Northville Girls Basketball Wins First District Title in 26 Years

—Submitted by Coach Todd Gudith

The Northville Mustangs girls basketball team won their first district championship in 26 years (last one was in 1986), knocking off Canton 25-24 in a defensive struggle at Novi High School Friday night.

Canton had previously won the last three straight district championships and had gone to the final four the past two seasons. Northville's two biggest losses (point differential wise) this season came at hands of Canton (36-18 and 39-23). Northville's last loss was to Canton in the first round of the KLAA playoffs (39-23). Since then, Northville has won five in a row.  

Both teams struggled early to get going offensively. Northville got its only basket in the first quarter by Meredith Williams to make it a 4-2 Canton lead.  After a missed layup by the Mustangs, Canton broke down the floor to score on a fast break as time expired to take a 4-point lead after the first quarter.  Northville got a little more scoring in the second quarter as Alex Moynes and Mallory Weber each scored 3 points and Kendra Brenner hit a shot.  The Mustangs held Canton to just one basket in the quarter, but Canton made 6-7 free throws to keep a lead at halftime.

In the second half, Canton scored early on back-to-back possessions to jump out to a 17-10 lead, and things looked as though the Chiefs playoff experience would give them the edge to pull away. Northville ramped up defense to put a little more pressure on Canton. A triple by Meredith Williams made it 17-13 and a basket by Brenner cut the lead to just 2. But the Chiefs responded and scored a basket late in the quarter to go up 4, 23-19. The defensive pressure continued in the fourth quarter as the Mustangs held the Chiefs without a basket. Meanwhile, Northville cut the deficit to 2 on a Williams layup with six minutes to play. Northville finally tied up the game with 3:20 to go on a Weber lay in. A put back by Weber with just under two minutes gave the Mustangs their first lead, 25-23. With just under a minute to play, a foul by Northville sent Canton to the free throw line. After a Mustang time-out to ice the shooter, Canton missed the first shot but made the second to pull within one, 25-24. 

Northville, while trying to kill the clock, turned the ball over with 41 seconds to play, giving Canton another chance. A missed 3-point shot was rebounded by the Chiefs, giving them life with 4 seconds to go. After timeouts by both teams, Northville, with fouls to give, fouled Canton, which ran the clock down to 2.7 seconds. After another timeout by Northville, Weber stole the inbound pass to seal the win. Northville shot 10-25 field goals, or 40 percent, while the Canton was 8-39 at 20.5 percent.

Northville's high scorers for the game were Weber with 7 points, Williams, also with 7, and Brenner with 6 points.

It's a huge win for this team and the program. Our district has had some very good teams in it over the years, and it's not an easy district to get out of. One of our goals this year was to finally break the streak against Novi—eight years since we had last beaten them—and another was to break the 26 years since we've won a district.

The girls were determined to see that both of those happened. We lost to Canton twice this season but felt we could play with them. After we lost to them almost three weeks ago, we told the girls that there was a very good chance we'd see them again, and if we do, we'll have a plan. I'm very happy and proud of the way our girls played and bought in to what we've been trying to tell them throughout the season. Our coaching staff has done a tremendous job all year of getting us prepared and putting together a plan.   

Northville, now 15-7 overall, will play Hartland in the regional semifinal on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Farmington High School.