Edison Marches On in Quest for 3-Peat
March 22, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – Detroit Edison’s mission has been pretty clear from the opening tip this season.
The Pioneers, off two straight Class C championships, opted up to Division 2 this winter and then defeated most of the best teams from the rest of the state – including three Division 1 semifinalists and the top-ranked team in Division 3.
While Haslett did give Edison its first tournament game this winter closer than 30 points in Friday’s last Semifinal at Van Noord Arena, the Pioneers pulled away early and prevailed 70-43 to make the final day of the season for the third straight winter.
They’ll go for their third straight MHSAA championship Saturday against Freeland in the 6:15 p.m. title game. It will be an opportunity to add one more achievement to a large stack over the last three seasons, and a crowning one for lone senior Rickea Jackson, who was named this year’s Miss Basketball earlier this week.
“(It’s) just to finish out strong with the challenges we overcame this year,” Jackson said. “Everyone knows who we are, so for us to have this huge target on our back and for us to make it this far, it just means we’ve been working hard in practice and we’re seeing our hard work pay off.”
Edison improved to 26-1 this season and 70-7 over the last three, its only defeat this winter to Ohio power Columbus Africentric 65-60. It will try to become the sixth school to win three straight MHSAA girls basketball championships, joining Flint Northern, Detroit Country Day (twice), Waterford Our Lady, Portland St. Patrick and Leland.
The Pioneers began with a little bit of a different starting lineup Friday, but it didn’t change up much in terms of results. A Jackson basket with 5:29 to go in the second quarter pushed the advantage to double digits for the first time and permanently.
Jackson finished with 26 points and eight rebounds, and junior Gabrielle Elliott – another member of all three Finals teams – added 21 points and four assists.
The unranked Vikings (19-7) had defeated three other ranked teams during this postseason to reach the Semifinals for the first time since 2015. But No. 1 Edison presented a strong challenge to their perimeter shooting and held Haslett to just 2-of-14 from 3-point range.
“Typically we’re a really good 3-point shooting team – we actually set a school record this year for the most 3-point field goals made – and I thought we got good looks. But with their length and athleticism they speed you up and those looks close pretty quickly,” Haslett coach Ross Baker said. “Maybe if we hit a couple of those early, we could’ve built a little more momentum. But … anything we’ve asked these girls to do, they do it 110 percent. I thought we handled their pressure. They’re really long. I thought we were really competitive on the glass – I think in the first half we were about even, but the second half we ran out of steam.”
Sophomore forward Skyla Nosek led Haslett with 16 points, and senior guard Ella McKinney added 15.
“Our eighth grade year was when Haslett was in the championship. And being honest, coming in freshman year I thought we’d make a tournament run too,” McKinney said. “We got a tough draw with East Lansing and lost in the first game, but ever since that we’ve had a little bit of fire to push ourselves in the postseason. This year we knew we had a special team, and being seniors we wanted to be leaders and to carry the team as far as we could. It was something really special, and we’ll never forget being here – and playing against a great team is pretty great too.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Edison’s Rickea Jackson rises above Haslett’s defenders to launch a shot during Friday’s second Division 2 Semifinal at Van Noord Arena. (Middle) Haslett’s Brooke Bradley works to get around Edison's Damiya Hagemann.
Fowler Takes Final Steps to 'Finish' Best in Division 4 for 3rd Time in 5 Seasons
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
March 22, 2025
EAST LANSING – Fowler’s Katie Spicer recalled all season the disappointment of losing in the Division 4 Semifinals to finish the past two.
She didn’t want to relive that emotion to close her final year in an Eagles uniform.
Spicer and her teammates ended their season on top again after downing Ewen-Trout Creek 53-29 Saturday morning in the Division 4 Final at the Breslin Center.
It was the third Division 4 title over the last five years for Fowler (27-2).
“That feeling of getting so close and not being able to finish, it hurts a lot,” said Spicer, who led Fowler with 17 points on 5 of 9 shooting.
“Obviously it felt great that we made it here, but it hurt falling short. So we used that a lot as motivation throughout the whole year. It helped a lot.”
It was another dominating performance for the Eagles, who won every MHSAA Tournament game by more than 21 points.
“These seniors have been locked in,” Fowler head coach Nathan Goerge said. “We talked about some preseason goals, and I had open communication about what we wanted. And the message all season has been ‘Finish’ because we knew where we got last year, and the girls didn’t like that feeling of losing in the Semis.
“Every time they broke a huddle, every time they left a locker room, it was always ‘finish’ and I'm just so happy that they were able to do that this year.”
Fowler forced eight turnovers during the first quarter, but led only 14-8 as Ewen-Trout Creek junior guard Emma Besonen scored all of her team’s points, including burying two deep 3-pointers.
Fowler went ahead by double digits (19-8) in the second quarter when Spicer lofted a perfect pass down court to Neelah O’Rourke for a lay-in.
A driving lay-up by freshman Bree Besonen during the waning seconds of the first half closed the gap to 23-16. The Besonen sisters combined to score 14 of the Panthers’ first-half points.
Fowler scored the first six points of the third quarter to push the lead to 29-16. Paige Thelen’s offensive rebound and put-back during the closing seconds gave the Eagles a commanding 42-19 advantage as they outscored E-TC 19-3 during the period.
“Very proud of the girls, especially in the second half,” Goerge said. “We had some defensive lapses in the first half, and to their credit they had some good looks and made some shots.
“The girls really picked it up and played our style of Fowler girls basketball, and I thought that was the difference in the second half. We played with so much more energy and did a fantastic job.”
Senior Elizabeth Hufnagel added 10 points, five rebounds and three steals for Fowler, while Brooke Weber also had 10 points.
“Coming back here and winning it my senior year is a great feeling,” Weber said. “I think our ability to run and stay focused and locked in really helped us. This is amazing.”
The Panthers (27-2) played in their first championship game since the Class D Final in 1985 and had no seniors on their roster.
“They have a place in history at our school, and I’m super proud of them,” Ewen-Trout Creek head coach Jacky Besonen said. “Fowler is very balanced, they are very physical and strong and their defense caused some problems for us tonight.
“I was crying during the ceremony, but they were not tears of sadness. They were tears of joy that I’ve been holding in for days because I’m just so happy that they got to experience this being here at the state championships. I told them many times that you are living a dream that a lot of little girls hope to get to.”
Emma Besonen led the Panthers with 13 points, including three 3-pointers, while Bree Besonen had nine points and Irelynd McGeshick finished with seven points and 11 rebounds.
PHOTOS (Top) Fowler’s Elizabeth Hufnagel drives toward the lane during her team’s Division 4 Final win over Ewen-Trout Creek on Saturday. (Middle) The Eagles’ Neelah O’Rourke (12) gets up a shot from the post. (Below) E-TC’s Bree Besonen (20) works to get to the basket with Fowler’s Selena Stump defending. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)