High-octane defense fuels Lutheran Northwest in regional victory over Durand

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Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest’s Addie Troska (12) shoots for two of her 13 points between Durand’s Marissa Harper (12) and Raine Smith (25) during the Crusaders’ 53-31 win Monday over the Railroaders. KEN SWART — FOR MEDIANEWS GROUP

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By Michael J Wallwork

For MediaNews Group

CLAWSON >> The Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest Crusaders used a pair of big runs to put away the Durand Lady Railroaders 53-31 in Monday’s D3 regional semifinal at Clawson High School.

Durand took its only lead of the game early when a 3-pointer by Samantha Leydig gave the Lady Railroaders a 4-2 lead.

The Crusaders then reeled off a 14-2 run to take control of the game. They maintained a similar lead for most of the second quarter, went into the half up 10 points at 27-17.

From there, Lutheran Northwest cranked up the defensive pressure even more to score the first 14 points of the third quarter and effectively put the game out of reach. Durand would never get closer than 21 points after that.

“Defense has been our backbone,” Crusaders head coach Jimmy Mehlberg said. “When we play good defense, we finish strong. We wanted to win that first four minutes of the third quarter, and we came out real aggressive and played really hard. We’re an aggressive team. It all starts with our defense. Our defense is what we work on a lot.”

Seemingly everyone got on the stat sheet for the Crusaders, who had several different players take a turn to shine as their balanced scoring and rebounding gave Durand problems all night. Addie Troska led everyone with 10 points in the first half, but Keaira Spiehs had a big third quarter to finish with a game-high 14 points. Morgan Griswold added eight points and a game-high nine rebounds, while Paige Macavage also had eight points.

“We’ve been even all year. We’ve got everybody between seven (points) and 10 or 11 (points). It’s kind of nice. If one person has a bad day, someone else steps up. So it’s been fun coaching these girls,” Mehlberg said.

No player for Durand reached double-digits as the Crusaders’ smothering defense ensured that the Lady Railroaders never got into any kind of offensive rhythm, either as a team or individually.

“I’m pleased with the way we played today,” Mehlberg said. “We live to see another day. It’s survive and advance. Our defense kept us in it. We’ve just got to be ready to go on Wednesday.”

With the win, Lutheran Northwest is now 18-6 on the year. The Crusaders advance to Wednesday’s regional final where they will face Detroit Pershing, who knocked off Royal Oak Shrine in the first semifinal of the evening in Clawson.

A victory would get the Crusaders a step closer back to the Breslin Center after last season’s somewhat unexpected run to the Final Four.

“It doesn’t matter who you play. It’s a regional final,” Mehlberg said. “Good team, good record, they’ve got a lot of size, and they played a good game today. He added that, “We just got to come ready to play. It’s a regional final and you don’t get to play too many of these.”