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South defeats North in rivaly rematchFree Access


Photo by Renee landuyt
The Blue Devils defeated the Norsemen on Monday night after falling to North in OT on February 15.

The Grosse Pointe South and Grosse Pointe North girls basketball teams met for the second time this season Monday night. The Norsemen defeated the Blue Devils in overtime in their first meeting back in February, but the Blue Devils ended up victorious Monday night by a final score of 54-30.

“I thought they got their tempo in that game and we got our tempo in this game,” said Blue Devils coach Kevin Richards after his team won the rematch with North. “We shoot a lot of threes and we finally got them to fall, so they were timely threes.”

Photo by Renee landuyt
Monday’s loss was only the second of the season for North.

The Blue Devils got out to a slow start, with North jumping out to an early lead. However, some early adjustments during the first timeout helped South bounce back and end the first quarter with a 16-7 lead. South remained in the lead the rest of the game at that point, en route to their eighth win of the year. For the Norsemen, Monday’s loss was just their second of the season.

“I don’t think we competed on offense and I don’t think we competed on defense,” North coach Gary Bennett said following the loss. “It was definitely our worst game of the year in terms of that. … They got the loose balls and they won a lot of 50/50 balls. They just gave us an old-fashioned kicking.”

The leading scorer of the night was South’s Alexa Downey. The senior finished with 29 points, making Monday her fifth consecutive game scoring 20 or more points.

“I don’t know if there’s anybody playing better than Alexa Downey in the state of Michigan,” Richards said. “She’s a bucket.”

Up next for the Blue Devils are games against Port Huron on Wednesday and Dakota on Friday. North host Eisenhower on Wednesday before traveling to Port Huron Friday night.