Nouvel Books Return to C Final
March 13, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Just about every team that reaches an MHSAA championship game and leaves with a runner-up trophy makes plans, rather immediately, to return the following season and finish the title run.
Easier said than done, obviously. But Saginaw Nouvel gave itself no other option.
After falling by just five points in last season’s Class C Final to Manchester, the Panthers will get another chance Saturday to finish with a win for the first time since 2008.
Nouvel defeated Gobles in Thursday’s first Semifinal at the Breslin Center, 47-35, to earn an opportunity to face St. Ignace for the championship at 4 p.m. Saturday.
“It was hard. We almost expected it of ourselves. It was implied,” said Nouvel senior center Rachel McInerney of making another Breslin run. “We came into every game knowing we were going to win, and not leaving until we had won.”
The Panthers have made good on that aspiration more times than not this season, moving to 21-4 Thursday after chipping away quarter by quarter to finish ahead by a comfortable margin and hand Gobles (26-1) its lone loss.
Nouvel’s four-point advantage during the fourth quarter was its largest of any period. Neither team set Breslin aflame from an offensive standpoint – Nouvel shot only 25 percent from the floor and Gobles just 29.
But the Panthers managed a 48-37 rebounding edge, and with three seniors, maybe a slight edge in comfort with the big stage as Gobles was making its first trip to the Semifinals in program history.
First-half performance hasn’t been a strength this season – but Nouvel gutted out a 21-15 halftime lead and never trailed over the final 27 minutes of the game.
Sophomore guard Laurel Jacqmain led the Panthers with 20 points, and three teammates scored at least seven. But McInerney – who averages nearly 12 per game – had just three points although she did grab a team-high eight rebounds.
“Our team depth is so incredible. When Rachel isn’t scoring, we have other people who can step up,” Nouvel first-year coach Mary Jo Skiendziel said. “I’m so proud of how they play and come together, and pick her up until hopefully she can start scoring again.”
Gobles senior Michaela DeKilder just about hit her averages with 15 points and eight rebounds to finish a career that included leading her team to a combined 46-4 record over the last two seasons.
Coach John Curtis mentioned after that this was the group the Gobles community expected to make the school's first trip to the Semifinals, and the Tigers came through after also winning their second Regional title ever a week ago.
“Going through the other teams I’ve been on, this was completely different,” DeKilder said. “Yeah, we all liked each other (before), but this team all loved each other, and that was completely different. It wasn’t just for yourself, it was for everyone on the team.
“Making it to Breslin was the biggest accomplishment we’ve ever made. For me, when I walked into the gym, it hit me hard.”
She’s one of only two seniors graduating from a team that also had seven sophomores.
“We told the girls, our big thing is we want to be a regular here,” Curtis said. “We see St. Ignace here, see Nouvel, and I told (DeKilder) in the lockerroom they laid the foundation.
“We return nine girls next year, and hopefully next year we’ll be in a situation that’s not just, ‘Oh, we’re here.” We might play a little bit better, and we might just handle this situation a little bit better.”
Click for a full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Saginaw Nouvel's Laurel Jacqmain (44) tries to get around a Gobles defender Thursday. (Middle) Nouvel's Lindsay Stroebel blocks the way for Gobles' Sharyena Hunt.
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Jacqmain drives the lane for two of her game-high 20 points for Saginaw Nouvel in its 47-35 Class C Semifinal win over Gobles. (2) Michaela DeKilder led Gobles with 15 points. Here she gets two first-quarter points on a nice feed from Haley Rock.
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.