Class A: Comeback Classic
March 17, 2012
EAST LANSING – Shar’Rae Davis had one thought when she received the ball with only a few seconds remaining and Grand Haven’s first championship on the line in Saturday’s MHSAA Class A Final.
She saw the rim on Breslin Center’s north basket. And she knew she had 12 seconds to reach it.
“I didn’t even see the rest of my team. So I was like, I’ve got to score,” Davis said. “That was my mentality.
Not only did Davis race the length of the court; she drove to finish the third-longest comeback in MHSAA Girls Basketball Finals history.
Davis completed her lay-up with six seconds to play. Grosse Pointe South couldn’t connect on its final last-second attempt. And the only thing Davis was a second late for was the start of the celebration: Grand Haven 54, Grosse Pointe South 53.
“When I made the basket, I thought it was tied or something. I was looking around for the timeout. Nothing was happening,” she said. “Then I saw Abby (Cole) jump, everyone run at me. I still didn’t believe it. I had to look at the score.”
Believe it: Grand Haven won its first MHSAA championship after surviving a harrowing double-overtime Quarterfinal against East Lansing, and a late rush by 2011 champion Inskter in Friday’s Semifinal.
But Saturday’s comeback topped them both.
Starting at the end of the first quarter, Grosse Pointe South led for 24 minutes, 5 seconds straight. The Blue Devils’ advantage reached 18 points with 1:51 to go in the third quarter.
“Obviously things weren’t looking good for us down 18. It was another nightmare,” Buccaneers coach Katie Kowalczyk-Fulmer said. “But there was a lot of time left on the clock. And we just talked about getting back into it one possession at a time. You can’t get it all at once. We couldn’t foul just to foul because we knew if the game was going to come down to free throws and we put them at the line, we wouldn’t have a chance.”
Instead, she directed her players to deliver the ball repeatedly to Cole.
The 6-foot-5 junior scored nine of her 18 points over the final 9:38 of the game, including seven straight free throws as the Devils tried to keep her from getting any closer to the hoop (she also had eight rebounds and eight blocks). Davis scored 14 of her game-high 19 points during that 27-10 run.
But those efforts still nearly weren’t enough.
Reeling a bit after giving up the big lead, Grosse Pointe South got a jolt of hope from freshman guard Cierra Rice. Grand Haven took its first lead in two quarters with 1:10 to play, and held a two-point advantage with 24 second to go when Rice dropped in a lay-up, was fouled, and made the free throw to give the Devils back a one-point edge.
But after Davis’ ensuing full-court scoring run, the last attempt by the Devils didn’t fall.
Only Farmington Our Lady of Mercy in 1982 (19 points) and Detroit Cass Tech in 1987 (20) made bigger championship game comebacks than Grand Haven – both to win Class A titles as well.
“We knew we could do anything because of that Quarterfinal game,” Grand Haven senior Alex Law said of the 42-40 win over East Lansing. “It was crazy, but that gave us so much confidence. I was like, ‘Let’s go, we can do this. We’ve got this. It’s our last game. Let’s do it right.’”
Grand Haven finished 27-1, losing only to East Kentwood – a loss the Buccaneers avenged later in the season. They were ranked No. 1 heading into the postseason.
Grosse Pointe South (23-4) was only an honorable mention heading into playoffs. But that didn’t make Saturday any less heart-breaking.
Four Blue Devils scored at least 10 points, led by Rice with 14 and junior Claire DeBoer with 13. Three grabbed at least 10 rebounds – Senior Caitlin Moore had 12 to go with her 12 points, and senior Catherine Palazzolo had 10 to go with her 10 points as Grosse Pointe South outrebounded the taller Buccaneers by 19.
But nine of the Blue Devils 19 turnovers also came during that final Grand Haven run, caused in large part by the Bucs’ “monster” press defense, as they call it. It produced monstrous – and championship – results.
“The past couple of games when the pressure got on, we haven’t always handled it well. And they making the adjustment and really going inside, throwing into the big girls, definitely hurt,” Blue Devils coach Kevin Richards said. “What can you say? We made plays all but right at the very end. We had a great effort and the gameplan worked. We just need to have a little bit better ball security.”
Click for the box score. Watch the game and both teams' postgame press conferences at MHSAA.tv.
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Haven celebrates its first MHSAA championship. (Photo courtesy of Terry McNamara Photography.)
Southfield A&T Aiming for Highest Goal
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
February 14, 2019
SOUTHFIELD – This is season three since the merger combining Southfield’s two former public high schools, Southfield High and Southfield-Lathrup. And the shining star through all of the hubbub, at least athletically, is the girls basketball program.
The result of the merger is Southfield High School for the Arts and Technology, commonly known as Southfield A&T. The school is located at the former Southfield High, at the corner of 10 Mile Road and Lahser Road. While the boys track & field and football teams have been competitive since the merger, the success of coach Michele Marshall’s girls basketball team has gained statewide attention.
This season the Warriors could have the best team in Southfield history, whether at Southfield High, Southfield-Lathrup or A&T.
No, we’re not forgetting the 2005 Southfield-Lathrup team, also coached by Marshall (her name was Michele Jackson then), which won the Class A title. There are similarities between that team and this year’s squad, which we will address later.
This season the Warriors are 14-1 and ranked No. 2 in Division 1 in the latest Associated Press poll. Their only loss came in the second game to 2018 Class A champion Saginaw Heritage, 45-43, at Ypsilanti Arbor Prep as part of the Icebreaker Challenge. Southfield A&T is 7-0 in the Oakland Activities Association Red, a half-game ahead of Royal Oak (14-1, 7-1) after the Warriors won 60-47 at Royal Oak on Feb. 5.
The teams will complete the regular season against each other Feb. 28 at Southfield A&T.
“It was (a big victory),” Marshall said. “I watched the Royal Oak program grow even when I was coaching at Lathrup. They play very hard. Anytime you walk into a gym where there’s a hostile crowd, it’s going to be a challenge. It was for first place. They were undefeated. We need all the competition we can get to get ready for the state tournament.”
Southfield A&T will host Bloomfield Hills tonight, and barring a major upset in the next two weeks the Warriors will win the Red. It’s no slight to any of the teams in the division, but Southfield has bigger goals – notably, the Division 1 championship.
“That’s a lofty expectation,” Marshall said. “We hope to win a state championship. That’s our goal. If that isn’t (your goal), you have to ask yourself, why are you coaching?
“(But) having won a state title, I know you have to have a lot of things go your way.”
This team has experience with three starters returning led by senior Alexis Johnson and junior Cheyenne McEvans. They are both 5-foot-10 and two of the state’s top players in their respective classes, and both started on the 2016-17 team that reached a Class A Semifinal before losing to East Kentwood, 55-51.
Johnson, who surpassed 1,000 career points and averages 20 per game, is a four-year varsity player and has signed with Marshall University. McEvans averages 18 points and, although she spends much of her time at the guard position, grabbed 22 rebounds in the victory over Royal Oak.
The third returning starter is sophomore Kayiona Willis, who took over at the point guard spot last season and is averaging eight points per game. The other two starters are Soleil Barnes, a 5-8 senior who averaged 16 points last season while attending Nordonia High in Macedonia, Ohio, near Cleveland, and is contributing 10 per game this winter; and Jasmine Worthy, a 6-3 junior who attended nearby Birmingham Groves last season and is averaging eight points and eight rebounds. Her presence inside has allowed Johnson, a post player her first three seasons, to play on the perimeter or wherever Marshall sees fit.
Few teams can match the versatility, experience and talent of Marshall’s starting five. What can’t be measured is the commitment of this group. It’s not a stretch to make comparisons with the 2005 Southfield-Lathrup team. That team returned all five starters from the 2004 team that reached the Semifinal round before losing a heartbreaker to Lansing Waverly, 50-49.
Waverly, which would go on to defeat Detroit Martin Luther King, 33-32, for the Class A title, trailed Southfield-Lathrup after each of the first three quarters before pulling out the victory. And those 2004 Chargers learned their lessons well as they, too, won a close Semifinal (62-58 over Grandville in overtime) a year later before defeating King, 48-36, for the school’s only MHSAA Finals title.
Talent and experience are just two reasons why this season’s Warriors are such legitimate contenders. Look at the teams that win state titles. Normally you find an experienced coach on the bench. And that’s why this program is so highly respected.
Marshall has coached girls basketball for 27 years, the last 25 as a head coach, the first 22 at Southfield-Lathrup. She’s also taught English during this period all within the Southfield school system. When the two high schools merged, decisions had to be made on who would be the head coach of each of the athletic programs. After some debate, Marshall was named head coach at A&T.
Looking back it would appear the school district made the right choice. Above all else, Marshall has provided stability for a situation that could have turned ugly. Coaching a team where many players were rivals the season before had it challenges. There were jealousies and selfish tendencies with which to contend. That 2016-17 season challenged Marshall as a coach, and as a teacher and mentor away from the court.
Most of the players had played for Southfield High the previous season and she, of course, had coached against them. Known as a strict but fair coach, one who allows her players to be creative, Marshall dug deep to find the courage and patience to win her players over.
“They were our rivals,” said Johnson – the only remaining player from the pre-merger days – of her new teammates who came over from Southfield-Lathrup. “There was tension at first. … Coach said if we want to win, we had to work together. We connected after the King game.”
Showing how difficult that process was and how long it took, that game against King was the Regional Final.
“Nothing was easy,” Marshall said. “I took the most prominent leader from Lathrup and the most prominent leader from Southfield to help lead us. By the end of the season the kids all came together. We got to the semis. It was fun.”
And Johnson said that 2017 Semifinal loss to East Kentwood continues to provide motivation. And there’s an air of confidence that exuberates throughout.
“When we lost to East Kentwood, we were hungry to win a state title,” she said. “This team’s work ethic is different than any team I’ve been on. We all just want to win. We’re all on the same page.”
Tom Markowski is a correspondent for the State Champs! Sports Network and previously directed its web coverage. He also covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Southfield Arts & Technology’s Cheyenne McEvans looks to make her move during her team’s win over Royal Oak on Feb. 5. (Middle) Warriors coach Michele Marshall talks things over with her players. (Photos courtesy of C&G Newspapers.)