AUBURN HILLS >> It was all smiles for Auburn Hills Oakland Christian just midway through Wednesday’s D4 district semifinal.

By that time, the Lancers had already done the heavy lifting. And after 16 more minutes of hard-nosed defense, they officially put away Marine City Cardinal Mooney with a 60-12 victory on their own court to secure passage to yet another district final.

As they did in the third quarter as well, the Lancers allowed just one point to Cardinal Mooney in the second, and that amounted to a 40-point halftime lead.

“We tried to play a swarming defense all night long, not allow them to set up from an offensive perspective,” Oakland Christian head coach Brian Franey said. “They have two really good girls and we wanted to take them out of the game and force them to come from behind.

“From a defensive perspective, from the get-go, we just played with relentless hustle. I always tell the girls you have to outhustle and play harder. outrebound, win the turnover battle. The girls played really hard and I was really proud of the effort.”

Seniors Eliza Keith and Brooksie Patterson scored 12 and 10 points, respectively, all in the first half. And yet, it was freshman Ali Brock who led the Lancers in scoring with her 14 points, the entirety of them deposited after intermission.

Best of all, all dozen Oakland Christian (15-8) players got into the scoring column.

“That is so great, and I didn’t realize that until they told me after the game,” Franey said. “These girls work hard all year long, and sometimes they don’t get the accolade throughout the season. To play everyone is outstanding. Every girl on the team is cheering for every other girl. This team is special to me and they’ve done a great job building one another up.”

On the entire team finding the bottom of the net, Patterson added, “It was so exciting. They’ve been cheering us on all season, and to see them get out and show what they’re made of is awesome to see. We all love each other and support each other. They’ve worked as well, as hard as all of us.”

Sophomores Alyssa Coons and Abby Westrick each scored five points for Cardinal Mooney (10-13).

Clarkston Everest Collegiate has stood in the way of the Lancers winning a district final in the past three year, but this time it’ll be Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes. Oakland Christian will be shooting for its first district title since 2009 today.

The Lancers beat the Lakers 49-25 in Waterford, but that was back on Dec. 10.

“I don’t take any stock in that game,” Franey said. “Everyone improves and changes. It’s 0-0. There’s gonna be a jump ball and we’ll just play our game, they’ll play theirs. We’re gonna do our best to come out in the victory column. But that game means nothing.”

Momentum in Wednesday’s second semifinal shifted one way briefly in the third quarter, then drastically in favor of Our Lady of the Lakes, who also advanced to today’s final.

The Lakers led by 11 at intermission, then Ella Tincher had a 3-pointer and Addison Geisler added a bucket as the Mustangs (10-7) scored the first handful of points of the second half and shrunk the lead to six.

But the pick-pocket abilities of Reagan Nolan coupled with several big 3-pointers by Carley Robak helped the Lakers (14-6) strike back and spark a massive run.

“(I told them) we needed to stick together and help each other out,” Lakers head coach Nick Bortz said. “We’re at our best when we play as a team, simple as that. We were struggling to adjust to the flow of the game (before the run).”

After those two buckets by the Mustangs early in the half, Our Lady of the Lakes reeled off the next 19 points and held Merritt scoreless for over 10 minutes until a free throw by Tincher with about four minutes left in the game.

Giesler and Tincher each had eight points for the Mustangs.

Meanwhile, Robak led all scorers with 18 points. Emmy Asai added eight points and Sammy Allan finished with seven as all eight Lakers scored.

Bortz offered his own take on the previous meeting with the Lancers ahead of his team shooting for its first district title since 2020. “They played at another tempo we weren’t ready for,” he said. “We have a big challenge (today) to step up to their tempo. But we have a couple easter eggs for them we didn’t want to show tonight, a couple changes we’ve been working on the last couple weeks.”