Heritage Girls Pushing for Breslin Return
January 6, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Saginaw Heritage girls basketball coach Vonnie DeLong doesn’t start a senior this season and has three freshmen playing prominent roles.
But she also has three starters back from the lineup that made the Class A Semifinals a year ago – and the Hawks' sights are set on contending again this March.
Heritage is the Applebee’s Team of the Month for December thanks to a 6-0 start that included a key Saginaw Valley League North win over Midland and ended with a 39-29 victory over reigning Class B champion Detroit Country Day in the marquee game of the Motor City Roundball Classic.
The Hawks finished 22-4 last season and 16-5 in 2013-14, their first under DeLong, who was part of three MHSAA championship teams as a player at Carrollton from 1979-1982 and coached Saginaw Arthur Hill’s Class A runner-up team in 1998. Heritage improved to 7-0 on Tuesday with a 38-10 win over Mount Pleasant and has won 13 of its last 14 games dating to last season.
“The expectations from the kids’ perspective are very high,” DeLong said. “They want to win. They want to get back to the Breslin. With as many kids as we had coming back, and with what we added, it’s a realistic goal for them – but they know it's going to be hard to do.”
Heritage has beaten all of its opponents but one by at least 10 points, downing Flushing by only nine, 36-27, on opening night. Five of seven players who saw the floor in the Semifinal loss to DeWitt last season are back, including returning starters Jaela Richardson, Haley Brefka and Courtney McInerney. Richardson is a sophomore; Brefka and McInerney are juniors. Senior center Jenna Falkenberg and sophomore guard Jessi Bicknell both also played at Breslin last March.
But the lineup, while experienced, is paced in scoring by a pair of freshmen. Mallory McCartney and Moira Joiner lead the balanced offensive effort averaging 9.6 and 8.3 points per game, respectively, with Joiner adding 7.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and three steals per game and McCartney grabbing 2.5 steals per contest.
Richardson grabs 7.2 rebounds to go with 7.3 points per game, while Bicknell averages 6.4 points and 2.5 steals and McInerney grabs six rebounds per game.
The Hawks also are giving up only 23 points on average. No opponent has scored 30. Country Day's 29 points were their fewest since scoring 30 in a Quarterfinal loss to Flint Powers Catholic in 2013.
“Country Day is so good, and every year; they’ve just been phenomenal,” said DeLong, who also coached at Saginaw Valley State University and played at Notre Dame and Michigan. “For our kids to get a win like that, against such a good team, it’s huge. Especially for the young kids.”
Past Teams of the Month:
November: Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard volleyball – Report
October: Benton Harbor football – Report
September: Mason and Okemos boys soccer – Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Heritage's Jessi Bicknell pushes the ball upcourt with Jaela Richardson calling for the pass. (Middle) Heritage got past Country Day, 39-29, to cap December. (Photos courtesy of Chris Bicknell.)
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.)