LAPEER >> Able to hang with Clarkston for a quarter or so, Utica Eisenhower’s shooting could not keep pace Monday night with the Wolves, who won 48-33 to advance to Wednesday night’s D1 regional championship against West Bloomfield.

Judging by the first three or four minutes, Clarkston had to shake off some nerves, as two buckets from senior Devyn Raymond and another from junior Gabriella Gojcaj had the Eagles off to a 6-2 start.

“I think I kind of expected it to be ugly early, and it was,” Wolves head coach Aaron Goodnough said. “That’s what happens when you score however many we did in the first four minutes. But it wasn’t unexpected.”

Wolves junior Elli Robak helped make it a little more aesthetically pleasing, knocking down a 3-pointer followed by an offensive rebound that resulted in a put-back bucket in back-to-back possessions, which helped Clarkston take an 11-9 lead after one.

First-year Ike head coach Madison Ristovski agreed on Goodnough’s thoughts on the early nerves, saying, “Yeah, I think so. A lot of our kids, I mean, even my seniors, this is the first time they’ve played in a regional semifinal game, so I think it was just a great opportunity for the kids, but I think they were a little nervous from the beginning.”

The Wolves (18-7), who lost by two points to Grand Blanc in regional finals last year, led by just five after Raymond’s old-fashioned 3-pointer with 4:25 left in the opening half, but began to get it rolling from there. Senior Ella Morgner and freshman Bella Flavin helped fuel an 8-2 spurt to close out the half, and it only continued when the teams came out after intermission.

A turnover leading to a Robak layup opened the scoring in the second half. Then Morgner finished unguarded under the hoop, and a 3-pointer by Marley Mazur in front of the Clarkston bench capped off the 15-2 run that spanned back to the first half. By that time, the Wolves were up by 18 points less than three minutes into the third quarter.

The Eagles did have a counterpunch left in them.

They responded with eight points unanswered, including a pair of triples by Raymond, then a bucket by freshman Mackenzie Turner, making it 33-23 and forcing a Clarkston timeout just over midway through the period.

But Clarkston threw right back, and seconds after taking an accidental poke to the eye bringing the ball up the floor, Robak had enough vision to connect from deep and restore the lead to 15 with 1:30 to go in the third.

“I’m thankful my team trusted me to take that shot,” said Robak, who laughed when asked if she knocked it down pirate-eyed. “We worked really hard to keep getting open shots throughout the game. Luckily, I made (that one). I give all my credit to the team. They worked their butts off on defense, and we work to get those open shots.”

Clarkston didn’t need much more from there. The Eagles couldn’t find the bottom of the hoop in the fourth quarter until freshman Madison Repicky’s put one in with 2:17 left in the contest.

“I can assure you in the huddles I was telling them to slow it down,” Goodnough said. “Whether it looked like that or not is a completely different story. We wanted long possessions, multiple reversals, and to really try to extend each possession so that they had to try and chase us, and eventually, that’s what happened.”

On her team’s struggles, Ristovski said, “I felt like we missed a lot of shots tonight that we normally hit. I think we got a little tight and just struggled a bit to score from the outside. We had a lot of good opportunities to score.”

Raymond accounted for 15 of the Eagles’ points, and added seven for Ike.

“Devyn, she is one of the toughest kids I’ve ever coached,” Ristovski said. “I could see it in her face, that determination, and how physical and tough she was trying to get us back in it … Honestly, it was a great season for us, and a great first year. Winning the MAC Red, winning a district, those are big goals we’d set for ourselves. I’m very proud of us, and 22-3 ain’t bad.”

Robak knocked down all six free-throw attempts she earned and ended with 18 points, while Covert added a dozen and Morgner chipped in eight for the Wolves.

Clarkston and West Bloomfield split the season series in the OAA Red. A 44-43 loss to the Lakers in Clarkston on Feb. 25 wasn’t enough to stop the Wolves from winning the league, but the stakes will be much higher for Wednesday’s rubber match in Lapeer.

“To be completely honest, we’ve been winning dramatically for a long time,” said Goodnough, partially referencing last Friday’s overtime victory against rival Lake Orion to win the district championship. “It’s mostly been due to our play, but we’ve been in a lot of close games this year. We lost by one after beating (West Bloomfield) by seven at home. We had a tough time recognizing man versus zone defenses, and we’ve worked a lot on that since then in practices. I think if we can recognize that, and rebound, we’ll be in a good spot.”