Comeback Saints Win Class D OT Thriller
March 21, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – St. Ignace is used to driving three hours to East Lansing for the last weekend of girls basketball season. This marked the sixth straight they’ve made the trip.
But only one other team has come from so far back to win an MHSAA championship.
With good reason, St. Ignace looked like a 2014-15 runner-up in the making trailing undefeated Pittsford by 20 two minutes into the third quarter of Saturday’s Class D Final. But the Saints never saw it that way – and launched a comeback that tied the largest in MHSAA girls basketball championship game history.
The Saints needed overtime to finish the run, but edged Pittsford 64-60 to claim their third title in five seasons.
“A lot of heart. You have to come out there and give it your all, after halftime, and we tried to,” said St. Ignace junior Abbey Ostman, whose 31 points tied for 11th most in a girls MHSAA Final. “I felt like my teammates were trying really hard, and I felt I needed to step up to help them. I knew they were here to give it their all.”
And that’s what it took for the Saints to claim their fifth championship in historic fashion.
The comeback tied Detroit Cass Tech’s in the 1987 Class A Final, when it came back from 20 down in the third quarter to defeat Saginaw 52-51 at Grand Valley State University.
The Saints (22-5) trailed Pittsford 41-21 just two minutes into the third quarter after a first half that saw St. Ignace uncharacteristically miss all nine of its 3-point attempts and shoot only 32 percent from the floor. The Wildcats, meanwhile, made half of their shots and 5 of 11 from behind the arc.
But a half, and more, remained to play.
“I told (my players) they were going to make a run. We had to weather it, and we didn’t,” Pittsford coach Chris Hodos said. “I didn’t know if it would be Ostman or (Margo) Brown who would get hot. I just didn’t know. They have two senior players who have been here a lot of times, and they know how to win games.”
Brown was the hero of Thursday’s Semifinal, when the Saints came back from 13 down to beat top-ranked Frankfort on the wave of her seven straight 3-pointers during the second and third quarters.
She followed Ostman on Saturday with 19 points, and only one 3-pointer this time. But that shot pulled the Saints within 48-43 just 17 seconds into the fourth quarter – and four minutes later she was fouled on a made lay-up and added the free throw to cut Pittsford’s lead to 50-49.
“Margo’s got the biggest heart out of any player I’ve ever coached,” said St. Ignace coach Dorene Ingalls, who has led the Saints for 16 seasons. “It’s heart like that as a senior, to come out and have two comeback wins, down 20, and never give up.
“When she makes that (3), the kids start to believe, but the other team starts believing, ‘Uh oh. We’re in trouble,’ if they watched the other game’s second half.”
Ostman made the score even for the first time since the game’s second minute with a free throw that tied it 54-54 with 35 seconds left in regulation. Regulation ended that way after a Brown drive during the final seconds was stopped short.
Ostman scored the first two baskets of overtime, and Pittsford answered. But junior forward Natalee Lee then gave the Saints a 60-58 lead on two free throws – and after two Pittsford turnovers Brown added two free throws as well to make it a four-point game again with 44 seconds to play.
The Wildcats got no closer.
Ostman also grabbed 10 rebounds as the Saints earned the advantage overall in that category, 42-33.
Junior forward Laura Smith led four Pittsford scorers in double figures with 14 points; sophomore Jaycie Burger added 13, senior Morgan Dominique had 12 and sophomore Maddie Clark had 12 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
Ostman started in St. Ignace’s 2013 Class D Final win as a freshman, and Smith and guard Autumn Orm came off the bench as sophomores in that game. Senior center Sarah Smith came off the bench to play big minutes as the team finished Class C runner-up a year ago.
All of that experience surely paid off Saturday, and Saturday’s could pay off quickly for a Pittsford team graduating only two players after completing the longest tournament run in program history.
“We tried not to let the size of it and the pressure of the game get to us,” Burger said. “We learned what it’s like to play in front of all of these people, how not to get caught up in the surroundings, how not to get rattled when they make their runs. We learned how to stay focused and keep ourselves under control.”
Click for the full box score and video from the postgame press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) St. Ignace’s Abbey Ostman breaks to the basket with Pittsford’s Maddie Clark (10) defending. (Middle) Pittsford’s Morgan Dominique looks for an opening in the Saints’ defense, which includes Margo Brown (24).
Inland Lakes Stacking Successes as Expectations Continue to Grow
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
March 21, 2025
Now that another great girls basketball season is over, Daryl Vizina is spending more time off the court.
But the Indian River Inland Lakes coach is spending just as much time in court.
Vizina, who serves as probate judge in Cheboygan County, has been balancing coaching and estates since 2019. At the time he was first elected, he also was coaching middle school boys basketball for Inland Lakes.
He took over the girls varsity basketball program in 2020, assuming the helm of a team coming off a 3-18 season. And, the Bulldogs hadn’t won a District championship in three decades or a conference title in two.
Inland Lakes now has won three straight Division 4 District titles. The Bulldogs reached a Regional Final for second time in three years, falling to St. Ignace. And, after capturing the Ski Valley Conference trophy a year ago, the Bulldogs racked up 21 wins against just five very close losses this winter in finishing second in the league.
The Bulldogs and Vizina are looking forward to returning next winter with even higher expectations. They will graduate only two seniors this spring.
The culture has changed from expecting a few wins to winning every time the Bulldogs step on the court.
“Winning comes at a price,” said Vizina, who was riding a bus back from a middle school game at Central Lake as the election results were being tabulated for his first term on the judicial bench. “The expectations are a blessing in a lot of ways but they also cause a lot of strain on the program. The girls walk into the gym every day knowing we’re expecting to perform, expecting to play well, and it’s a different state of mind.”
Next year’s expected returnees include center Ava Belford, who just had a terrific freshman season. Junior forward Chloe Robinson, who averaged 15 points and eight rebounds, will also be back, as will defensive standouts Elizabeth Furman, a sophomore, and junior Mary Myshock.
Furman and Myshock are considered among the best defenders in the area. They combined to shut down or slow down other teams’ leading scorers and were key reasons the Bulldogs held opponents to fewer than 40 points in 18 games.
“I would expect we are going to be better next year,” Vizina said. “We’ve got some young players that if they (experience) the growth I anticipate I think they are going to become really great ball players, and we have a core of older players that will be returning that are high-level.”
But you never can be certain, Vizina noted.
“You don’t know how much time people are willing to put in during the summer,” admitted Vizina. “You don’t know about injuries and other things that happen outside our control. But if we take care of business and we have good health and keep on the trajectory we’re on, I would expect us to be really, really good next year.”
The Bulldogs were only a few points shy of an undefeated regular season as the largest margin of defeat was only seven points – to this year’s conference champion, Gaylord St. Mary. The Bulldogs played their conference rival twice, as they always do, and fell short in overtime in the other contest.
“Our four regular-season losses were by a grand total of 14 points,” Vizina recalled. “If you look at really how close to being even better than 21-5 we were, we had a lot of success.”
The Bulldogs have patterned their play after the Michigan State Spartans and longtime coach Tom Izzo. In particular, they like the Spartans’ transitional offense.
“I am a big Michigan State guy,” Vizina said. “They are such a threat to run on you the other (way).”
Pressure defense and rotating eight to 10 players most games – and sometimes all 11 rostered players – has been a point of emphasis for Vizina since his middle school coaching days.
“We want to guard people the minute they get off the bus,” Vizina said, while noting the Bulldogs’ previous history featured a sit-back zone style. “It was really a struggle to get the girls to play fast, both transitional offense and fullcourt defenses. This year is the first year they really started to buy into it.”
Other keys to the Bulldogs’ success are the establishment of more youth programs and the increase of the school’s top female athletes making basketball their number one sport.
“Most of our great athletes in the school play basketball, and with a lot of them it’s become their primary sport, and I think that’s so important because where you really make ground is in the summer time,” Vizina explained. “They can choose between softball or volleyball or going to the beach, or basketball.”
Inland Lakes started a third and fourth-grade team five years ago, and some of those players made big contributions to the varsity this year.
“With our youth programs, we’ve got girls starting to fall in love with basketball at a young age,” Vizina said. “They’re now coming in as freshmen playing good minutes on varsity, and it’s really rewarding to see that bear fruit.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Inland Lakes junior Mary Myshock (11) defends during a game against East Jordan this season. (Middle) Bulldogs coach Daryl Vizina directs his team during a timeout. (Below) Junior Chloe Robinson (12) puts up a jumper over a pair of defenders. (Photos by Jared Greenleaf/Cheboygan Tribune.)