Behind Anna Richards, Lansing Catholic girls basketball takes down Haslett for district championship
EATON RAPIDS — Anna Richards and the Lansing Catholic girls basketball team have taken down a few different state-ranked teams in recent weeks while becoming one of the hottest squads in the area.
The Cougars took down another Saturday.
And they claimed some hardware in the process.
Richards sparked No. 9-ranked Lansing Catholic during the second half as they captured a Division 2 district title with a 54-42 victory over No. 6-ranked Haslett on Saturday afternoon at Eaton Rapids High School.
Lansing Catholic, which knocked off Division 2 top-10 ranked Frankenmuth and Division 3 top-ranked Ypsilanti Arbor Prep in February, avenged their loss from last month to Haslett to claim their second district title in three years. The Cougars advance to next week's regional at Fowlerville.
“We’ve been waiting for this all season,” Richards said. “We knew they were a good team and we played in the regular season, but we didn’t want that outcome of that regular season game to determine how we played today.”
It didn’t and Richards was a huge reason why. The junior guard finished with a game-high 23 points, including 13 in the third quarter. She helped CAAC White champion Lansing Catholic (19-5) take control of what was a tight game in that quarter.
With the Cougars leading CAAC Red champion Haslett (22-2) by two late in the third, Richards fueled a 10-0 to close the quarter. After a basket by her sister, Leah Richards, Anna scored the final eight points in that spurt. She knocked down a pair of 3s during that stretch as Lansing Catholic took a 12-point edge into the final quarter.
“She never forces anything and she just is always seeing what’s open,” Lansing Catholic coach Kacee Reid said. “She will say, 'Hey, that high-low is open. I know we can get it or the 3.' I think she knew she was going to step in here today and make some big shots. She made the big shot, she made the big 3s and she was handling their pressure.
“She just really (showed) an all-round effort. Like I said, the most impressive thing for me is just her leadership skills out there at all times.”
Ellie Humble had 12 points and Grace Isenhath finished with 10 points to lead the Vikings.
The loss ended a strong season for a veteran-laden Haslett squad, which won its first 20 games before suffering a late-season loss to Rockford.
"It’s unfortunate we had to play them in the district final, but for us, even right after playing Haslett, we felt good about playing them again,” Reid said. “We felt like the things that we did wrong, or maybe they did well, we felt that we could neutralize them if we worked hard. Obviously, there’s some luck that goes into a game like this, but we certainly feel like we put ourselves in a position to compete today.”
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Girls basketball: Lansing Catholic tops Haslett for district title
