Plymouth Christian Academy Taking Historic Run to Season's Final Day
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
March 17, 2022
EAST LANSING – When the MHSAA Tournament began, Plymouth Christian Academy senior point guard Anna Fernandez had never won a District game in her high school career.
Three weeks later, Fernandez and her teammates will play for the program’s first Finals championship.
The Eagles continued their storied postseason run Thursday night with a 50-39 win over Adrian Lenawee Christian in a Division 4 Semifinal at the Breslin Center.
Plymouth Christian will meet Fowler in Saturday’s Division 4 Final at 10 a.m.
Fowler turned back a comeback attempt from Baraga to win, 51-45, in the first Semifinal.
“Ever since last year and losing in Districts, I didn’t want to lose like that again and get out early,” said Fernandez, a four-year varsity player who scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
“The state finals were always in the back of our minds, but we had to play it one game at a time. Our motto has been that we’re not guaranteed another game, so we have to play all out each game. We definitely thought we could do this, and getting here was our goal.”
The Eagles achieved their goal by beating the Cougars for the second time this season.
Plymouth Christian defeated Lenawee Christian 58-56 late in the regular season on a buzzer-beater from junior Morganne Houk.
“We had high hopes of coming in here and playing great defense because we had some success in our last game against them defensively,” Eagles coach Rod Windle said. “We were excited about the match-ups, and we thought we could contain them and make plays out there.
“Our offense clicked well in the first half, and then we committed to defense in the second half.”
Houk was a major factor in the rematch as well and finished with a game-high 19 points. She also had eight rebounds and four assists.
“She’s our energizer and gets from free throw line to free throw line in a blink of an eye, and all of a sudden has points on the board,” Windle said. “She’s the cheerleader on the floor for our players, and her play tonight was inspiring.”
The Eagles jumped out to a 19-10 lead by the end of the first quarter, and maintained a 23-18 advantage at the half despite managing only four points during the second period.
Lenawee Christian would get as close as five points (39-34) in the fourth quarter before Houk scored on a jumper and Madison Yeager followed with a 3-pointer to put PCA up double digits.
The Cougars (19-6) shot just 29 percent from the field and were led by Cara Anderson’s 12 points. Kylie Summer added 10.
“It was a hard-fought game and I give Plymouth Christian a lot of credit for playing well,” Lenawee Christian coach Jamie Salenbien said. “The first quarter was rough, and you can’t let good teams jump on you like that, but then we locked down and went into the locker room with some momentum. They were able to hit some big shots in the second half and make some timely free throws.”
Lenawee Christian, which won the Division 4 title in 2019, will graduate six seniors.
“It’s hard to lose, but I’m very proud of this group and they have cemented their legacy at this school and in the community,” Salenbien said. “And it’s because of their hard work and commitment as a whole group from day one."
PHOTOS (Top) Plymouth Christian Academy celebrates during Thursday’s Division 4 Semifinal win at Breslin Center. (Middle) Lenawee Christian’s Isabelle Kirkendall (33) walls off PCA’s Morganne Houk. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
To Get Ahead, Heritage Gets Defensive
March 16, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – This season, the Saginaw Heritage girls basketball team had, as junior Shine Strickland-Gills called it, an “epiphany.”
And it’s made the difference between another 20-win season and getting a chance to play for the Class A championship.
Expectations have been high the last few seasons for a Hawks group that’s shown plenty of ability against big-time opponents, but never put it entirely together for an MHSAA Tournament run.
After Friday’s 46-28 Semifinal win over Grosse Pointe North, Heritage finds itself one more victory from making good on all of that potential.
“It was a disappointment (last year) because we lost in second round Districts, and we were supposed to win,” Strickland-Gills said. “We didn’t because we really didn’t come out hard, and I feel like we’ve done what we’re supposed to do. We’ve actually listened and taken heed of what (coach Vonnie DeLong) has told us. And we’ve actually applied it in a game, and it really works.
“We had an epiphany.”
Heritage will face East Lansing in Saturday’s 12:15 championship game at Calvin College’s Van Noord Arena.
A Class A title would be the Hawks’ first since 2002 and cap a fourth straight season with at least 20 wins – but after Heritage was eliminated during the first week of the tournament a year ago.
All but four of the team’s points Friday were scored by four players with lots of experience, but who also had experienced last season’s disappointment.
Junior Mallory McCartney had 13 points, while Strickland-Gills added 12, seven rebounds and four steals. Senior Jessica Bicknell had eight points and three steals, and junior Moira Joiner had nine points, five rebounds and three steals.
Joiner scored six points below her average and had only a point during the first half. But she also defended Grosse Pointe North star junior Julia Ayrault –holding her to 13 points, six below her average as well.
“My (coaches) go a great job scouting and really let us know what we have to do,” Joiner said. “For me, if I’m guarding the best player, I need to look at film and know what their tendencies are. Like Julia, she likes to drive and pull up, or she’ll shoot the long 3 so I have to get my hands up. It’s just a lot of paying attention.
“It was pretty obvious today; I didn’t have the best game I could have. But I knew if I could keep Julia to a certain amount of points, then my team could pick it up on the offensive end.”
Despite shooting only 38 percent from the floor over the first 16 minutes, Heritage (26-1) led by three after a quarter and nine at halftime. The Hawks kicked into gear during a 17-6 third quarter run as they drilled 57 percent of their shots and pulled away.
The 6-foot-2 Ayrault, who already has committed to sign with Michigan State, had nine rebounds and four blocks to go with her 13 points. But North (20-6) couldn’t recover from 23 turnovers, and as a team put up 18 fewer shots than the Hawks.
The 28 points were a season low by 13, but the experience should prove valuable for a team graduating only one senior.
“This whole season has been pretty much a gift to us. When we started, I didn’t think we were a very good basketball team,” said North coach Gary Bennett, who completed his 35th season. “Some time in January, things started to click a little bit and we started to become a better basketball team. And I mean a team in the truest sense of the word – we have a superstar and we’ve got role players, and the role player know they need the superstar and the superstar knows she needs the role players. And that’s kinda been our season.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Saginaw Heritage’s Madison Camp, left and Mallory McCartney provide a pair of obstacles between Grosse Pointe North and the basket Friday. (Middle) Heritage’s Moira Joiner defends North’s Julia Ayrault.