Berkley Girls Basketball Falls 51-44 in Battle for Second in OAA Blue

FERNDALE – The regular season for the Berkley girls varsity basketball team came to a close on Thursday night in a showdown with Ferndale for second place in the Oakland Athletic Association Blue division. Berkley squandered an early lead and dropped to third place with a 51-44 loss on the road.

It was Ferndale’s front court that made the difference late in the game. Forwards Janecia Jenkins and Ariel Walker along with center Elissa Parker scored in double digits and their size proved difficult for the Bears (10-11; 9-5 OAA Blue) to match up with for all 32 minutes.

Walker opened the fourth quarter with seven straight points for the Eagles (13-7; 10-4 OAA Blue) and she scored nine of the Eagles' 19 points in the quarter. She also had a key block down the stretch on Berkley’s leading scorer, Lucy McNally.

“They play physical and I thought we matched that at the beginning, but just kind of let that slip here and there,” Berkley coach Jordan Gruppen said. “We let them go on a few runs. When you let a team like that, that’s athletic like they are, get a few runs they can hurt you.” 

Berkley was hoping to get some revenge for its 61-45 loss to Ferndale on Jan. 25 at home. Things looked promising for Berkley early in the game.

Shannon Farlow had two 3-pointers in the opening four minutes as part of a 10-0 run to give the Bears an early cushion.

Ferndale came back in the second quarter when Parker established her presence. She scored eight of her 11 points in the quarter and had more than a half dozen rebounds.

“They’re going to go at the basket,” Gruppen said.

Ferndale cut Berkley’s lead down to two points by halftime. The Eagles scored four points in the final 20 seconds of the second quarter to make the game 26-24.

In the third quarter, Farlow picked up her third foul less than two minutes into the half and had to go to the bench. Berkley missed the senior guard’s shooting touch as Ferndale rallied, taking its first lead of the game with 4:57 left in the third quarter on a layup from Janecia Jenkins.

The Eagles were able to maintain a small lead for the rest of the game. Berkley was within four points with 1:53 left to go, but a couple of missed 3-pointers ended any chance of a comeback.

As much as Gruppen would’ve enjoyed a second-place finish, his girls won’t spend any time dwelling on the loss. “Second place would have been great, but we got to look ahead to the game on Monday,” he said. “We play at Southfield and that’s going to be our main focus.”

The Bears' first district game in the Class A tournament is against the Bluejays on the road. All the games for the district will be at Southfield. If Berkley wins on Monday (4:30 p.m. start), it will play Detroit Renaissance on Wednesday, also a 4:30 p.m. start.

Notes: Lucy McNally finished the game with 17 points; she was the only Berkley player in double digits. Shannon Farlow finished the game with nine points on three 3-pointers and Dana Silverstein had eight points.