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Westwood advances to D3 quarters

SAULT STE. MARIE — Structure and freedom.

They are two words that would seem to work against each other, especially on the basketball court, but coach Kurt Corcoran and his Westwood girls team found a way to combine the two this season.

It paid off big time Tuesday night as the Patriots knocked off Charlevoix 47-29 to capture the MHSAA Division 3 regional championship.

The Patriots improved to 24-1 and advance to the Division 3 quarterfinals in Gaylord on Tuesday night to face Lake City.

“That’s just who we are,” Corcoran said. “That’s who we have been all year. We want to have structure, but we want to allow the players to play with freedom because we have some really good athletes.

“We don’t want them so structured that they become robotic.”

The Rayders (19-3) seemed to be a little nervous early on as they had multiple looks at the basket, but couldn’t get anything to fall.

“I’d like to give our defense a lot of credit for that,” Corcoran said with a wry smile. “There are a lot of teams that have poor shooting nights against us.”

The defensive game plan was a success as Elise Stuck was held to a relatively quiet 23 points.

For Westwood, Madelyn Koski led the way with 14 points, while Karlie Patron posted a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Charlevoix 6 8 10 5 — 29

Westwood 15 12 14 6 — 47

CHARLEVOIX — Nagel 3, Curtis 3, Stuck 23, Cunningham 2. FT: 3-7; Fouls: 15; Fouled out: None; 3-pointers: 4 (Stuck 2, Curtis 1, Nagel 1).

WESTWOOD — M. Koski 14, T. Leece 8, Patron 11, Prophet 6, Nelson 3, Miller 2, M. Leece 3. FT: 13-16; Fouls: 9; Fouled out: None; 3-pointers: 4 (Koski 2, T. Leece 1, M. Leece 1).

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