Saints Survive to Earn Repeat Try
March 13, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – St. Ignace senior Kelley Wright set an MHSAA record by being part of her 102nd high school basketball victory Thursday at the Breslin Center.
This had to be one of the ugliest – but could end up one of the most meaningful as well.
Wright and the Saints earned an opportunity to play for a second-straight MHSAA championship and third in her four season with a 34-30 Semifinal win over Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett.
St. Ignace improved to 24-2 this winter after finishing 27-0, 25-1 and 26-1, the last three seasons, respectively. Redford Bishop Borgess’ Aiysha Smith formerly held the record with 101 wins from 1994-97.
“All I know is I’ve lost four times. I never really thought about all the times I’ve won,” Wright said. “I play for a really good team, and I can’t take credit for that just because I moved up freshman year. All of us deserve it, and fortunately we’re all getting the benefits from it.”
Wright said after she expects to “feel sick and little nervous” before her team takes on Saginaw Nouvel in Saturday’s 4 p.m. Final.
Saints coach Dorene Ingalls joked about firing husband Doug as the team’s shooting coach after a performance that left both teams at least in some disbelief, if not feeling a little ill as well.
St. Ignace made a meager 19 percent of its shots from the floor. Liggett connected on 25 percent. Still, the Saints led by seven heading into the fourth quarter – but Liggett tied the score at 30-30 with 2:36 to play.
The Knights (20-4) had an opportunity to go ahead before St. Ignace senior Emily Hinsman gave the Saints back the lead with a put back with 1:37 to play. The teams then traded misses and turnovers as Hinsman stepped in to intercept a pass into the paint with 39 seconds. Junior guard Margo Brown made two free throws seconds later to push the lead to its final margin of four.
“It was frustrating at first. They’d just trap you as soon as you got the ball in your hands,” said Liggett junior Lauren Ristovski, who led the team with nine points. “They’d just jump out and trap you, making you throw the ball away.”
It’s not the kind of game Wright has been part of winning too often during the last four seasons and especially during this current 18-win streak. But the Saints made it go in part with 59-36 rebounding advantage, which included grabbing 28 on the offensive side. The Saints also had only 12 turnovers to Liggett’s 18.
Wright led the Saints with eight points and nine rebounds, while Hinsman grabbed 13 rebounds and sophomore center Abbey Ostman had seven points and 12 rebounds.
“Once we got back in January, our practices when we came back were intense. Just a different level,” Dorene Ingalls said. “Our team took over a different identity at that moment. Kelley and I were on the side, and (I told her) this is going to be really good.
“I’m glad we got an opportunity to show on Saturday that we’re better than we showed tonight. But you’ve got to give Liggett a lot of credit for that.”
St. Ignace also got a helpful and inspiring bucket late from junior Autumn Orm; she had four points total, despite being restricted to only 30-second spurts of playing time because of a neurological disorder that won’t allow her to be active for longer, Ingalls said. “She was getting deflections, getting rebounds. That was our inspiration. That’s why we won,” Ingalls added.
The Knights nearly pulled off the comeback despite all five starters playing all 32 minutes. The team’s rotation got down to that minimum in part because Liggett lost junior forward Haley Neuenfeldt to a knee injury in the final regular-season game.
But three of this season’s starters also started on the 2012 team that finished Class C runner-up. And they helped the Knights improve on last season’s run, which ended during the Regional.
“I expected for us to play hard enough to get through the District and do better than last year. That’s what we preached,” Liggett coach Omar Ahart said. “Once we got to the Regional Final, and got through that one, (I thought) someone has to win state. Why not us?”
Click for a complete box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) St. Ignace’s Emily Hinsman (34) and Liggett’s Kendall McConico battle for a loose ball Thursday. (Middle) Saints junior Autumn Orm (10) drives against Knights senior Angelia Evangelista.
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Autumn Orm takes a pass from Emily Hinsman and hits a jumper with 3:37 to play to give St. Ignace a 30-26 lead against Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett. (2) Nia Ahart of Liggett ties the game at 30-30 with 2:36 to go on a nifty runner. St. Ignace won the game, 34-30.
McLaughlin Building Meridian Legacy with Record Scoring, Unmatched Success
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
January 15, 2025
Halen McLaughlin wasn’t aware she had broken the Sanford Meridian career scoring record when her coach called timeout to make sure the accomplishment was properly recognized.
She just knew she had hit a layup and was about to go to the free-throw line for a chance at a 3-point play, and she wasn’t super thrilled about the interruption.
“She was like, ‘Why are you calling a timeout? Are you trying to ice me?’” Meridian girls basketball coach Tanner Smith said. “I was like, ‘No, you just broke the record.’ For me, that shows she’s more of a team-first kid. She just knew she had to score to help us.”
McLaughlin has been scoring to help Meridian win games for three-plus seasons, and now she’s done it more than anyone to ever wear a Mustangs uniform. As a junior, she became the first girls basketball player in school history to eclipse 1,000 points, and on Jan. 9 she passed Ron Fillmore for the most in school history regardless of gender. Filmore’s old record was set at 1,641 in the early 1980s, and McLaughlin scored 30 in a win against Pinconning on a night she needed just 10 to break it. Her total is up to 1,689 with more than half this season to play.
“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” McLaughlin said. “I couldn’t have done it on my own. … It means a lot (to pass Fillmore). I have a lot of respect for him and what he’s done. I was told that he played three sports and was really solid at all of them. It’s cool that I was able to accomplish something like that, but honestly for me it was so surreal because I’ve put in so much time and effort and energy into this game.”
McLaughlin is averaging 28 points per game for the Mustangs, who are 7-2 on the season. For her career, she’s averaging 21.4 ppg.
But more important for her, she has a career winning percentage of .886, as Meridian is 70-9 during her time. The Mustangs haven’t lost a Jack Pine Conference game during McLaughlin’s career, a win streak that has reached 48 games, and they’ve won 20 or more games all of her three full seasons.
That’s a remarkable record on its own, but even more so when considering her freshman season was the first winning season for the program since 2011-12.
“Coming into high school, I knew how their record was and I wanted to change that,” she said. “I’ve never been one that liked losing. I’m a big competitor, and I definitely wanted to get more wins than they had been. So much has changed, and I’ve been so happy to be a part of that, to help put in the work and be a part of that, and help show the younger players how hard work can help change a program and impact a game.”
Smith knew before McLaughlin enrolled in the high school that she had the potential, along with a strong Class of 2024, to lead a program renaissance.
“I saw her back in seventh grade,” Smith said. “They were double-, triple-teaming her, and she’s got her head up, making all the right passes.”
By that time, years of work had already been put in by McLaughlin, who began playing as a second grader and moved on to travel ball as a fifth grader after being noticed by Tim Kolnytis with Fast Break out of Midland. She’d eventually move to the Michigan Mystics, but credits Kolnytis for helping jump-start her career.
While her parents are not basketball players, she also credits them. Her mom coached her first rec team, and her dad has spent countless hours with her in their driveway, working on her game.
“I always say that’s where I get my handle, from playing on rocks,” McLaughlin said. “There were times where we were out there until 12 at night, 1 in the morning. I fell in love with it. There’s just something about the ball bouncing up to me. If I’m having a rough day at school or anything, I would go outside and play basketball. It was an escape for me, and I just loved it.”
As ready as she was when she got to high school, her first game still provided a rude awakening, as McLaughlin managed just six points in a 36-20 loss against Freeland.
“(Coach Smith) got into me right away,” McLaughlin said. “He said, ‘You’re scoring the ball. That’s what we need you to do.’ It hit hard, but I knew I was better than what I showed. Ever since then, it was a reminder to me that no matter what, you have to give it your all. That was definitely a turning point for me.”
It was a turning point for the program, too. The Mustangs won their next 18 games, and McLaughlin averaged 17.5 points per game as a freshman.
She’s only improved, averaging between 23 and 24 points per game both of her next two seasons before settling in near 30 this year. She’s also filling the stat sheet in other ways, averaging 4.5 assists, eight rebounds and 5.1 steals per game this winter.
“You’re not going to take the ball from her; she’s that good of a dribbler,” said Smith, who called McLaughlin a three-level scorer who can finish equally well with either hand at the rim. “I think one huge trait that people overlook is that she’s a phenomenal passer. … I think some people question her top-end speed, but to me, she’s like a comparison to Luka Doncic. She’s not going to blow you away with super speed, but she plays with pace and has a variety of moves and counters to get her to where she needs to be.”
McLaughlin is zeroing in on a college decision, with Lake Superior State and Wayne State as her finalists. When that announcement is out of the way, all her focus can turn to helping the Mustangs win a third District title during her four years. Her main goal, however, is to win the program’s first Regional title, something she and her teammates were a game away from accomplishing a year ago.
“Since I was a freshman in high school, I always wanted to have a Regional win on the board,” McLaughlin said. “All these achievements, all these awards are amazing, and I’m so blessed and grateful. But for me, it’s about winning. I want Meridian, these girls, to have a Regional win on the board. That’s the goal for me.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Sanford Meridian’s Halen McLaughlin puts up a layup against Hemlock during last season’s District Final win at Pinconning. (Middle) McLaughlin holds up the celebratory basketball she received after becoming her school’s all-time leading scorer. (Photos courtesy of the Sanford Meridian girls basketball program.)