P-W Wins OT to Earn Historic Opportunity
March 21, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – Pewamo-Westphalia has played in three MHSAA Girls Basketball Finals. Three more teams have ended seasons in the Semifinals. Four more teams on top of those reached Quarterfinals and were done.
Total, that’s 10 teams that had made the final week of the season before this one. And now the Pirates have earned another opportunity to celebrate for all of them.
P-W will play for its first championship thanks to a 37-33 overtime win over Ypsilanti Arbor Prep on Thursday that also set the record for the lowest-scoring Semifinal in MHSAA girls basketball history.
Despite scoring six or fewer points during the second, third and fourth quarters, the Pirates outscored Arbor Prep 7-3 in the extra period to reach their second Final in three seasons.
“We’ve been here so many times before, and it’s frustrating when you just miss it by such a short amount,” P-W junior guard Ellie Droste said. “So this year being able to make it to the Finals again, and hopefully we can come out with the win … at practice every single day we work for these moments. We work on defense, we work on offense, we work on pressure situations. And that’s what got us here.”
The Pirates (26-1) will take on Flint Hamady in Saturday’s 4 p.m. Division 3 championship game at Calvin College.
Droste and Hannah Spitzley were freshmen on the P-W team that fell 46-44 to Detroit Edison in the 2017 Class C Final. Rachel Huhn was a sophomore sub on that team and then played 20 minutes as a junior in last season’s Semifinal loss to the Pioneers.
But the program’s drive for this opportunity goes back much farther than the last few years. The 1983 and 1984 teams both lost in Class C Finals – the 1983 Pirates to Hamady.
Arbor Prep (19-7) was last season’s Class C runner-up and playing in its fifth straight Semifinal.
“I was a 10-year-old boy back in 1984, 85, watching Carol Bogard Rademacher take teams to Western Michigan back at that time and fall short with great teams and great kids that were extremely well-coached,” Pirates coach Steve Eklund said. “It’s that hurdle we just haven’t been able to get over. So I’m excited for these kids, I’m excited for our community, I’m excited for all of these girls basketball teams we’ve had over the last 30 years that have been there and just not gotten over the hurdle. It just burns inside of me to go get that win Saturday, and we’re going to do everything in our power to go get that win for all of the teams from the past.”
To earn the opportunity, P-W had to hop a few hurdles Thursday. Arbor Prep featured one of the top freshmen in the state in guard Mya Petticord and 2018 all-state honorable mention Mahri Petree. And both teams struggled to get the ball through the hoop – P-W made 33 percent of its shot from the floor and Arbor Prep checked in at 29 percent, and combined they connected on just 7-of-33 3-point shots.
The Pirates ended the first quarter up 14-7. Arbor Prep stormed back to make it 18-18 at the break. For the game, the score was tied five times and the lead changed seven.
Droste scored to give P-W the first lead of overtime 28 seconds in, and she made two free throws to make the advantage 34-30 with 1:28 to play. Senior Karli Waddell came up with a huge 3-pointer for Arbor Prep to cut the lead to one with 33 seconds left on the clock. But Spitzley made 3-of-4 free-throw tries over the final 12 seconds, and Arbor Prep got off only one shot after Waddell’s 3-pointer.
“I think we lost to the state champion,” Arbor Prep coach Scott Stine said. “(I’m) disappointed we couldn’t score a few more points, questioning whether we should’ve been more aggressive defensively. That’s a coaching call … we’ll look at after today and decide if we should’ve been more aggressive, should’ve pushed the tempo.
“If you’d told me the score would be 34-30, I would’ve said it was 50/50 who would win the game. If you’d told me someone got to 50 points, I’d have said Arbor Prep would’ve won.”
Petticord led Arbor Prep with 14 points, and senior Kashyra Jackson had 10 and eight rebounds. Spitzley scored 16 to lead P-W, while Droste had 15 points and four assists. Junior Addison Bauer didn’t score a point and attempted just one shot, but grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
“My players made adjustments. Defensively after the first quarter, I thought they were extremely solid,” Stine said. “I thought we made things tough on them, just the same way they made things tough on us.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Pewamo-Westphalia’s Ellie Droste makes a move toward the basket during Thursday’s second Division 3 Semifinal. (Middle) Arbor Prep’s Alaya Mack seeks an opening.
Ewen-Trout Creek Right on Time in Advancing to 1st Final Since 1985
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 20, 2025
EAST LANSING — Conventional wisdom might say having a roster with no seniors, four freshman and two eighth graders indicates a team is years away from state title contention.
But Ewen-Trout Creek head coach Jacky Besonen didn’t need to abide by that conventional wisdom at the beginning of this season, and Thursday’s Division 4 Semifinal against Concord showed why.
For the first time in 40 years, Ewen-Trout Creek will play for an MHSAA Finals championship in girls basketball following a 34-24 win over Concord.
Advancing to their first championship game since the Class D Final in 1985, the Panthers will go for their first title since winning the inaugural Class D crown in 1973.
Not bad at all for such a young roster that seems to be way ahead of schedule.
“Last year we lost in the Regional Final to (eventual Division 4 champion) Ishpeming,” Besonen said. “We knew we could get to this point. As the year went on, the girls did a really good job of staying focused every game. We didn’t talk about it, but we knew it was a possibility to get to this point.”
Coming off a 47-37 win over St. Ignace in the Quarterfinals, Ewen-Trout Creek was able to draw some inspiration from the boys team that made it to the Division 4 Final in 2022.
“When our boys team went in 2022, I think that helped us a lot to be familiar with the atmosphere,” junior Emma Besonen said. “Seeing that they could do it like it was normal, we figured we could do it to.”
The Panthers survived a close, defensive grind of a game until pulling away late. A layup by junior Hannah Ferguson gave them a 27-24 lead with 5:18 remaining, and then a basket by freshman McKayla Basel with 1:24 left gave Ewen-Trout Creek a 30-24 lead.
A couple of defensive stops and four free throws by freshman Bree Besonen over the final minute wrapped it up for the Panthers.
Besonen scored 15 points, junior center Irelynd McGeshick had eight and 15 rebounds, and Basel added eight points for Ewen-Trout Creek (27-1).
Each team went 1 of 8 from 3-point range. The difference was that Ewen-Trout Creek got to the foul line more regularly. The Panthers made 9 of 13 free-throw attempts, while Concord connected on 1 of 5.
“That was definitely a grind,” Jacky Besonen said. “Concord was really tough to score against and tough to stop. We were able to grind it out at the end and take care of the ball enough to get some points.”
Junior Cieara Barrett scored nine points to lead the way for Concord (22-5), which like Ewen-Trout Creek is also a young team.
The Yellowjackets will graduate just two players – Lauren Trader and Grace Thorrez. The roster featured four freshmen and four sophomores.
“I told the girls before the game that no matter what the result is, as long as they play hard and leave everything out there, then I’m proud of them,” Concord head coach ArShawn Parker said. “That’s what they did tonight. They left everything out there and played extremely hard. That’s all I can ask.”
PHOTOS (Top) Ewen-Trout Creek’s Emma Besonen (22) directs the offense while Concord’s Cieara Barrett (12) defends Thursday at Breslin Center. (Middle) The Panthers’ Bree Besonen, right, walls off Bradie Lehman.