St Francis Stands Tall in Run to 1st Final
March 17, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Regardless of the winner, a team from Thursday’s first Class C Semifinal was going to finish this weekend playing in an MHSAA championship game for the first time.
And Traverse City St. Francis – especially 6-foot-4 junior Juliana Phillips – was able to reach a little higher for that opportunity during the opener at the Breslin Center.
The Gladiators will play on the season’s final day for the first time thanks to a 53-40 win over Niles Brandywine, which was making its first Semifinal appearance since 2010 and also was seeking its first title game berth.
Phillips stood six inches taller than anyone on Brandywine’s roster, and it showed in her 17 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots – as did her athleticism, which helped her to four steals and allowed her to alter a number of other shots she didn’t reach.
“Both of our teams were struggling a little bit from the outside, so we just played into our strengths,” Phillips said. “They didn’t have a lot of height on their team, so we tried to play a little high-low and in-and-out, and it just started going for us.”
A lot has gone well this season for the No. 3 Gladiators (26-1), who have won 24 straight and will next face top-ranked Ypsilanti Arbor Prep at 4 p.m. Saturday.
Phillips has been St. Francis’ second-leading scorer at 12 points per game, but took on more of the offense Thursday as leading scorer Annie Lyman played through an illness and only a week after spraining both ankles, one each in successive games.
Despite struggles shooting from outside, Lyman still finished with seven points and six rebounds. Phillips scored her first points two minutes into the game and put up nine during the first half as the Gladiators took a 22-18 lead into the break. She made 7 of 12 attempts for the game.
Phillips’ impact was equally significant on the defensive end. Brandywine made only 32 percent of its shots during the first half and 26 percent for the game – partly because the Bobcats didn’t convert as usual on 3-point shots, but also because Phillips made for an obstacle if they tried to get to the basket.
“She’s obviously a tremendous shot-blocker, and after you get a couple (blocks) that does get into your mind,” St. Francis coach Keith Haske said. “I’m guessing they haven’t seen a 6-4 girl that’s athletic like she is, all year, so it’s tough. And she does such a great job of blocking without fouling; that’s just a great gift that she has.
Brandywine this season made 212 3-pointers – third-most in one season in MHSAA history. But they connected on only 3 of 21 tries in the Semifinal, and even three or four more makes could’ve shifted the game dramatically.
Senior forward Makenna Hartline did make eight of her 17 shots from the floor to lead Brandywine (24-3) with 17 points, and she also grabbed eight rebounds. Senior guard Emily Erwin added 11 points.
“We knew we’d have to shoot the 3 today. When (they) have a 6-4 and 6-1 post player with that kind of size, and with our size, you have to be able to knock them down from the perimeter,” Brandywine coach Josh Hood said. “I think the effort was there. We had more offensive rebounds, more shot attempts; we did a lot of little things we had to do to win the game. (But) we need to shoot the basketball better. We were right there going into the fourth; it just didn’t work out.”
Sophomore Sarah Chouinard added 13 points and seven rebounds for St. Francis, and 6-1 senior center Lauren McDonnell had 10 points and 11 rebounds. The Gladiators led by six heading into the final period before breaking away on a final 16-9 run.
Haske has won 643 games and brought seven teams to Breslin over 32 seasons as a coach, and his Charlevoix girls finished Class C runner-up in 2004 and were one of five teams he’s taken to an MHSAA championship game.
Already the St. Francis boys coach, Haske added the girls varsity this winter and had a feeling early on he might be with them for a long run.
“This kinda fits our year. We won a state championship in cross country, the boys were semifinalists in football, and if you look at our sports right now we’ve got great athletes,” Haske said. “I told the kids at the first assembly this year that this was the year of St. Francis, just because of the collection of people we have. And I think this just goes to that. For whatever reason, this seems to be our year.
“We put a banner up in the gym if you make it to a state final game, so they were excited about that. They’ll live up on our ceiling of our gym forever, which is pretty cool.”
Brandywine will graduate a memorable seven-player senior class that has been part of a 91-7 run over the last four seasons.
“That says enough, 91 wins. Pretty special,” Hood said. “We’ve been (here) seven years, and I think we’re at 162 wins. So we have a lot of girls coming, but yeah, we lose a lot.
“When you look at our program, we’ve got a lot of kids that take pride in what we do. And we’ll be back.”
The Girls Basketball Finals are presented by Sparrow Health System.
PHOTOS: (Top) St. Francis’ Juliana Phillips celebrates Thursday’s Class C Semifinal win. (Middle) Brandywine's Emily Erwin shoots a free throw; she finished with 11 points.
'Double-Double Machine' Bowman Leading as Alanson Begins To See Success
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
December 6, 2024
Times are changing for Alanson’s girls basketball opponents.
Simply put, the Vikings are no longer an easy win.
And by the way, they are undefeated at this early-season junction.
Mother nature’s snow machine caused a postponement of Wednesday’s scheduled game against Traverse City Christian. Alanson’s “machine” is Gretchyn Bowman, the leading reason the Vikings are no longer an easy “W.” Bowman, a 5-foot-7 senior center making a move to shooting guard, is a threat to score double digits and grab as many rebounds every game.
Such a threat, she was labeled a double-double machine by a local newspaper as the Vikings entered the season.
“I think it is really cool that I am being called that – like I am a machine?” Bowman humbly asked with a little laugh. “That actually makes me real happy.”
It makes her team and her coach even happier. The results Bowman gets have led to many more victories than the Vikings have been accustomed. In fact, at one point early in Bowman’s career, the Vikings played through a 28-game losing streak. That ended with a win over Pellston in early December of the 2021-22 campaign.
It’s not the personal stats motivating Bowman, who will sign next week to play basketball for North Central Michigan Community College.
“I work really hard to try to put up as much stats as possible for the team for a win,” Bowman said. “I usually get double-doubles in points and rebounds, and I’ve been working toward my triple-double.”
Bowman would like to add double-digits in blocked shots to her game stats. She will leave steals to her younger sister, sophomore Hazel, the Vikings’ point guard.
“They are the dynamic duo,” said Alanson coach Nikki Leech. “It is really special when they get out there.”
The Vikings are 1-0 with the season tipping off this week. They were 5-22 last year. They won’t play again until Dec. 13 at Northern Lakes Conference rival Mackinaw City.
Alanson will go into the game with aspirations of winning a league title. The other conference foes are Wolverine, Boyne Falls, Ellsworth, Harbor Springs Harbor Light Christian, Burt Lake Northern Michigan Christian and Alba. Boyne Falls, Northern Michigan Christian and Harbor Light could be District opponents as well, along with Harbor Springs and Pellston.
“Even though we are small, we are definitely mighty and we are building momentum,” Leach said. “People used to think, ‘We are just playing Alanson. No big deal. We’re going to win.’”
Leech took over the Vikings’ girls basketball program a few weeks before the end of the 2021-22 season. Alanson’s tiny enrollment had led to eighth graders regularly starting for the varsity, and Bowman herself played as an eighth grader on the team. Leech’s focus has been on fundamentals, sportsmanship and confidence-building.
Her work has really paid off for the Vikings. Things are moving so far forward, Alanson now has a junior varsity girls team.
“That year we scored 200 points the whole season,” Leech recalled of her first season. “So going into the next year it was fundamentals, and we were really starting from the ground up.”
The focus on fundamentals were welcomed by all, especially Gretchyn Bowman.
“Gretchen did a really good job of embracing the fact we had to start with a foundation of the house before we built the team,” Leach said. “The best thing is all of these girls have been working together for the past four years. This year is finally the first year everything has clicked, and Gretchyn is a big part of it.”
The Vikings opened the season with a 28-27 win over Atlanta. Bowman had six points, six rebounds and five blocks. Her career stats to date are now 402 points, 376 rebounds, 134 blocks and 55 steals. She’s racked up the points despite scoring just 35 as a freshman as the Vikings struggled.
Bowman’s tenacious play has also led to foul struggles. It’s no secret the Vikings play better with her on the court. Her desire to block shots led to her fouling out in almost half of her freshman and sophomore games.
“There is no question that when Gretchyn is off the floor, we miss her because she just has the presence that kind of pulls the team together and she has the magnetism that just makes us successful,” Leach said. “The last two years it’s been a lot better, but the first couple of years it was like every other game she founded out.”
The coach and captain developed a foul-tolerance strategy.
“We’ve been working really hard on you can have four,” the coach said with a laugh. “We try to push like two (fouls) per half.”
Bowman, an all-conference selection last year, has been almost as much an assistant coach as she has a captain and player.
“She goes over if someone is struggling in practice and gives them tips on how she does it or how to move or how to dribble back and do a fade,” noted Leech, who also serves as Alanson’s athletic director. “She is good at reaching out and helping people but not making them feel bad about not knowing how to do it. She is a natural leader, and her presence on the court is definitely going to be missed next year.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Gretchyn Bowman, here against Atlanta this week, is expected to lead a much-improved Alanson girls varsity team this season. (Middle) Bowman shoots a free throw during the season opener. (Photos by Danielle Plastino.)