By Staff Writer: James Edwards

The Howell High School girls basketball squad, led by the legendary head coach Lee Piepho, lost 37-32 to the Lakeland Eagles in the regional semifinal game on Tuesday, March 4. The game was played at a neutral site, West Bloomfield High School. First-year head coach Piepho led the team to their first regional appearance in nine years.

There was a clear feeling of nervousness in the air as the Highlanders took on the Eagles, their third matchup of the season, with the record tied at one for the year.

The Howell starting five featured seniors Erin Hage, Tess Weatherly, and Maggie Jenison, junior Rachel Nelson and sophomore Erin Honkala. Though Honkala is known for her size and leaping ability, the Eagles won the tip and, after a few possessions, scored the first bucket. Howell responded quickly with a few layups from Weatherly and Hage, to make the score 6-2 at the halfway point of the first quarter. Lakeland’s senior standout Dominique Zigo started off her impressive night with a nice and-one to bring the Eagles to within one at the end of the first quarter, Howell leading 8-7.

Midway through the second quarter, the score was knotted at ten. On a foul from Kaci Cunningham, Lakeland’s Nikki Wattles made one free throw to help the Eagles regain their lead. Molly Stec hit the first three-pointer of the night to give Lakeland a four point lead, with a couple more free throws from Zigo, Lakeland took a 16-11 lead into halftime.

The halftime speech that Piepho gave to his players must’ve worked. It was evident in the fact that Howell came out of the locker room at full-speed. Hage scored five straight points to tie the game at 16. An ill-advised foul called against Howell gave Lakeland a two-point lead. Honkala had a night full of rebounds and nice plays; she stole a lazy pass to take the ball down court and make a layup and convert the and-one. Towards the end of the quarter, Weatherly was fouled and netted both free throws to give Howell a three point lead. Zigo scored two more points before the break to cut the lead down to one. The score at the end of three quarters was 21-20, the Highlanders holding the lead.

Weatherly came out in the opening minutes of the third quarter with a three-pointer to push Howell’s lead to four. On a put back layup, Honkala was fouled yet again and made one of the free throws to give Howell a five point lead, their biggest of the night. This caused Lakeland head coach Mike Head to take a timeout.

Coach Head seemingly had a pretty good game-plan coming out of the huddle with Zigo netting six straight points to take back the lead. There was a steady stream of fouls from both sides as the desperation set in for the close game. Lakeland held a 29-27 lead until Weatherly hit a three-point bomb to give Howell the lead yet again.

The Eagles had other plans, though. Despite Nelson making two free throws, Lakeland was fouled four more times and made all eight of their free throws to finish off the game. The final score had Lakeland winning 37-32, and the memorable season for the Highlanders was over.

Dominique Zigo was the leading scorer of the game with 19 points. Her most impressive statistic was that she didn’t miss a free throw all game, going 13 for 13 from the line. Weatherly led the Highlanders with 13 points.

Lakeland will move on to play the state contending Canton Chiefs in the regional final on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in West Bloomfield.

Junior Rachel Nelson says, “Despite a loss in the regional semifinal, this season was huge for our team. We’ve improved so much and done so many things people doubted we ever could. I know that the rest of my team would agree with me that we couldn’t have done it without coach Piepho. With great coaching and talent, our team earned back respect for howell girls basketball and we’re extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished.”