Girls Basketball: Northville Falls to Hartland in Regional Semifinal Game

Northville's varsity girls basketball team lost a close game to Hartland Tuesday night by a score of 41-37.

Leading scores at regional semifinal game, played at Farmington High School, were Alex Moynes, Mallory Weber and Kendra Brenner.

Here's a recap by Todd Gudith, varsity girls basketball coach:

"After a thrilling district championship win last Friday over Canton, the Northville varsity girls basketball team traveled to Farmington High School for a regional semifinal match-up against Hartland, who came into the game with a record of 20-3. 

In a close game throughout and despite shooting 51.6 percent FG, the Mustangs came up just short losing 41-37. Northville fell behind 3-0 early in the game but responded to take a 8-3 lead but a basket in the closing seconds of the 1st quarter by the Eagles cut the lead to just 1 at 8-7. Northville scored a majority of their points in the first half on the fast break after beating Hartland's full court pressure. 

Alex Moynes scored 9 of her game-high 15 in the second quarter to help the Mustangs extend their lead to 5 at the half. Hartland turned up the pressure and Northville turned the ball over on it's first 2 possessions of the second half cutting the lead to just 1 early in the third quarter on a made basket and getting to the foul line. 

Northville though again, responded with 3 lay-ups in the middle of the quarter (2 by Mallory Weber and 1 by Moynes) to keep the Eagles from pulling ahead.  But Hartland once again attacked the basket in the closing seconds of the quarter and Northville was called for a foul which resulted in their 4 point lead getting cut in half.  Northville which held the Eagles to 24.1 percent shooting (13-54 FG, 1-16 3pt FG) on the night struggled to rebound in the fourth quarter as they made Hartland miss their first shot attempts but the Eagles crashed the boards and got a number of second chances resulting in put back lay-ups or getting the foul line. 

Northville surrendered 17 offensive rebounds (25 rebounds total to just 17 total for Northville). With the Mustangs up 2 at 34-32 with 2 minutes to play, Hartland hit their first and only 3 point shot all night after going 0-15 during the game to take the lead back 35-34. Hartland would extend the lead to 39-34 on another lay-up and 2 foul shots.

With under a minute to play Northville's Kendra Brenner hit a desperate deep 3-point attempt to cut the led to just 2 at 39-37. Northville tried for a steal but had to foul Hartland with under 15 seconds left. Hartland missed the foul shot but another offensive rebound and putback sealed the game as the Eagles went up four as time ran down.  

It's a tough way to end the season because we led for a good portion of the game but didn't finish them off. Hartland was incredible rebounding the ball. We did a good job stopping or forcing a tough initial shot but struggled to get rebounds and gave them too many extra chances. They out-toughed us and got a lot of their points that way. It's bittersweet because we did do some great things this season that we have to be very happy and pleased about but at the same time we know we could have done more.

Overall, we're proud of the effort our girls put into everything we did. Our girls competed every night and showed that we can hang with anyone around.  A lot of people counted us out I'm sure throughout the season, but our girls responded and rose to the occasion. Northville finishes their season 15-8."