GIRLS HOOPS: Flat Rock uses strong start to roll past Allen Park in season opener – The News Herald
ALLEN PARK – A pair of local teams shared the hardwood Monday night as Allen Park welcomed in Flat Rock to open the 2023-24 girls’ basketball season.
It was Flat Rock who dominated this season opener. Behind the play of Lily Klein and some stifling defense, the visiting Rams rolled to a 57-22 win over the Jaguars.
The freshman Klein led the way for the Rams with 15 points in her first game at the high school level.
“That’s the no. 1 thing I look for, effort.” Flat Rock head coach Brian Kryk said. “Playing our first game you never know what to expect, but I had confidence we would come out strong. That was a good showing for us, though.
“I was really impressed with our intensity.”
Flat Rock got off to a fast, quick start to set the tone for the game.
The Rams jumped out to a quick 15-0 run, led by junior Addison Kopp and sophomore point guard Madleen Hussein who got several buckets a piece early.
The run was put to a halt by the first points of the Allen Park season courtesy of a Leylani Murillo jumper.
Flat Rock quickly got back into rhythm, going on an 8-0 run to finish the first quarter, with buckets from Layla Holbrook and McKenna Williams, leading 23-2 to end the first frame.
The second quarter was dominated by Klein, who scored eight of the Rams ten points in the quarter.
Allen Park was able to find some late offense in the quarter with Ayla Bailey scoring five straight points herself. Unfortunately, the Jags went into the half down 33-7.
“Bottom line, we did some things good tonight but other times we didn’t compete as hard as we needed to,” Allen Park head coach Dave Arnold said. “It was nice to have a much stronger showing in the second half.”
In the second half, Flat Rock was able to get into their bench, and still maintained their success against the Jags 2-3 zone. Yasmine Muheisen (8 points) and Madelyn Witkowski (3 points) added to the Rams scoring.
“We were really patient today,” Kryk explained “That’s one thing we have really been stressing, waiting for that good shot. I think we got a lot of shots at the rim tonight, which was our huge goal against the zone tonight.”
Allen Park was able to muster some better offense in the second half, seeing Murillo add six more points, while Bailey had three more points.
Ella Guglielmetti and Madelynn Neville also added three points apiece.
“There was a speed issue we had, that we have to get caught up with and we have to get on the same page with other teams, which I think we will.” Arnold said. “It’s there, the compete level is there. It’s just going to be a process and we’re going to have to apply it moving on.”
UP NEXT
Allen Park (0-1) will look to bounce back and gain their first win of the season when they travel to Dearborn Fordson on December 7.
“We are super young and super inexperienced,” Arnold said. “It’s a day-by-day, step-by-step process. This month of December is going to be all about figuring it out. So, we will be fine.
It may take a while,” Arnold continued. “But getting into the league schedule, we will get our feet under us.”
As for Flat Rock (1-0), they will look to win their second straight game of the season in their home opener against Ypsilanti Lincoln on Dec 7.
“I guess by age, we are young, but this team has a ton of experience,: Kryk said. “We have played a lot of basketball so we have expectations. Moving forward, we take it one game at a time.
“Take each game one at a time, prepare game by game and hopefully come out with the same outcome.”
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