A sleepover filled with screaming girls and new and exciting tales is planned tonight somewhere in Brighton.
The party is to celebrate Brighton’s spine tingling 41-38 victory Friday night victory over second place Northville in KLAA girls basketball action at the Dog Pound. And it is meant to build more team bonding for a young team still trying to figure things out and each other.
The word around Brighton is you never know what youthful Brighton team is going to show up. The Bulldogs, who do not have a senior starter and only two on the roster, put on a head scratching see saw performance against Northville.
Which is the real Brighton team? Is it the one that trailed for the first 13 minutes of the game?
Or is it the one that turned up its defensive intensity and rebounding to take command, 37-27, with four minutes remaining in regulation.
Or perhaps it was the team that forgot how to handle full court pressure causing it to cough up the ball on numerous occasions and nearly choke away the lead.
But it didn’t happen so the sleepover is on.
“That’s what youth brings,” Brighton coach Bob Wellman said with a nervous smile. “You are teaching them constantly. It’s not like you can just let them play. We were on the struggle bus but this was a good win for us.”
“Our defense was amazing,” said junior guard Anna Minnick. “I think that is what sealed the deal.”
Brighton is not the only team celebrating this win. There are probably a few smiles in Howell (15-1 overall, 9-0 in the KLAA) which now owns a 2 ½ game lead over Northville (9-6, 6-2). Howell appears unbeatable following a 41-29 victory over Salem. The Highlanders have also beaten Northville and Brighton (5-8, 2-4) by double digits.
Brighton spread the wealth in scoring. Minnick led Brighton with 12 points and Kelly Mckaig chipped in five.
The Bulldogs almost gave it all away when Northville slapped on its press late in the game. The Bulldogs did not practice throwing the ball into a corner to its bigs, allowing double teams. But that is what they did.
“We weren’t doing what we worked on in practice, number one,” Wellman said. “We decided to throw the ball in a corner and they trapped. And we had our guards, for some reason, running away from the ball. Again, that’s youth trying to understand these types of situations.”