Run and Gun: West Bloomfield Girls Basketball Ready To Go

It won’t be an easy road to success for the girls basketball team this season. 

After an 11-3 overall, second-place finish in the Oakland Activities Association White division last year, the Lakers (1-0) were bumped up to the Red division in the offseason.

“Every night is going to be tough,” West Bloomfield head coach Stephen Larkin said.

The Red features three teams — Clarkston, Avondale and Southfield Lathrup — that made it to regionals last year. Lathrup was undefeated in the OAA Red and Avondale moved up with the Lakers after it went undefeated in the White. Stoney Creek and Troy Athens also bring back some top talent.

“You can’t afford to have a bad night against any of them,” Larkin said. “It’s very competitive, there’s no game on that schedule were you can kind of look at it and go OK (we have that one).”

However, Larkin actually pushed for the move. He is bringing back a very experienced group of players and he wants to put them in the best position he can to win districts. He said he understands the Lakers overall record might suffer a little. 

“If you can’t make it out of districts, what the hell does your record mean?” Larkin said. “With this division now, I truly want to go into every game and be competitive, where people think we are going to finish — I’ve read that we are not going to finish in top six or seven — that’s fine. I’d rather be picked low and surprise people.” 

He said a tougher regular season schedule will help his girls at the end of the season when it has to get past a powerhouse team from the Catholic League such as Farmington Hills Mercy. 

Last year, West Bloomfield was eliminated in the district semifinals 67-54 to Mercy. The Lakers will host districts this season and the Marlins will likely be the favorite again.

Larkin is optimistic about his team’s chances in the division and in districts because of a trio of starters — Sydni Davis, Kheri Motley and Ashley Zeigler — who are back. All three girls are guards that have major experience and can score. Davis and Motley have been starters since their freshman year while Zeigler started about half of the Lakers games last season.

Davis is the team’s starting point guard and made the All-OAA team last year. The junior has been the team’s leading scorer for the past two seasons. 

“We have pretty good scorers coming back,” Larkin said. “And all our five starters this year have varsity starting experience.”

Larkin conceded it might the smallest team he’s coached at West Bloomfield in his five seasons, but they make up for the lack of size with tremendous team chemistry and athleticism.

“This is by far the most cohesive team I’ve had,” Larkin said. “We are real guard heavy. If we are going to win, we’ve got to spread the floor and run and gun. We can’t get in too many half court sets, we aren’t big enough.” 

All three girls have the fast break mentality needed for the offense to work. It should be an exciting style of basketball for Lakers fans to watch.

And that’s not the only thing West Bloomfield should be enthusiastic about.

“Next year you are looking at (three) four year-starters,” Larkin said, smiling. “That’s exciting."