Erika Ballinger ,right, and Brooke Mazzolini of St. Johns hug after their Class A regional final win over Saginaw Heritage Thursday March 10, 2016 at Midland High in Midland. KEVIN W. FOWLER PHOTO
MIDLAND – There’s many ways to describe the play of Jessica Hafner on the basketball court. And 3-point shooter isn’t one of them.
St. Johns Girls Basketball Head Coach Mark Lasceski ,center, raises the Class A regional trophy as he celebrates with his team after their win over Saginaw Heritage Thursday March 10, 2016 at Midland High in Midland. KEVIN W. FOWLER PHOTO
Well, it wasn’t.
The St. Johns senior guard entered Thursday’s Class A regional title game without a 3-point bucket to her name this season. She left a perfect 4-for-4, and a regional champion.
Hafner scored a team-high 13 points as the Redwings outlasted No. 2-ranked Saginaw Heritage, 46-43, to capture their first regional championship since 2005.
“I know they were scouting us, and (Erika) Ballinger has been hitting a lot and (Maddie) Maloney has been hitting a lot, so other people had to step up. And I knew it was my turn,” said Hafner, who watched from the sidelines last year with an ACL injury as her team was eliminated from the postseason. “This (winning a regional title) hasn’t happened in a while. And look where we are.”
The Redwings (22-3) now know they’re just one game away from playing in the Breslin Center and will face Port Huron Northern at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a state quarterfinal at Fenton. And it took a valiant effort from a handful of players to take down the state’s second best team.
The contest was a matchup of styles, as St. Johns’ aerial attack went toe-to-toe with the bully ball of the Hawks (22-2). The CAAC Red co-champions hit a combined six 3-pointers, while Saginaw Heritage was left with just one on the night.
Hafner and Maloney, who scored eight points, opened the game firing from downtown, helping St. Johns get out to an early 6-2 lead. But the Hawks made it known quickly that they were going to force feed the ball inside. Heritage upperclassmen Courtney McInerney and Jenna Falkenberg, who are a combined 12-foot-5, set the tone by combining to score five points during their team’s 7-2 run to end the quarter.
The two teams went back and forth for the final eight minutes of the first half, but the Redwings escaped with an 18-17 lead heading into the locker room.
Bully ball returned in a big way to start the third quarter when Heritage opened with a 6-0 run, but a jumper from Ballinger allowed St. Johns to counter with an immediate 10-4 spurt.
“We watched film on them, and we knew that they played a zone and we had to get post touches inside … to get it back outside,” said Ballinger, who scored all 10 of her points in the second half.
The Redwings took a 36-33 lead into the final quarter when senior Brooke Mazzolini, who added 12 points, hit a jumper as time expired. Her team maintained its lead throughout the fourth quarter with a friendly game of keep away and big free throws down the stretch.
The Hawks had an opportunity to tie the ball game with about four seconds remaining. However, freshman forward Shine Strickland-Gills missed a layup, which allowed Hafner to step to the charity stripe and hand St. Johns a three-point lead. Heritage’s half-court heave as time expired fell well short.
“We definitely had to keep playing. They were a very strong team, very strong,” Mazzolini said. “They could come back with just one shot, the moment could change, so we knew we had to keep going strong the whole time.
“It’s crazy to even think we’ve made it this far. But we’re going to keep going.”
Contact James L. Edwards III at jledwards@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JLEdwardsIII.