'Pretty darn good' sophomore leads Howell girls to upset of No. 8 Brighton
Bill Khan
HOWELL — Howell girls basketball Tim Olszewski gets excited when he projects the future for sophomore guard Maeve St. John.
"She's going to be outstanding by her senior year," he said.
Then he quickly added, "Right now, she's pretty darn good."
Good enough, it turns out, to orchestrate an upset of an undefeated team that was ranked eighth in the state.
St. John scored a game-high 19 points and hit the winning free throws with 30.8 seconds left in Howell's 43-41 victory over Brighton on Friday night.
Howell bounced back from a 47-29 loss at No. 1-ranked Hartland on Tuesday night to hand Brighton its first loss in eight games.
"For us, it was a great win," Olszewski said. "We've had a tough schedule. Playing Hartland first and then Brighton, and we've been on the road quite a bit. That was a good win for us against a very quality opponent."
After getting valuable experience on the varsity as a freshman, St. John has blossomed into an impact player who comes through in the biggest moments. She scored six points in the fourth quarter, which Howell entered trailing by nine.
St. John has reached double figures in seven straight games, averaging a team-high 16.0 points. She averaged 6.0 points as a freshman.
"Last year was definitely like a learning experience," St. John said. "I had great leaders on my team; I still do. I have great coaches who helped me learn through a lot of learning experiences last year. They put me in. I was fortunately able to do some stuff last year, not as much, but I learned a lot and I think I learned pretty quickly. This year, they want me to step up as more of a leader and more of a scorer; I'm just trying to do that."
Down 36-27 after three quarters, Howell scored the final six points after Brighton's Martha Pietila hit a basket with 2:54 remaining to make it a 41-37 game.
Freshman Molly Deurloo hit a 3-pointer with 2:34 left, then went 1-for-2 from the line with 1:43 on the clock to tie the score, 41-41.
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St. John was fouled by Brighton senior Sophie Dziekan while driving to the basket with 30.8 seconds remaining. She hit both free throws to give Howell its first lead since the second quarter.
"I just hope I make them, because they're counting on me, and I'm counting on them when they're there," St. John said. "Molly hit one to tie it.
"My teammates definitely calmed me down. We have a saying, 'I believe in you.' They were all saying it, which actually helped a lot."
Howell had a foul to give on Brighton's final possession, which St. John committed with 3.4 seconds left. The Bulldogs missed a 3-pointer off the inbounds pass.
Brighton's loss put Hartland alone in first place in the KLAA West at 4-0 in league play. Brighton and Howell are 3-1.
"That's all part of conference play," Brighton coach Paul Ash said. "Howell, Brighton and Hartland, every game you know it's going to be like this. Coming here, we knew it was going to be a very tough game. We were hoping for a different outcome. We didn't execute; they did. That's why the right team won."
Dziekan had a team-high 11 points for Brighton. She was on the bench for 6 minutes and 32 seconds of the second quarter after getting her second foul. The Bulldogs actually outscored Howell during her absence, 17-11.
"There are times our bigs hold the ball too much," Ash said. "We put our small lineup in and the ball moves better. We're going to have to look to see if we play our little lineup more often, because they did move the ball well."
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Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.