Cousino Makes Name in Semifinal Debut
March 18, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – By at least some in the know, little was expected of Warren Cousino and Hudsonville heading into this MHSAA Tournament – both entered unranked.
Both then won Regional titles for the first time last week, and extended dream seasons with a Semifinal matchup Friday that was going to end with one getting to play for the ultimate goal for the first time.
By the end of the first quarter, Cousino – often mispronounced, but reads like a member of a family – left little doubt which team would get that opportunity.
Riding the powerful drives of junior guard Kierra Fletcher – whose 37 points tied for third most in MHSAA Semifinals history – the Patriots carried that early jumpstart to a 60-45 win and a return trip to East Lansing on Saturday.
“We came into this tournament and we knew we were sleepers,” Fletcher said. “We just wanted to prove everyone in the state wrong because half of Michigan calls our school ‘casino’ or ‘coosino,’ so we’re happy getting Cousino on map. I think we’ll go far … next year and years on because of this.”
Cousino will take on No. 4 Detroit Martin Luther King at noon Saturday in the Class A Final, facing a program seeking its sixth title and with much more experience at this late date in the season.
But it was impossible to tell the Patriots (22-4) were newcomers in their Breslin debut.
Fletcher made 14 of 20 shots from the floor as her team connected on 50 percent as a whole. She also grabbed nine rebounds and had five assists, driving and dishing to shooters on the perimeter who took advantage.
Freshman guard Kate McArthur added 13 points and made three 3-pointers, and freshman guard Mackenzie Cook made her only try from beyond the arc.
With Fletcher scoring eight points, Cousino as a team jumped to an 11-0 lead off the tip. Hudsonville sophomore Kasey DeSmit’s 3-pointer with 2:29 to play in the first quarter cut a 10-point lead to seven – but that was the last time the margin was in single digits.
“We set the tone early on as far as defensively, and it helps when you hit your first four shots you take,” Cousino coach Mike Lee said. “Kate set the tone especially from the outside range, and Kierra set the tone from the inside part of it.”
He could tell the afternoon might turn out well after his team brought a focused but light approach to the bus ride to Breslin.
Lee told his players that Hudsonville would be just as nervous. But Cousino seemed to turn any anxiety into intensity.
“We set that aggressive tone because we were faster and we had more athletes,” Fletcher said. “And I think our mindsets were just right at the time.”
The teams played nearly evenly after Cousino finished the first quarter with a 21-8 lead. Hudsonville took advantage of its size in the post, with 5-foot-10 senior forward Shaina DenBesten finishing with 15 points and nine rebounds and 6-0 junior center Chloe Guingrich adding 12 and 10, respectively.
Friday’s end was an incredible one for the Eagles (23-4), who were 2-19 two seasons ago and then 15-9 last winter.
“For us, we’ve been in situations where we’ve had to play from behind, but I don’t know if we’ve ever had a situation where we’ve been that far behind and had to come back,” Hudsonville coach Casey Glass said. “I’m just proud of these kids, because I think at the beginning of the year no one would have ever given us a chance to be right here.”
Probably not Cousino either. But Friday showed the Patriots have the ability to achieve more.
“For a little school like Warren Cousino to finally get over that hurdle,” Lee said, “I’m pretty proud today.”
The Girls Basketball Finals are presented by Sparrow Health System.
PHOTOS: (Top) Warren Cousino players celebrate at the end of their Class A Semifinal win Friday. (Middle) Cousino’s Kierra Fletcher (3) bursts into the lane while a Hudsonville player defends.
DEPSA Finishes Championship Beginning
March 18, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Rickea Jackson was the freshman last year, an all-stater in the making, but also the player getting triple teamed by opponents as the most immensely talented of Detroit Edison Public School Academy’s lineup.
On the sideline, coach Monique Brown almost couldn’t watch as her star kept getting “smashed” by opponents. But Jackson wouldn’t let her get down.
“I’d be looking to the side, and she said, ‘Coach, next year,’” Brown recalled Saturday after their season ended in a way neither could have fully expected. “She knew she had eighth graders who were going to be ninth graders who would be able to help her out.”
They sure did.
A program that had never won a District title before this winter won this season’s Class C championship edging Pewamo-Westphalia 46-44 with freshmen combining to score half of those points to follow Jackson’s game-high 21.
“Our dream has finally come true,” Jackson said. “(Coach) would get frustrated on the sideline. But when I was hugging her (Saturday), I told her, ‘I’ve got you, and I will always have your back – no matter what.’”
DEPSA finished this season 21-5, and as players piled onto each other in hugs and screams on the Breslin Center floor, there was only one question left to ask:
Was this just the first of celebrations to come?
In addition to playing numerous freshmen, the Pioneers blazed this trail without a senior – paced also by two juniors to go with Jackson, the lone sophomore and an all-state second teamer this winter.
“People are saying the season is over," said DEPSA freshman Gabrielle Elliott, who made the all-state first team, “but it’s just beginning.”
For these players, yes. But the program’s beginnings were far more humble.
DEPSA’s team is six years old, and Brown has led it from the start. The Pioneers have had winning records every season, but played the first with only six players – and finished their last game that winter, a District Final, with only three on the floor.
A loss Saturday wouldn’t have made this season less successful – something Pewamo-Westphalia coach Steve Eklund also emphasized to his players as they fell into heartache after just missing on a first championship as well.
DEPSA pushed its lead to nine just more than a minute into the fourth quarter, but P-W – which trailed for all but 14 seconds of the game when the score was tied – whittled the advantage down to one point with 1:19 to play.
The Pioneers drained most of the clock before P-W was forced to foul, and the Pirates looked to catch a break after a missed free throw – but a scramble that saw at least three players dive to the floor ended with the ball back in DEPSA’s hands. Another P-W foul and another Pioneers missed free throw, and the Pirates got the ball back for what looked to be a final attempt to take the lead – but a 3-point attempt from the corner was enveloped by DEPSA freshman Shaulana Wagner and tossed out of bounds.
“As I was going, I was just like, don’t make them score because then we’ll be down,” said Wagner, who has been working through a left ankle injury and seemed to re-aggravate it earlier in the half. “The energy from the crowd and my team picking me up, it gave me the energy to get that.”
The Pirates had one last chance then inbounding the ball with 3.4 seconds to play – but the pass from the corner never made it safely in, knocking off the leg of a DEPSA player and then off P-W on the deflection.
“They’re long. Their arms were everywhere,” Pirates junior Emily Spitzley said. “It was just a blur."
“Five seconds after that inbounds play I told myself I should’ve run the other one. It’s amazing a whole season comes down to just five seconds,” Eklund added.
“I just told the girls no regrets. You’ll have a lot of people come up and tell you what an awesome game it was. You’re going to get tired of saying thank you, but mean it.”
P-W will continue to be a force as well, as freshman Hannah Spitzley led this time with 17 points as her all-state second-team sister Emily had 15.
Jackson added nine rebounds and three blocks to her game-high 21 points, and Wagner had 12 points and two blocks.
“It definitely started off a couple years ago with our middle school program,” Brown said. “To get them to stay with me was a little tough, so when they came over (to high school), when they decided, yes, we will continue to stay here with you and continue this roll with you, we started in August running on the track and in the weight room. We were just trying to build our bodies because I knew we would have to go against seniors going off to college.
“When they committed themselves to that, I knew we had something. But not until the 9 o’clock p.m. practices on Friday nights – then I thought we might have a championship team. And the 5 in the morning practices … everyone showed up, and I commend the ladies for that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) DEPSA’s Rickea Jackson rises above a pair of P-W defenders to launch a shot Saturday. (Middle) Pirates junior Emily Spitzley drives around a Pioneers player during the Class C Final.