Breslin Bound: Girls Districts in Review
March 5, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Special to Second Half
The most-used coach cliche' this time of year revolves around the difficulty for a team to beat an opponent a third time in the playoffs after sweeping said opponent during the regular season.
But those words of wisdom played out in more than a few cases during girls basketball Districts last week.
See below for four champs from each class whose performances were particularly notable, including a handful that beat opponents after being swept by them earlier this winter. Records are based on results submitted for each team through the MHSAA Score Center.
Class A
Canton (16-6) – Defense has been the name of the game lately for the Chiefs, who have given up exactly 23 points in each of their last three. Although the first was a regular-season finale loss to Waterford Kettering, the most recent was a 29-23 District final win over also 16-6 Northville.
Detroit Martin Luther King (20-0) – The Crusaders navigated one of the toughest District brackets in Class A to remain undefeated, beating Detroit Public School League runner-up Detroit Cass Tech 46-35 and then in the final Detroit Pershing, 66-38. King had beaten Cass Tech in the PSL Final only two weeks before.
Grand Ledge (19-4) – Much was expected of the resurgent Comets heading into this winter, but powerhouse East Lansing still stood in the way and swept them during the regular season. But Grand Ledge got a big one back, beating the Trojans 51-49 in the District final.
Saginaw Heritage (14-8) – The Hawks 53-44 District final win over Midland Dow might’ve been their best postseason victory in close to a decade. Heritage finished second in the Saginaw Valley Association North this season, but Dow finished first and was 21-0 entering the game.
Class B
Flint Powers Catholic (17-6) – The Chargers are back after finishing below .500 and falling in their District opener last season. Five of their six losses this winter were to Class A teams – the sixth coming to Class B Livonia Ladywood in their opener – and Powers is on a 14-1 streak.
Jackson Northwest (17-6) – The most impressive win of last week’s District run was the first, 47-38 in the opener over Eaton Rapids. The Greyhounds finished 18-3 and had beaten Northwest by 14 and 29 points this season in winning the Capital Area Activities Conference Gold – while Northwest finished third in that league.
River Rouge (14-6) – The Panthers won their District games by 30, 20 and then five points, respectively. The best win certainly came in the championship game, 57-52 over Dearborn Divine Child, an MHSAA Semifinalist last season.
Stevensville-Lakeshore (15-7) – The Lancers added another step to their success of 2011-12, this time winning a District title and doing so by beating a strong Benton Harbor team 60-59 in the championship game. Benton Harbor beat Lakeshore by 14 and 18 during the regular season.
Class C
Carson City-Crystal (20-2) – The Eagles last lost on Dec. 20, to Central Michigan Athletic Conference co-champion Portland St. Patrick. But Carson City-Crystal eliminated the other winner of that league title, Pewamo-Westphalia, 35-29 in last week’s District final. P-W finished 18-5.
Ishpeming (16-6) – The Hematites and Negaunee tied for the Mid-Peninsula Athletic Conference championship, but Ishpeming earned some final bragging rights last week by beating Negaunee, at Negaunee, 45-41 to claim the District title.
Michigan Center (15-8) – The Cardinals finished only fourth in a strong Cascades Conference, but beat third-place Grass Lake in the District semifinal before downing Concord 41-36 for the championship. Concord, which finished 18-4, beat Michigan Center by four early this season and made the MHSAA Semifinals in 2012.
Shelby (19-3) – The West Michigan Conference champion is two wins better than last season and continued to roll through some close games last week – a 41-39 win over Holton in the District semifinal and a 55-47 win over Hart in the championship game.
Class D
Fulton-Middleton (12-9) – The Pirates finished sixth in the always-strong Central Michigan Athletic Conference. But they beat co-champion – and 2012 Class D Semifinalist – Portland St. Patrick in the District final, 58-54 in triple overtime. Before that, Fulton beat CMAC fourth-place Fowler 53-45.
Pickford (15-6) – The Panthers shared the Eastern UP Athletic Conference championship with DeTour this season, and added another championship by edging Rudyard 28-24 in the District final. Pickford fell in last season’s District final to Brimley, which it beat during last week’s semifinals.
Powers North Central (15-8) – The Jets closed the regular season with two losses and were swept this season by Skyline Conference rival Bark River-Harris. But North Central got one back in their third and final meeting of the winter, beating the Broncos 70-68 in their District final.
Waterford Our Lady (17-4) – The reigning three-time MHSAA champion also lost its final two regular season games. But the Lakers escaped a close District final against Bloomfield Hills Roeper, winning 44-40, to continue their pursuit of a fourth-straight title.
PHOTOS: Gaylord players celebrate last week's Class A District championship. The Blue Devils (14-9) edged Traverse City West 31-26 in overtime and now will face reigning Class A champion Grand Haven. (Photo courtesy of the Gaylord Herald Times.
Rising Centreville Focused on Next Step
By
Wes Morgan
Special for MHSAA.com
December 7, 2017
Perhaps the most obvious sign that the Centreville girls varsity basketball program had made a complete turnaround was the fact that it won a handful of games last winter that it shouldn’t have.
The Bulldogs also won a boatload of games decisively. After starting the year with a loss to Constantine, head coach Jill Peterson’s program rattled off 19 consecutive victories and won a Berrien-Cassopolis-St. Joseph Blue championship on its way to a 19-2 final record.
Under Peterson’s guidance, the Bulldogs went from a 4-15 squad her first season in 2013-14 to last year’s unprecedented run that included a No. 3 state ranking in The Associated Press Class C poll. In between were 13-10 (2014-15) and 14-7 (2015-16) seasons.
“We played Athens and we were down four with four seconds [left] and hit a couple free throws, stole the inbound and tied it, went into overtime and won,” Peterson recalled. “That shows a lot in terms of your resiliency as a team and just experience.”
Still, the program’s first District championship eluded it once again with a loss to Schoolcraft in the Final. It was the fourth straight year the Eagles ended Centreville’s season. This might have been the year the Bulldogs got revenge, but the District draws have been shuffled a bit, and the two schools will compete in different Districts in 2018.
Centreville returns eight players this season with varsity experience, and they “get along better than any team I’ve coached,” Peterson explained. After a short stint in the BCS, the Bulldogs are now members of the first-year Southwest 10 Conference.
The senior class consists of senior guard/forward Carly Todd, who averaged 4.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.6 steals per contest last year, Kayla Gest, a guard who registered 5.6 points, 2.5 rebounds and was a 28-percent 3-point shooter as a junior, guard Carlee Odom, who posted 6.7 points and 3.2 rebounds per outing, Brittany Morris, who averaged 3.1 points and 4.9 rebounds, and Morgan Walton, who is in her first year on the varsity team.
After making the all-BCS team as a freshman, sophomore forward Joanna Larsen is back and looking to retain the momentum from her rookie campaign that resulted in 7.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game. Fellow all-conference selection Samara Schlabach, who was also named an all-state honorable mention following her sophomore season last year, produced 9.3 points and six rebounds per game.
Those players, combined with juniors MaKenzi Troyer (guard), Abby Nighswonger (guard) Whitney Morris (guard) and Molly Kirby (forward), and sophomores Olivia Deeds (guard) and Kenleigh West-Wing (guard), have made Centreville’s practices just as competitive as their games so far.
Centreville is 1-1, dropping an overtime battle on the road against a talented Bronson squad.
“They push each other more than any team I’ve coached,” Peterson said. “That really speaks volumes for the progress we’ve made over the last four years — not just what the coaching staff is doing but what the players have put in and what they’re bringing to the table.”
The Bulldogs are set up this year inside and on the perimeter. Schlabach is a matchup nightmare in the paint on top of boasting a reliable jumper, and Larsen is equally tough to stop down low. The two come together defensively to all but shut down the lane and limit opponents’ second opportunities by clearing the boards.
Todd has accepted every challenge thrown at her over the years, including a post assignment as an undersized underclassman. Now she’s a big threat with the ball in her hands as a slashing guard with a good outside shot. Odom also has an eye and the ability to carve through defenses as the team’s floor leader. She’s another scoring concern for opponents, but her most important role will be feeding the post.
As a senior, Todd now realizes she has an even bigger responsibility to help mold the team’s attitude on a daily basis.
“What I’ve noticed is when it’s one of those days when I don’t really feel like talking, it’s like, ‘Come on, Carly, you’ve got to put on that mask like you’re in a good mood,’” she said. “If the leaders are in a bad mood, everybody else could be in a bad mood. I just have to be conscious of it.”
What might be the most crucial aspect of this team is the players’ complete disregard for winning streaks and rankings.
“Honestly, it didn’t even hit me that we were winning that many games or that we were ranked in the state,” Odom said. “I didn’t think about it much and still worked hard. But it was cool winning all those games.”
Wes Morgan has reported for the Kalamazoo Gazette, ESPN and ESPNChicago.com, 247Sports and Blue & Gold Illustrated over the last 12 years and is the publisher of JoeInsider.com. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
Centreville team photo courtesy of JoeInsider.com.