Localsportsjournal.com

It didn’t take Talia Tyler long to leave her mark on the rivalry between Muskegon Catholic and Western Michigan Christian in girls basketball.

Tyler, a freshman for the Crusaders, hit a 3-pointer late in regulation and a key driving layup in overtime. Those heroics gave the host Crusaders a 43-41 overtime victory over the Warriors.

It was the only meeting of the season between for former River Valley Conference rivals. MCC joined the Lakes 8 at the start of this school year.

After a slow start, the Warriors came back and took a 14-12 lead after one quarter and 23-18 lead at the half.

In the fourth quarter, the teams exchanged leads. Then came the dramatic final seconds in which WMC had a 38-36 lead in the final minute.

Then, with 8 seconds left, Tyler canned a 3-pointer from the left wing to give MCC a 39-38 lead. The Warriors Cassie Kingma fired up a desperation 3-pointer and she was fouled on the play. She made the third of her three shots from the line to force overtime.

In the overtime, Tyler scored with 1:26 left to give the Crusaders the lead for good.

Harris led MCC with 17 points.

WMC was led by Alyssa Wright with 10 points, all in the first half. Kingma and Lindsey Johnson each had eight points.