EAST LANSING — Ypsilanti Arbor Prep won the Division 3 championship just two years ago, but it might as well have been 20 to the Gators. 

Arbor Prep’s 2022-23 season ended with a Regional Final loss, and that lit a fire for players and coaches who remembered what it felt like to win it all just a year before.

“Our warm-up shirts say, ‘Unfinished Business,’” Arbor Prep senior Stephanie Utomi said. “We take it personal. We knew from the start of the season — which is June for us — we knew what the goal was. We knew we wanted to get back here. It was a sour taste and it hurt a lot, to say the least. We wanted to go back-to-back. To be here, it’s everything. But the job’s not done.”

That business Arbor Prep wants to finish is just one win away, as the Gators returned to Michigan State’s Breslin Center on Thursday and earned a 52-30 win over Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest in the day’s second Division 3 Semifinal.

Arbor Prep (24-4) will look for its second championship in three years when it meets Niles Brandywine in the Division 3 Final at 4 p.m. Saturday. 

The Gators’ only losses this season were to Division 1 or Division 2 opponents: Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard, Jackson Northwest, Detroit Edison, and Detroit Country Day.

“Our intentions were to make sure we had the right energy level and the right effort to start the game,” Arbor Prep head coach Scott Stine said. “We were going to try and press them, and we were going to try and create tempo.” 

Lutheran Northwest, which entered the MHSAA Tournament unranked and with nine losses, knew full well what it was up against in Arbor Prep.

But that obviously didn’t lessen the experience of reaching the Semifinals for the first time in school history and getting to play on the Breslin Center floor.

The school essentially took the day off Thursday, holding a sendoff for the team as it boarded its bus and then all driving to East Lansing to witness something the school had never experienced. 

“This is the first time in our school’s history that we’ve been able to do this, so they made it a really big day for us,” Lutheran Northwest junior Ashley Cadicamo said. “It made every moment count. The fact that we lost, it’s OK. We came here, and we were made to be here.”

The experience should prove especially valuable since Lutheran Northwest had only one senior and three juniors on a roster dominated by underclassmen. The Crusaders had seven sophomores and two freshman on the roster. 

“Just being here was just huge for our team and our program, and with one senior, we are looking to possibly be back,” Lutheran Northwest head coach Jimmy Mehlberg said. 

Freshman Keaira Spiehs scored six points to lead Lutheran Northwest, which saw nine players score points. 

Senior Taylor Wallace scored 14 points, Stephanie Utomi scored 11 and senior Stacy Utomi added 10 points and nine rebounds for Arbor Prep. 

The Gators took a 34-16 lead into halftime and then scored the first eight points of the third quarter to build a 42-16 lead with 5:45 left in the period. Arbor Prep increased the advantage to 32 heading into the fourth quarter.

Click for the full box score. 

PHOTOS (Top) Arbor Prep’s Taylor Wallace (5) puts up a shot Thursday with Lutheran Northwest’s Charlotte Gramzow (3) defending. (Middle) The Gators’ Angela Meggisson (2) considers her next move. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)