Flushing vs. Saginaw Heritage: Game Summary

Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 p.m.

Bay City Western

Nervy…Shocking...Steadfast… The sequel to the Saginaw Heritage vs Flushing game can be described with these three words. From Tip off through the middle of the 2nd quarter, both teams were plagued with missed free throws, missed lay ups, and turnovers. These two coaches took turns calling time outs to try to calm their team; however their efforts didn’t quite prevail. The 1st twelve minutes of this battle was solely in the hands of the players on the court. Late in the 2nd quarter things started to look a little bit smoother for the Lady Hawks of Saginaw Heritage. They were able to finally settle down and execute on multiple offensive possessions. Those possessions allowed Heritage to go into the half with an 18-11 lead over the Lady Raiders.

Right from the start of the second half it looked as if the Hawks were going to continue where they left off. 1st possession of the 2nd half they scored off a screen and roll with 2018 Jaela Richardson finishing with a wide open lay-up. Flushing soon after spoiled what seemed to be the beginning of an early run. The Raiders were settling in on the defensive end as they began to dominate the boards and force multiple turnovers. The big surprise is that Flushing at this point in the game still hadn’t gotten things rolling on the offensive end. Unforced turnovers and missed shots still continued to haunt the 24-1 Flushing team, which is very uncharacteristic of them.   

4th quarter looked like a different game. The tide actually started to turn for Flushing. Not only did they have it clicking on the defensive end, things finally started to come together on offense. Offensive execution, free throws, and offensive rebounds all went in their favor. The issue is there was a nine point deficit that had to be erased with only one quarter left in the game. Normally a nine point deficit is not a big deal, but this was not a normal game under normal circumstances. What’s my point you ask? “It was almost like each team was playing against themselves…” was a phrase I used in the game preview. These two teams are almost identical so that means they both are steadfast. Flushing fought till the very end however Saginaw Heritage never took their foot off of the gas pedal. A back and forth 4th quarter yielded 15 points from each team. That wasn’t enough for Flushing to erase their nine point deficit. The final score 39-30 and Saginaw Heritage walks away with the regional crown.

Coaches from University of Cincinnati and Central Michigan University were in attendance at tonight’s game.

Game Highlights

Saginaw Heritage:

• The Hawks got quality minutes from 2016 6’ 2” Forward Jenna Falkenberg. She finished with 4 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals off the bench. More important than stats, she shut down flushing’s inside presence. 
• The team’s match-up zone worked like a well-oiled machine.
• 2017 5’ 7” Guard Haley Brefka was the only player in the game to reach double figure scoring with 11 points.
• 2018 5’ 11” Forward Jaela Richardson made a lot of good basketball plays that don’t show in the box scores.

Flushing:

• Despite having 28 turnovers they were able to stay in the game the entire 32 minutes.
• 2016 6’ 0” Forward Claire Glowniak fought like a warrior the whole game. She finished with a team high 8 points and 8 rebounds.
• Despite a poor shooting percentage (7 of 28) they never stopped defending.
• 2017’s Lauren Newman and Kamryn Chappell made it hard for Saginaw Heritage to consistently run a half-court offense forcing lots of turnovers including a couple of 5 second calls.

**Follow Nate Brown on Twitter @LBI_Nate**