Maples Fall to Royal Oak Ravens, 42-24, at Home

Mariah Gardziola had her best game of the season and she attributes it to her increased dedication outside of practice. She has played for Royal Oak's freshman team, JV squad and now that she's on varsity, she said the experience helps.

“I’ve always been this tall,” Gardziola said. “I think that now it’s kind of like I’ve been through it and I understand what I need to do.”

Gardziola was Royal Oak’s top scorer for the night with 16 points as the Ravens defeated the Maples girls basketball team 42-24 at home Thursday night.

“We were waiting for her to have that breakout game,” Royal Oak Coach Brian Sopata said of Gardziola. “She’s more than capable of doing this on any given night.”

Royal Oak’s girls basketball team (8-5 overall, 5-3 division) picked up their energy in the second half of their game against Seaholm (2-11 overall, 1-7 division) and took home the win.

The Maples kept the game tight in the first half of the game and headed into the locker room down by just six points, led by the top scorer of the night—Lauren Yousif with 10 points. At half, the score was still a tight 18-12.

Accordng to Seaholm Head Coach Steve Hasler, Seaholm was looking to improve since their last game with Royal Oak.

“The first time we played that team they blew us out,” said Hasler. “So we talked about the importance of defending your home court and the importance of trying to get a barometer as to where we are as a team. Every team wants to see that they have improved throughout the year … we were very happy with how we played in the first half.”

However, the Ravens came out of the break ready to widen their lead and did just that. They scored 10 points in just the first four minutes of the second half.

Sopata said that his team was not happy with how they played in the first half but were able to get it turned around quickly.

“We talked a little bit about stepping it up and we absolutely as you saw in the second half, that happened,” he said. “Every single game matters and you want to come out and you want to play to your capability the best you can.”

Junior Gardziola said that the team pumped each other up at halftime to get moving.

“Our captains really stepped it up but it wasn’t only our captains,” Gardziola said. “It’s like the whole team from the bottom up is like 'Come on guys, this is our game let’s take it.’”

“They have a good team,” Hasler said. “It’s hard to keep everybody under wraps.”

Hasler said that the game came down to one simple thing for Seaholm.

“We have to score more,” he said.

The last few minutes of the game turned into a battle but Royal Oak came away with an easy win over the division opponent.

Royal Oak hosts Berkley at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and Seaholm will hit the road to face Hazel Park at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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