no question which team had the most experience heading into Wednesday's Division 2 regional championship between Lansing Catholic and Tecumseh.

The Cougars were the defending state champions and six of the seven girls who hit the floor were seniors, including the entire starting five. Tecumseh has one senior who hasn't played all season due to an injury and hadn't won a regional title since 1975.

The experience didn't matter, as Tecumseh knocked off the champs 56-52 to claim its first regional title in 49 years.

"I told them when it's your senior year, you pick it up a level," coach Kristy Zajac said. "I told them they had to match that and I told them at halftime they had to pretend like they were seniors. I'm super proud of their effort tonight."

Tecumseh (22-4) started strong with a quick, 6-0 run and led 8-2 before the Cougars started to hit shots. Lansing Catholic led 18-15 after the first and held a nine-point lead with 5:08 to go in the second, but Tecumseh didn't fold.

Sophomore Makayla Schlorf hit a pair of 3-pointers late in the second to make it a 27-26 deficit before going into the half down 29-26.

The two went back-and-forth in the second half with 10 lead changes throughout the game and the score being tied, 40-40, after three.

With Tecumseh up 52-50 and 35.8 seconds to go, coach Zajac called a play from her playing days where Chloe Bullinger went streaking down the floor like a wide receiver on a deep route and Alli Zajac launched a pass down the floor. Bullinger corralled it and scored to go up two scores with less than 30 seconds to go.

"That's my Britton Deerfield play," coach Zajac said. Chloe is just so fast, we know she could at least get a step in front of her and get that bucket."

Zajac then got the rebound on the other end of the floor and then went to the line to seal the deal. She ended up with 11 points, nine rebounds and two assists.

The junior is Tecumseh's all-time leading scorer and draws a lot of attention, but in these regional games it's opened up the floor for Schlorf to shine with 17 points against Parma Western and a 25-point game in Wednesday's final.

"She's not afraid of anything," Alli said. "She takes a lot of pressure off of me. It's nice to have her scoring all the points and not to struggle with not scoring because we have Chloe, Ashlyn (Moorehead), Makayla and Addi (Zajac). Everyone can take over and that's a key component in our wins."

Tecumseh will play at 7 p.m. Tuesday against No. 1 Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard at Ypsilanti Lincoln.

Division 4

WHITMORE LAKE — Morenci led from start to finish Wednesday and beat Allen Park Inter-City Baptist 47-33 to win the school’s first regional title since 2011.

As usual, the Bulldog defense stood tall, but the offense did more than enough for Morenci (21-3) to hoist the trophy.

“At the beginning of the season their goal was league and district and anything else was icing on the cake,” Morenci coach Ashley Joughin said. “The girls are joining an elite group. Very few girls in school history have done what they have done. I just told them to go out and be proud of that. I told them, ‘I know you are tired and exhausted, but this is the time to push through that.’”

Things went Morenci’s way from the start. It led 3-0 but the Chargers tied the game with a 3-pointer with 5:18 left in the first quarter. Morenci then went on an 8-0 run to lead 11-3. The closest Inter-City Baptist would get the rest of the game was five points, at 11-6.

The Bulldogs led 21-6 in the second quarter, 31-19 near the end of the third and closed the game on an 8-2 run to win by 14.

“They never went away,” Joughin said. “When you get this far, no team is going to just roll over.”

Keeping the lead was huge for Morenci.

“We had a little cushion,” Joughin said. “We stepped up when we needed to be sure we weren’t frazzled. They’d step up and hit a three the second our hands went down, but we did a good job of staying in front.”

Emersyn Bachelder led Morenci with 19 points. She said the big Morenci crowd helped energize the team.

“We had a lot of people here,” Bachelder said. “If we got down, they’d build us up.”

Leah Rorick had a big offensive rebound basket in the fourth quarter and a nice assist on a layup by Bachelder to keep building the Morenci lead. She finished with six points. She said the crowd was a big factor in the win.

“It was amazing, even from the start they were going crazy for us,” Rorick said. “Even when we weren’t making shots, they were loud. I’m so excited and so proud. These girls have worked so hard, even through the summer and offseason. It really paid off.”

Evelyn Joughin and Addyson Valentine scored eight points each.

Joughin played well against the constant pressure applied by Inter-City Baptist. When her teammates got into trouble, she was usually right there to take the pass.

“She’s smart with her time management – not forcing something we don’t need,” Coach Joughin said.

Evelyn credits how well the girls on the floor work together.

We know what we need to do to beat presses," she said. "We got better at it through the season. We can get teams out of a press now.”

Morenci will play No. 6 Kingston at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the quarterfinal at West Bloomfield. The last time Morenci played in the quarterfinal was 2011 when they reached the state semifinals.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Morenci, Tecumseh girls basketball claim MHSAA regional titles