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.
Class D Final: Lakers complete 3-peat
March 17, 2012
EAST LANSING – In the first quarter it was Ava Doetsch. In the second, Lexie Robak.
And at the end of Saturday’s third quarter at the Breslin Center, when Waterford Our Lady was strengthening its grip on its next MHSAA Class D title, Tori Duffey came through.
Unlike their first two title runs, this season’s Lakers didn’t have a proven star like 2011 grad and current Oakland University freshman Lauren Robak to take every big shot. The time, they had many.
Our Lady’s 53-37 win over Athens capped a third-straight Class D championship season in the same way the Lakers had won all season – with help from a variety of contributors who took on changed and increased roles this winter.
“People ask us, ‘How do you get excited? You’re going there again.’ The second time they were still saying how is it still exciting,” said Doetsch, who has played on all three MHSAA champions. “Not a lot of people get to come and play under these circumstances. To be with the same people … it’s really exciting to me. For this game, I was more excited than my freshman year.”
Our Lady, which entered the tournament ranked just No. 7 in Class D, finished 23-4 this season. Over the last four, the Lakers have a record of 90-16, with four District and Regional championships to go with three wins at the MHSAA Finals.
Juniors Lexie Robak and Jessica Parry have joined Doetsch on all three championship teams.
“You don’t believe it the first time. You don’t feel like it’s real,” Parry said. “Who does that, three in a row? It’s a crazy feeling.”
It began to set in with some big shots by Robak at the end of the second quarter, and took solid hold after Duffey’s barrage to finish the third.
The Lakers led Athens by just a basket, 21-19, with 2:49 to play in the first half when Robak drained consecutive 3-pointers and another shot to push the advantage to 10 heading into halftime.
Athens (21-6) cut the lead back to eight before Robak hit a jumper and Duffey, a senior, knocked down two 3-pointers and nabbed a steal as Our Lady closed the third quarter up 42-26.
For the game, the Lakers made 56 percent of their shots from the floor including 6 of 12 tries from 3-point range. Athens made just 28 percent of its shots, and 2 of 10 from behind the arc.
“They had really good shooters. That’s something we haven’t seen a lot of this season,” Athens sophomore guard Payton Wood said. “Some teams have had definite 3-point shooters than we knew we had to stay on. But they are just all-around a great shooting team, and (that’s) just something that took over the game.”
Duffey and Doetsch both scored 13 points to lead Our Lady. Doetsch had nine points, two rebounds and a steal in the first quarter to help the Lakers keep pace before beginning their break-away in the second. Robak finished with 12 points.
“Instead of having to always go to one player, we had five or six we always get the ball to, to count on them to score that lay-up or basket,” Doetsch said. “The other team didn’t know who we were going to pass it to, and that made it a lot more fun … because no one knew who we were going to get the ball to to score.”
Athens – making its first MHSAA Final appearance – had just two seniors this season. Sierra Stevens capped her high school career with a game-high 15 points.
Click for the box score. Watch the game and both teams' postgame press conferences at MHSAA.tv.
PHOTOS: (Top) Waterford Our Lady celebrates its third-straight Class D championship. (Photo courtesy of Terry McNamara Photography.) (Middle) Athens guard Leo Plaisir drives around Our Lady guard Anna Robb. Plaisir scored four points Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)