Plan Plays Out Well for Cousino Standout
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
December 1, 2016
WARREN – As a teacher at Carter Middle School, Mike Lee, the varsity girls basketball coach at Warren Cousino, was approached by one of his students who made a rather boisterous statement.
“There was this girl,” Lee said. “She was in the sixth grade and she came up to me and said, ‘I’m going to play for you as a freshman.’ No, I didn’t believe her. She was long, but she was a bean pole.”
Intrigued, Lee went to watch this skinny 10-year-old play and was impressed but not yet sold.
This girl is now one of the state’s best basketball players. Her name is Kierra Fletcher, and she won the hearts of everyone in the Warren Consolidated School system – which includes high schools Cousino, Mott and Sterling Heights – by leading the Patriots, and the Warren district as a whole, to their first girls MHSAA Finals basketball title.
By the time Fletcher was in the eighth grade, Lee knew Fletcher’s bold statement would come to fruition. She was that good.
“She was still skinny,” Lee said. “It wasn’t until her junior year that she bulked up.
“Obviously, she’s talented. I am pretty lucky to have someone like Fletch. But it’s what she does for the other players that makes her special. She makes them better. She puts them in spots to succeed. They want to play faster. There’s a higher energy. On the defensive side, you know she’s out there, getting steals and such. The others feed off of her.”
Fletcher, 16, is 5-foot-9 and a bundle of energy. And that energy was there from the start.
“I was out in (first grade) early,” Fletcher said. “My mom said I was talking all of the time. The teachers (in preschool) told her I was way ahead of the other kids.”
Born and raised in Detroit, Fletcher attended Dove Academy until the third grade, when her family moved to Warren. She attended Siersma Elementary within the Warren Consolidated district and then went to Carter.
Fletcher was also ahead of the curve when it came to basketball. She started playing competitively in the Warren recreation leagues, but before that she got the itch playing in her grandmother’s driveway.
“She had a basket in her backyard,” Fletcher said. “I would play by myself, and sometimes I’d play with an older cousin and my dad (Anthony Fletcher). My dad used to be really good. He played in college and he could have gone pro, but he had a bad heart and had to stop playing.”
Fletcher began playing AAU basketball in the fifth grade. It took less than a week for the coaches to move Fletcher up to play with the sixth grade team. That was nothing new for her. And she said it’s one reason why she continued to improve.
“I had been playing up for a while,” she said. “I always played with older kids. They had more experience, and I learned from it. What I learned was it doesn’t matter how old or how big you are. I’d play well and they wouldn’t know I was younger, and they’d tell me to keep playing and that made me feel good.”
Fletcher was on the bench for her first varsity game as a freshman, but she didn’t stay there long. Lee put her in the game in the first quarter, much to Fletcher’s surprise.
“I’ll never forget it,” she said. “It was against Romeo, and it was our home opener. I was nervous. I didn’t want to mess up.”
That nervousness and her coming off the bench didn’t last long. Soon she was in the starting lineup gaining more confidence as the season progressed.
As a sophomore she was one of the top players in the Detroit area, as she averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds per game. That fine season placed her in at least one publication’s 2015-16 preseason top 25 (State Champs! ranked her No. 14), and soon everyone who followed the sport knew about her.
Fletcher averaged 23 points, 10 rebounds, 9.4 assists and 5.5 steals as Cousino (23-4) made its run on the way to eventually defeating Detroit Martin Luther King, 67-65, in the Class A Final to complete a remarkable season for the Patriots and Fletcher.
Fletcher saved her best for last, as she had 37 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the Semifinal (a 60-45 win over Hudsonville), and had 27 points, eight rebounds and five assists against King.
“I love to compete,” she said. “I love the friendships. I’ve met a lot of people playing basketball. Sports teaches you discipline, in the way you live life. Sports has a way of bringing people together.”
Fletcher turned down a number of other college scholarship offers, including one from University of Michigan, to sign with Georgia Tech. She has a 3.7 grade-point average and plans on majoring in public policy and working for the U.S. Government.
“I also have aspirations of playing professionally,” she said. “Overseas or in the WNBA.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Kierra Fletcher (3) poses for a photo with her teammates after Warren Cousino won last season’s Class A championship. (Middle) Fletcher brings the ball up the court during her team’s Semifinal win over Hudsonville.
D3 Preview: Welcome Back, Contenders
March 20, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Three of this weekend’s Division 3 semifinalists have become regulars checking in for the final rounds of the season.
The fourth semifinalist hasn’t made it this far in more than 40 years – not since it became one of the MHSAA’s first girls basketball champions, pre-dating the other three teams’ successes.
We’ve become quite familiar with Flint Hamady, Ypsilanti Arbor Prep and Pewamo-Westphalia especially this last decade. Lake City, meanwhile, hasn’t played this late in the season since 1976 – when it won Class D in the fourth season of MHSAA-sponsored girls hoops.
Division 3 Semifinals – Thursday
Lake City (22-2) vs. Flint Hamady (20-5), Noon
Ypsilanti Arbor Prep (19-6) vs. Pewamo-Westphalia (25-1), 2 p.m.
Division 3 Final – Saturday, 4 p.m.
Tickets cost $10 per pair of Semifinals and $10 per two-game Finals session (Divisions 3 and 2). All Semifinals will be streamed live on MHSAA.tv and viewable on a pay-per-view basis. All four Finals will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Detroit and streamed live on FoxSportsDetroit.com and the FOX Sports app. Free radio broadcasts of all weekend games will be available on MHSAANetwork.com.
Below is a glance at all four semifinalists. Click on the name of the school to see that team’s full schedule and results from this season. (Statistics are through teams' Regional Finals.)
FLINT HAMADY
Record/rank: 20-5, No. 10
League finish: Second in Genesee Area Conference Red
Coach: Keith Smith, 16th season (345-50)
Championship history: Three Class C titles (most recent 2010), two runner-up finishes.
Best wins: 40-35 over No. 2 Hemlock in the Regional Final, 45-36 over New Lothrop in Regional Semifinal, 50-42 over Division 2 honorable mention Corunna, 44-39 over Detroit Cass Tech.
Players to watch: Treshondra Williams, 6-1 sr. F (11.2 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 3.2 spg); Aryana Naylor, 6-2 jr. C (12.6 ppg, 10.8 rpg, 2.2 bpg).
Outlook: After a season away, Hamady is back at the Semifinals for the fourth time this decade and after playing a regular-season schedule filled with larger opponents. All five losses came to Division 1 or 2 teams, and Hamady avenged its defeat against Corunna. Williams and Naylor give the Hawks an impressive frontcourt, while 5-9 junior Xeryia Tartt (15.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 3.8 apg, 2.8 spg) leads in scoring and senior guard Jordan McKeller (5.6 apg) is the top distributor.
LAKE CITY
Record/rank: 22-2, unranked
League finish: Second in Highland Conference
Coach: Bill Tisron, fifth season (83-30)
Championship history: Class D champion 1976.
Best wins: 50-46 over Ishpeming Westwood in Quarterfinal, 49-35 over Oscoda in Regional Semifinal, 57-42 over Morley Stanwood.
Players to watch: Rylie Bisballe, 6-2 jr. F (16.8 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 2.7 bpg); Makayla Ardis, 5-5 sr. G (12.6 ppg, 3.7 apg, 3.7 spg).
Outlook: Lake City is back at the Semifinals for the first time since its championship season, having fallen only to league rival Manton (twice) this winter. The Trojans have won at least 12 games all five seasons under Tisron and two District titles, and the Regional title was also the program’s first since that last long run four decades ago. Ardis earned an all-state honorable mention last season, and she and Bisballe get additional scoring help in part from sophomore guard Olivia Bellows (10.2 ppg) – who with Ardis had combined for 50 3-pointers entering the week.
PEWAMO-WESTPHALIA
Record/rank: 24-1, No. 1
League finish: First in Central Michigan Athletic Conference
Coach: Steve Eklund, 10th season (205-36)
Championship history: Class C runner-up 2017, 1984 & 1983.
Best wins: 43-19 over No. 4 Niles Brandywine in Quarterfinal, 35-33 over No. 8 Kent City in Regional Semifinal, 69-41 over Detroit Country Day, 45-25 over Division 1 No. 4 Midland Dow, 56-26 over New Lothrop.
Players to watch: Hannah Spitzley, 6-0 jr. F (13.9 ppg, 38 3-pointers); Ellie Droste, 5-8 jr. G (13.9 ppg, 39 3-pointers).
Outlook: The Pirates were runners-up in Class C in 2017 and made the Semifinals in 2018, and arguably have been the favorite in Division 3 all year with only a loss to Division 2 power Detroit Edison. Spitzley and Droste both earned all-state honorable mentions a year ago – Droste hits an outstanding 61 percent of her shots from the floor, including 47 percent from 3-point range. Senior guard Rachel Huhn is another perimeter ace – she had 38 3-pointers heading into the week while making 41 percent from beyond the arc.
YPSILANTI ARBOR PREP
Record/rank: 19-6, unranked
League finish: Does not play in a league.
Coach: Scott Stine, second season (40-12)
Championship history: Class C champion 2016, two runner-up finishes.
Best wins: 59-31 over honorable mention Adrian Madison in Quarterfinal, 59-55 over No. 5 Maple City Glen Lake, 54-40 over Division 2 No. 10 Muskegon Oakridge, 48-46 over Division 2 No. 9 Harper Woods Chandler Park, 61-46 over Dearborn Heights Crestwood.
Players to watch: Mya Petticord, 5-8 fr. G (19.3 ppg, 47 3-pointers, 3.3 apg); Mahri Petree, 5-11 sr. F (13 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.0 apg).
Outlook: Arbor Prep has made the Semifinals five straight seasons and finished champion or runner-up the last three (in Class B in 2017). The Gators have won 10 of their last 11 games, the only defeat in overtime to Chandler Park. Petticord was highly touted entering high school and has made good on those expectations. Petree, who earned all-state honorable mention last season, also provides plenty of boost, and 6-foot senior forward Kashyra Jackson is averaging 8.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game coming off the bench.
PHOTO: Lake City’s Olivia Bellows make a move toward the basket during her team’s Tuesday Quarterfinal win over Ishpeming Westwood. (Photo courtesy of Cadillac News.)