Hartland Boys Basketball State Tournament Run Ends

ANN ARBOR — The Hartland boys basketball team's roller coaster of a season made its final stop in regional semifinals of the state tournament with a disappointing loss Monday.

The Eagles were defeated 61-42 by Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in a game in which Hartland struggled after the first quarter – ending the team's longest winning streak since the start of the season at three games.

With the loss, Hartland finishes the season 12-12 while Orchard Lake St. Mary's (14-9) moves on.  The contest also was senior star Matt Poches final game in Eagles blue. Poches, who averaged 29.3 points per game last week, was held to just 16. The Oakland University recruit said that having his future coach Greg Kampe in attendance made things hard — but the four Eaglets draped over him anytime the ball entered the paint sure didn’t help matters.

"No one thought we would make it this far," said Poches, who now holds the record for most points with more than 1,400. "We proved a lot of people wrong. We’re proud but sad that it’s over.”

In all, the senior leadership on the Hartland team accounted for 36 of the teams 42 points, but the team shot only 12 for 29. Meantime, Allen Richardson, a 6-foot-3 forward for Orchard Lake, torched Hartland for 31 points. The most the Eagles have given up with Poches on the floor — just six less than the Eagles seniors put on the board. Richardson was able to penetrate the Eagles zone defense and drive to the basket en route to 14 points in the paint.

“He (Richardson) is a great player,” said Hartland senior guard Clay Lineberry, who finished with 11 points. “He had some big shots down the stretch  and we couldn’t bounce back. …We worked on the 2-3 (zone) hard in practice and thought it would shut him down. It did early.”

The Eagles did get off to a good start. Lineberry helped Hartland tie the contest at 7-7 with a 3-pointer with 3:55 left in the first quarter. Two minutes later Dan Richmond gave the team a three-point lead with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Hartland led 10-9 going into the second quarter, but that’s when the speed and talent of the Eaglets took over, forcing turnovers and taking the lead.

“We slowed their game down in the opening half ,” Lineberry said. “They started speeding the game up in the second half. We felt good (after the first quarter) .We felt we were in the game. We thought everything was going good.”

Orchard Lake went on a 13-to-3 run until the 3:44 mark of the second when Poches hit the back end of a free throw. Poches was the only Eagle to score during the second in which his team was outscored 17 to 6 and trailed by 11 points going into the half.

Poches said that was the game's turning point.

“It was the second quarter," he said. "They’re a lot quicker than we were."

And Hartland couldn't recover. The fast pace forced the Eagles into not only tough turnovers, but early foul trouble. Hartland senior co-captain Dan Richmond could only watch his team struggle to keep up from the bench after fouling out in the third quarter.

Overall, Orchard Lake forced 22 turnovers – 11 in each half – and nabbed 13 steals. Hartland also was out rebounded 27-22.

Hartland head coach Frank Leppek said by triple teaming Poches, Orchard Lake challeged the rest of the team to score, but the Eagles couldn't convert.

"I'm proud of these kids," Leppek said. "I had Matt for about 100 games. He's a great kid, got a great future along with the rest of them. Our seniors average a 3.4 (grade-point average). Our lowest senior is around a 3.2. I told them I want them to be loud leaders. They'll be OK. They'll be great citizens."