The Wayland girls’ basketball team’s winningest season in 25 years came to an abrupt and sad ending Thursday in the Class B regional finals at Charlotte.
The Lady Wildcats, who finished the campaign with a glittering 23-2 overall record, lost 63-56 to Haslett. They entered the game ranked No. 4 in the state and Haslett, now 20-5, was rated No. 8.
The victorious Vikings now will face Wayland’s archrival, Grand Rapids Catholic Central, in the quarterfinals at the Wayland High School gym Tuesday night. Catholic Central itself barely escaped an upset bid last Tuesday night by Hudsonville Unity Christian, 47-46, but breezed past Sparta in the regional finals.
The customary fast start was not there Thursday night for the Lady Wildcats. They fell behind 10-2 in the first five minutes, regrouped and cut their deficit to two, 12-10, when the first quarter buzzer sounded.
But Haslett, behind the hot shooting of guard Adrianna Stolicker, was able to extend its margin to six points, 29-23, at intermission. By halftime, Stolicker had 14 points and all-state senior point guard Presley Hudson a dozen for Wayland.
Things went from bad to worse for the Lady Wildcats in the first three minutes of the second half, as they fell behind by 11 points, 40-29, prompting coach Marty Howard to call a timeout. Then they responded by scoring the next 15 points unanswered to take a 44-40 advantage into the final quarter.
Senior guard Caroline Miller canned a couple of three-pointers, Hudson hit junior Sydney Ritz for a layup and senior forward Morgan Winger made two free throws to spark the furious rally. It looked like Wayland just might pull it out after all.
The fourth quarter turned out to be a nightmare, however, especially near the end. The score was close and leads see-sawed in the first six minutes of the last stanza. With Haslett clinging to a 51-49 lead and three minutes left in the ballgame, Hudson swished a clutch three to put the ‘Cats on top 52-51. But Stolicker, playing with four fouls, answered with her own three and after Wayland failed to score on its next possession, the Vikings went into a stall with a two-point lead.
Mackenna Ott nailed a couple of free throws to put Haslett up by four. Hudson dropped in two at the line to bring the ‘Cats to within two, but with just 44.8 seconds remaining on the clock, Stolicker meshed two more free throws.
Haslett missed the second of a one-and-one, but came up with an offensive rebound and Stolicker added two more free throws shortly after that. Winger scored with 8.2 seconds left, but Wayland had to foul again, handing the Vikings their last two points.
Stolicker was high point scorer for the evening with 24 points, Ott had 15 and Karson Tripp 13.
Hudson, in her last game as a Wildcat, counted 19 points. Miller, also in her finale, had 11. Ritz finished with nine points.
The last time Wayland won 23 games in a girls’ basketball season was in 1990, when Zack Moushegian’s outfit went 26-1 before losing in the state Class B semifinals to St. Joseph. Marty Howard’s 2012 team was close, winning conference, district and regional titles, but was 21-4.
PHOTOS: Thursday night’s loss in the regional finals turned out to be the swan song for Wildcat standouts Presley Hudson (left photo) and Caroline (C.J) Miller. (Photos courtesy Kenny Ritz)