Arbor Prep Earns Saturday Return Driven by 'Unfinished Business'
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 21, 2024
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.
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.)
Belleville Succeeds in Breslin Return, Earns 1st Trip to Championship Day
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
March 21, 2025
EAST LANSING – Belleville has been chasing history since the start of the MHSAA Tournament.
The Tigers overcame a giant hurdle in pursuit of it Friday.
Belleville knocked off 2024 champion and perennial powerhouse West Bloomfield 60-55 in the first Division 1 Semifinal at the Breslin Center.
The Tigers (27-1) will play in their first Final at 12:15 p.m. Saturday.
“It means everything,” said sophomore Sydney Savoury, who tallied game highs of 21 points and 11 rebounds. “We felt the heartache from the loss last year so we really wanted to change the outcome and we knew from the beginning of the season that we had a chance to do it, and we knew that we could have a lasting impact on our school.
“It’s an exciting moment and we know the pressure that comes with it, but it’s a good pressure.”
Belleville, which lost to Grand Blanc last year in their first trip to the Semifinals, had defeated West Bloomfield by double digits during the regular season.
However, coach Jason Wilkins figured the rematch would be more difficult, especially against a program that had advanced to the Breslin the past four years.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Wilkins said. “They are two-time state champs, and they’ve been here four years in a row, so we knew Coach (Darrin) McAllister would come with a gameplan and they were going to play hard. We came out and made a quick run, but we knew they were not going to back down.”
Belleville jumped out to an early double-digit lead during the first five minutes as junior Se’Crette Carter knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Tigers a commanding 21-5 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
“That’s how we play,” Wilkins said. “In every game we make a run, it’s just a matter of when, and we made it in the first quarter. We knew we had to withstand their run, and us getting out to a big lead helped us.”
The Lakers (19-9) rallied in the second quarter and trimmed the deficit to 21-13 on a mid-range jumper by Sheridan Beal. Ava Lord drained a 3-pointer for West Bloomfield later in the first half to make it 28-23.
The Lakers continued to make a push in the third quarter. A driving lay-up by Breasia Gamble-Jones cut the Belleville lead to only two (31-29).
However, the Tigers responded with a 9-2 run and led 45-36 entering the final quarter. A three-point play from Paisley Stephens with 2:17 left sealed it for Belleville.
West Bloomfield, which returned only one starter from last year’s championship team, started the season 1-4 before winning 16 of their next 19 games.
“A lot of people counted us out,” McAllister said. “We lost four dynamic players, and we had players still understanding how to play their roles. Nobody thought we could get here, but the crazy part about it is we knew that we could get here.
“This has been an incredible journey just getting back here, and we had a slow start (today) and were like deer in headlights, but we had an opportunity to settle down and come together and showed we could play with the big boys.”
Beal and Gamble-Jones both finished with 17 points for West Bloomfield, while Londyn Hall had 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
Carter made four 3-pointers and added 18 points for Belleville. Stephens, a freshman guard, chipped in 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Rylan Buschell, one of only two seniors on Belleville’s roster, was thrilled to get over the hump and have an opportunity to play for the school’s first Finals title.
“We worked hard all summer and during the year, and we always wanted to come back here,” she said. “Last year was a heartbreak, but we just wanted to make it to the last day and make it count.”
PHOTOS (Top) Belleville’s Sydney Savoury places her school on the championship game line of the Division 1 bracket after the Tigers’ clinched their first Finals berth Friday at Breslin Center. (Middle) Belleville’s Jaida Quinn (5) and Iyana Stephens defend as West Bloomfield’s Breasia Gamble-Jones considers her options. (Photos by Keionna Banks/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)