Howell girls basketball team beats Belleville on buzzer-beating layup
HOWELL — Howell girls basketball coach Tim Olszewski knew there wasn’t much time remaining to pull off a comeback, but he knew there was just enough.
Howell freshman Gabby Piepho inbounded the ball to senior Sophie Daugard with five seconds remaining following a go-head free throw by Belleville. Daugard went the length of the floor, scored and was fouled with 0.4 seconds on the clock.
She missed the free throw intentionally, allowing the Tigers no time to launch a desperation shot in Howell’s 54-53 victory Tuesday night.
“We’ve actually been working on our last-second plays, and we’ve been putting a clock out and timing each play that we have,” Olszewski said. “I told the official if they make this second free throw, because it was a tie game and they missed their first, I want a timeout.
“They made it. I told the girls we can run baseline and we called our play just like we practice every day; we’ve got time to do this. Alison Farr set the best screen to get Sophie open, and Sophie just took it the length of the court and finished it.”
Daugard finished with 21 points and seven rebounds. Piepho had 13 points.
Howell improved to 4-1 heading into a rivalry game at 7 p.m. Thursday at Hartland. Belleville fell to 3-2.
“It was a back-and-forth game,” Olszewski said. “They’re good. That’s a good team. At the end, our team pulled together and got it done. It was just a great team win.”
Brighton 61, Dearborn Fordson 32
Brighton senior Mary Copple scored 30 points, hitting six 3-pointers. Sophia DeAngelis scored nine points for the Bulldogs (1-3).
Milford 32, Pinckney 25
Audrey Wardlow had 15 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the floor, to lead Pinckney (2-4). The Pirates will host Fowlerville at 5 p.m. Thursday, with the varsity boys game following at 7.
Charyl Stockwell 40, Ann Arbor Central 17
Jordan Knight had 12 points, seven rebounds and five steals for Stockwell (3-2), which has won consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 23, 2018. The Sentinels, who have won three of their last four, went 54 games without back-to-back victories.
Lucy Fuchs had 11 points and eight rebounds, while Julia Sastre had nine points for Stockwell.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Howell girls basketball team beats Belleville on buzzer-beating layup
