Classic Finish Delivers Statewide Stardom
March 15, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – Michigan, meet Bree Salenbien – the Adrian Lenawee Christian freshman who stands as tall as a center, plays like a guard, and made a shot Thursday that most seniors never get a chance to launch.
The 6-foot-2 Cougars standout instantly may have bought herself three more years of statewide expectations by draining the winner in her team’s 46-44 Class D Semifinal overtime win over Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart.
But if her full-game performance at Van Noord Arena was an indication, she’ll be up for all of them.
Salenbien’s pull-up jumper from just inside the free throw line with four seconds to play gave her the last of 16 points – and sent her team to its first MHSAA championship game since 2010.
Lenawee Christian (25-1) will face Chassell at 10 a.m. Saturday with a first girls basketball title in school history on the line – and another chance to show a statewide audience more of this phenom and her teammates from the southeastern corner.
“It’s really fun. But I think the whole team is showing the state who we are, not just me,” Salenbien said. “We’ve battled through so many games this year. That one loss helped us this year not want to feel that way again, to battle through everything.
“We knew we’d have to fight like that to the end.”
That lone defeat, by one to Class A Monroe on Jan. 9, clearly was a learning experience for a team with lots of talent but only one senior.
But it will be buried by the memories Salenbien and her teammates continue to make this weekend and the next few years to come.
She finished with eight rebounds, four assists, three blocks and six steals to go with those 16 points against a Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart team that was undefeated entering the night and playing in its third straight Semifinals. Salenbien also had to contend at times with Irish 6-foot all-stater Sophia Ruggles, who finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots.
The teams were deadlocked 13 times, and the lead changed 11. Only six points were scored during overtime – two free throws by Ruggles 27 seconds in, followed by two by Salenbien with 1:05 to play and then her game-winner at the end.
Salenbien actually missed a free throw with 12 seconds left in regulation that would’ve given her team a one-point lead. But, as Sacred Heart coach Damon Brown noted, the freshman plays well beyond her years – and was about to show it again.
“She doesn’t always,” said Dani’s father and Lenawee Christian coach, Jamie Salenbien. “But when she does, it’s because of the time she’s put in. All of the kids on this team are committed to fundamentals, the coaching staff preaches it and pushes it, and they’ve bought into it and put a lot of time in when no one was there. But she has a lot of athletic gifts God gave her, and she’s using them now at the young age of 14.
“I’m proud of her hanging tough when she could’ve folded, after missing that free throw especially.”
Sophomore guard Dani Salenbien, Bree’s sister and Jamie’s daughter as well, added 11 points and four blocks.
Lenawee Christian’s “gamers,” as Jamie Salenbien called them, contended with a Sacred Heart lineup returning all five starters from last year’s run. Junior guard Scout Nelson added 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, senior Grace Reetz had five steals and five points – including a late 3-pointer that nearly became the game winner – and seniors Megan Nowak and Hadyn Terwilliger finished with five points and seven rebounds, respectively.
Certainly unexpected, Sacred Heart’s full starting lineup and one senior sub entered the postgame press conference full of smiles and laughter.
The Irish (25-1) went a combined 94-10 over the last four seasons, and wins came off the court as well as on. Brown talked about how he nearly left coaching after the 2013-14 season and the death of his wife, Sacred Heart boys basketball coach Keisha Brown, after her fight with cancer. Last season, the Irish ended their tournament run in the Semifinals on March 16 – three days before the death of Haydn Terwilliger’s mother Denise, who also fought cancer.
“We’ve been through these last four years together, and I think that’s why we’re so happy with each other,” Brown said. “From what we’ve been through, this game in no shape or form defines what this team has been through. We’ve held hands through the darkest times. … What we have here is more important than any score.”
And Reetz took the opportunity to lighten the mood one last time.
“This is kind’ve how our team is,” she said. “We laugh about everything. Sophie had 999 career points. It’s sad, but it’s just kinda humorous. (Ruggles actually finished her career with exactly 1,000.)
“I just feel like we all feel we couldn’t have done anything else out there. It’s just kinda a toss-up. We tried our best, we wanted a state title, but being together is enough for us.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Lenawee Christian’s Bree Salenbien, right, hugs her sister Dani after making the game-winning shot in Thursday’s second Class D Semifinal. (Middle) Bree Salenbien pops a shot as Sophia Ruggles (15), Hadyn Terwilliger (13) and Megan Nowak (4) surround her.
Record-Setting Airport Earns 1st Quarterfinal Trip, Set to Take On Reigning Champ
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
March 17, 2026
The greatest girls basketball season in Carleton Airport’s history hasn’t come without its adversity. When it hit, however, it only made the Jets stronger.
Tonight, Airport (24-2) – which already has set a school record for victories, broke the single-game Monroe County scoring record and won the first Regional championship in school history – will play a Quarterfinal against reigning Division 2 champion Tecumseh.
The journey to get here has been magical, said head coach Darrell Mossburg.
“Something just clicked with this group,” he said. “Their focus has been so much better. They watch film, they pay attention to scouting reports. They’ve learned you have to play every single possession and not worry about a missed shot or turnover. It’s next possession, next possession.”
The Jets have four seniors, all who have played several seasons on the varsity. Olivia Gratz is a 1,000-point scorer, but not the leading scorer on the team. That distinction belongs to junior Sophia Mator, who averages 17 points a game and has made 60 3-pointers on the season.
Senior Peyton Zajac is right behind them in scoring and has been a big contributor in a variety of ways.
“Peyton hasn’t been a great scorer, but there are other things she does that people don’t see on the stat sheet, getting our people in the right spot and playing defense,” Mossburg said.
Senior Jillian Baker has made perhaps the biggest strides since last season.
“Jillian has been playing extremely well. She’s scoring more,” Mossburg said. “Brooklyn Martin (sophomore) has been playing great. They provide the depth that you need this late in the year.”
Seven Jets have scored at least 100 points on the season. Airport averages a whopping 67.6 points per game, and put up a 103-point outburst against Huron League foe Milan in the first game in February. Airport has scored at least 70 points 12 times.
“The defense can’t key on just Sophia,” Mossburg said. “We have a lot of depth.”
Mossburg said this is one of those years that Jets faithful have been talking about for many.
“I know the program all the way down to the fourth grade,” he said. “We knew when this group were seniors, when we could mix in a couple of the other players, we knew they were going to be really, really good.”
In years past, he said, his players didn’t always have the same approach to practice. Now, everyone is on the same page.
“You have to practice like a winner, and every day you have to practice like a winner,” Mossburg said. “They finally grasp that concept. They’ve realized this is it. We have to come to practice every day and act like a winner.”
The team’s basketball IQ is off the charts, he noted.
Sophomore Mya Stahr’s dad and uncle were basketball stars at Flat Rock. Junior Katelyn Roecker is the daughter of a former head coach and basketball official. Freshman Brityn Duffy’s dad was Airport’s football coach and played baseball at Michigan State University.
Jillian Baker is the daughter of Luke Baker, who coached the Jets for much of the season when Mossburg had to step away for health reasons. Baker’s niece, Brenna, is a senior on the team as well.
“A lot of good basketball families,” Mossburg said. “They have the right basketball IQ and have been brought up the right way,”
Baker has been an assistant with Mossburg for five seasons and was the natural choice to step in when necessary.
“Luke has been fabulous,” Mossburg said. “He has been great. He does what’s right for the program. He puts his time in with film and scouting reports. Without him, I don’t know where we’d be.”
Mossburg has been around sports his entire life, graduating from Airport in 1988 and playing football at the University of Toledo including under coach Nick Saban. Mossburg’s dad was a longtime coach in Monroe County who had a fling in professional football.
Mossburg stepped away for the early part of the season but returned to the bench in February in an assistant coach-type of role. Even when he was in the hospital, he and Baker communicated daily. It was agreed that when the postseason began, Mossburg would be back as the head coach.
“I always told the kids that the coaches aren’t between the lines playing,” Mossburg said. “It’s been a smooth transition. No worries at all.”
Mossburg said he’s weathered the storm with his health. The focus now is on playing a Tecumseh team seeking to repeat as champion.
“We have to focus on us and not play to the scoreboard,” he said, “keep our focus on possession by possession, one shot at a time, one rebound at a time.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Carleton Airport’s Delaney Zajac (1) and Olivia Gratz (2) defend the post against Flat Rock. (Middle) Sophia Mator (22) drives toward the lane against New Boston Huron. (Photos courtesy of Monroe News.)