Source: Oakland Press
Author: Dan Fenner
FARMINGTON HILLS - In one of the dreaded playoff-opening matchups pitting two accomplished teams against each other too early in the tournament Monday, Farmington Hills Mercy knocked off Birmingham Groves, 51-48.
Repeatedly sent to the line for free throws in the final minute, Mercy made just 4-of-10 shots, but it ultimately proved to be just enough to prevail.
Down two points with 11 seconds remaining, Groves’ leading scorer, senior Sha Carter, brought the ball up the court and launched a deep 3-pointer from the top of the arc, narrowly missing before Mercy corralled the rebound.
“When she let that long one go, at least from my angle, it looked like it might go in,” Marlins coach Gary Morris said. “Two good teams and unfortunately one of them is out already. I’m just glad it’s us (that advanced). At this point, you don’t worry about how or how many, you just live to play another day.”
With the Falcons in front 20-19 to begin the third quarter, the lead changed hands seven times in the second half, but remained with the Marlins for good upon pulling in front with just under five minutes to play.
A sequence of three-straight turnovers in quick succession by Groves gave Mercy some fast-break points to ignite its offense and surge in front.
“We were trying to mix it up in terms of what we were doing press wise, and I thought it was pretty effective,” Morris said of his team’s defense. “We made some big shots.”
Senior Bella Dugas scored a team-high 21 points for Mercy (18-3), while freshman Julia Bishop added 13 points and senior Jenna Schluter posted nine.
“I thought we competed and defensively we were really good. (Groves) is really tough offensively,” Morris said. “We would have liked to be better at the free-throw line. We would have been resting a little bit easier there down the stretch, but we I guess we made just enough free-throws to get by.”
Groves was lead offensively by Carter’s 21 points, with senior Kayla Nelson chipping in with nine points and sophomore Jasmine Worthy adding six.
The Falcons’ 15-game winning streak was snapped in the process, dropping their season record to 18-3. The team will graduate seven seniors.
“We have to take some time to look at what we did accomplish (this season),” Groves first-year coach Jessica Wieseler said. “We moved up two divisions from the OAA Gold to the OAA White and we won that as co-champions with Royal Oak. We knew we drew a tough district.”
“Give Mercy credit, they are an incredibly seasoned team and program. They run a great system with changing up those defenses. We knew what we were going to see, but we had trouble changing up how we were going to break it. Every time we got it figured out, they changed to something new.”
Advancing to Wednesday’s Class A district semifinal on its own court, Mercy will face North Farmington (13-7), while Southfield A&T and Farmington square off in the other semifinal.