1,000-Point Pair Pacing Another John Glenn Contender
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 3, 2021
Abi Tarrant knew how close Carly McCrum was to 1,000 career points and wanted to make sure her Bay City John Glenn teammate’s accomplishment was celebrated.
On Feb. 17, when McCrum achieved the milestone in a victory against Alma, the John Glenn fans in attendance cheered the moment while waving homemade signs, which they had been carrying thanks in large part to an effort spearheaded by Tarrant.
“Last year, I broke the (school career) rebound record, and all of the student section, everybody made posters, and it was a huge moment for me,” Tarrant said. “I knew she was getting her 1,000 points that week, so I wanted her to have the same type of environment. Even though the student section wasn’t there, she could still have that kind of energy from the crowd when she hit it.”
It was only after the celebration for McCrum subsided that Tarrant realized just how close she was to the same milestone: 16 points.
“I knew exactly where she was because I had been planning the poster thing,” Tarrant said. “(One thousand points) kind of snuck up on me. I didn’t know I was that close to her. But in the game it happened, I knew.”
Tarrant achieved her own milestone the next time out, a John Glenn victory on Feb. 19 against Birch Run, giving the Bobcats a pair of 1,000-point scorers in the same class.
McCrum now sits at 1,053 career points and Tarrant has 1,046 as they have led the Bobcats to a 7-1 start to the season and a top-five ranking in The Associated Press Division 2 poll. Their lone loss came in double overtime against Frankenmuth, another top-five team.
“I just thought it was a really cool experience,” McCrum said. “We’ve both been on varsity since our freshmen year, and we’ve played with each other on the same travel team, so it was very cool that we hit it in the same week. We both feel like this team is really special, and our goal is to win a state championship.”
Tarrant and McCrum became the seventh and eighth players in school history to hit the 1,000-point mark. It’s the second time John Glenn has had classmates reach the milestone, joining 2016 graduates Jenai LaPorte (1,547 points) and Cassidy Boensch (1,403). Boensch did play her first two seasons at Au Gres-Sims.
“I’ve been really spoiled,” John Glenn coach Cory Snider said. “Three of those 1,000-point scorers (LaPorte, Boensch and 2017 graduate Kalle Martinez) were all on the same team. The five kids I’ve had (reach 1,000 points) have all been on the same teams, so that’s a really unique situation. You don’t hear of that a whole lot. They make me look way smarter than I am.”
McCrum and Tarrant are both four-year varsity players for Snider, and for McCrum, it was clear early on that she would become another of the school’s great scorers. She was the team’s leading scorer during her freshman (14 points per game) and sophomore (14.2) seasons.
“Carly has been the steady, calm influence on our team for four years,” Snider said. “It’s pretty incredible to be able to come in as a freshman and give us (14.2) points per game when she was (the focus) on everybody’s scouting report her freshman year.”
McCrum said it was a role she was comfortable with, as she had taken it on through middle school as a travel player.
“It wasn’t something really new for me,” said McCrum, a 5-foot-10 guard who has signed with Ferris State. “Probably my freshman year, I did feel some pressure and it got in my head, but it’s gotten a lot better, and I’ve gotten more comfortable with that.”
While she’s thrived in that role, and has established herself as a strong outside shooter, McCrum would rather be the one setting up teammates.
“She has such a high basketball IQ,” Snider said. “She’s more of a true playmaker than a natural scorer. She has a super high basketball IQ and loves to find the open player. She enjoys making an assist as much as she enjoys scoring a basket.”
While McCrum was filling up the scoresheet early on, Tarrant had to find a different way to make an impact for the Bobcats. Despite her size – she's 5-7 now – that wound up being rebounding.
“Freshman year, I was just kind of in the right place at the right time, and I think that’s a lot of it,” said Tarrant, who is committed to Hope College. “A lot of those are rebounds that the posts don’t want to get, like running out of bounds. I would sneak up behind people to get them – I just always find myself somewhere near it. My dad told me that if you’re not going to score, then you have to do something. I guess I just picked that.”
Tarrant has done that better than anyone in school history, racking up 732 career rebounds.
“She just played with such a high motor, and she had such a desire to be really good,” Snider said. “Her growth as a player has been incredible from her freshman year to now as a senior. It’s more growth than I’ve seen from any other player. It’s unbelievable.”
Tarrant’s scoring picked up in a big way a year ago, as she averaged 19.4 points per game, setting a junior-year record for points at John Glenn.
“I think we molded more as a team,” Tarrant said. “We started playing a lot better together. At first, I think it was hard. Freshman year, Carly was the best player through and through, then sophomore year I stepped up my game a little bit. Junior year, we figured out how our games complement each other. This year, we’re playing amazing together.”
With a strong supporting cast surrounding them, McCrum and Tarrant hope to take John Glenn back to the heights it reached not long ago. The Bobcats were a Class B semifinalist in 2016 but have had their season ended by Freeland every year since, including in the District Final the past three seasons.
But they feel this could be the year they add some team trophies to the individual successes they’ve been able to rack up.
“It would mean a lot,” McCrum said. “Abi and I have been on the same team since freshman year. Some of the girls, we have been together since sophomore year. We’ve all been together for a long time. First of all, we want to win Districts. We’ve lost three years in a row to Freeland. I think it would be so awesome. We’ve all been together for so long, and we’ve always talked about going so far.”
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) Bay City John Glenn’s Abi Tarrant, left, and Carly McCrum make strong moves to the hoop against Alma this season. (Middle) Tarrant focuses for a free throw. (Below) McCrum maintains possession against Freeland. (Photos by Jodi Stopyak.)
Youngest Liedel Providing Prolific Finish to Family's High-Scoring Legacy
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
February 9, 2022
ERIE – An end of an era is coming in southeast Michigan.
Only two miles from Lake Erie, a barn with a basketball court inside has helped develop some of the best 3-point shooters in state history. The youngest of 10 in a basketball-crazed family, Elizabeth Liedel, better known locally as Lizzie, is winding down her senior season and putting up big numbers – just like many of her siblings did.
“When I was younger, I kind of liked softball better,” Lizzie said. “When I got a little older, basketball definitely became my favorite. I think my brothers and sisters had something to do with that.”
So did the barn, which her father Brad built years ago for his power washing business. It wasn’t long after that the barn became home to a half basketball court with regulation backboards and, of course, a 3-point line.
“I try and get out there every day or every other day and work on my shooting,” Lizzie said. “I’ve put up a lot of shots in the barn.”
Lizzie is a senior for Erie Mason, a Division 3 team that is 12-3 and undefeated in the Tri-County Conference. The Eagles can clinch their second-straight TCC title with a win Thursday at home against Morenci. If they are able to capture another league title, you can bet Lizzie will play a key role. A four-year varsity player, she is averaging 28.1 points per game this season.
The family connection to basketball begins with Brad Liedel, who went to Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central, where he participated in multiple sports, including wrestling. He was in high school when he coached his first team.
“That was baseball,” he said. “I didn’t coach my first basketball team until after I graduated from high school.”
Brad and Beth Liedel have 10 kids, and all of their names are inspired by their faith – Matthew, Ben, Theresa, Maria, Michael, Sarah, Greg, Mary, Joseph and Elizabeth.
Brad has coached for years, from area high schools to travel ball in the summers.
“The kids will come to the barn, and we’ll play basketball and I put together some teams and we go out and play,” he said. “I love teaching the game and helping kids get better at the game. I just love basketball.”
Brad was a junior varsity basketball coach at SMCC when his oldest son, Matt, won the Monroe County Region Player of the Year honor. Two years later, in 2005-06, Ben Liedel set a state record by making 116 3-pointers, a record that has since been broken.
The basketball legend continued to grow. Sarah played at Erie Mason, as did Greg, who wound up with more than 900 career points.
The youngest three siblings – Mary, Joe and Lizzie – have been the biggest scorers. Mary made 56 3-pointers during her senior year of 2017-18 and finished her four seasons on varsity with 1,784 points. Joe topped 2,200 career points and made 334 career 3-pointers, second in the state record book for career triples, while helping Erie Mason reach the MHSAA Semifinals for the first time in school history before graduating in 2020. Both are continuing their basketball careers at the college level now.
Joe, who started his college career at University of Detroit-Mercy, is sidelined this semester with an injury, which has enabled him to be home and watch Lizzie mature as a player.
“She’s quite a player,” he said. “She’s fun to watch.”
Lizzie was an immediate starter for the Eagles as a freshman. Four years later, she has 1,354 career points and is having an outstanding senior season.
She had a high of 47 points against Blissfield, which happened to be the same night she passed 1,000.
Blissfield coach Ryan Gilbert said Liedel is not someone you want to see get hot from the outside. You also don’t want to send her to the free throw line.
“She has the ability to take over a game,” Gilbert said. “I felt like we contested 90 percent of her shots, and she still got to 47.”
Liedel is not just a scorer, although she has made more than 170 career 3-pointers.
“She draws double and triple teams quite often and she has great vision to keep her teammates involved,” Gilbert said. “What separates her from the rest is her ability to move without the ball, especially right after she gives it up. Something a lot of great players struggle with is moving without the ball; she does not, and it makes her tough to defend.”
Lizzie said the Blissfield game was a special one.
“My teammates were finding me, and I was really feeling good,” she said. “I think I made my first five 3-pointers. I felt like I couldn’t miss. Everything was going right.”
She finished four points behind her sister Mary’s single-game Erie Mason scoring record of 51.
Liedel was invited last summer to participate in the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Reaching Higher showcase.
“It was very different playing against all of these girls you don’t know,” she said. “It was a unique experience.”
Liedel is one of five seniors for the Eagles. They have won 53 games over her four varsity seasons, including a 13-0 record last year before being eliminated from the Division 3 tournament by eventual champion Ypsilanti Arbor Prep. This year’s losses have been to two Division 1 schools – Monroe and Howell – and SMCC.
“I’m happy with how we are playing,” she said. “We really wanted to win the league again, and we have a good shot at it. I love this team. They are helping me do a lot better this year.”
Her offseason work, including playing in the barn, is paying off. She has multiple college scholarship offers, including from Davenport, Indiana-Kokomo and Schoolcraft. Indiana Tech, an NAIA powerhouse, is interested, as is Lake Superior State.
She credits her dad and coaches for helping her game develop. She also gives a nod to her brothers and sisters.
“We are so close,” she said. “I love that. We talk all the time. When I come home after games, they’ll tell me how I did or what I need to do to get better.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Erie Mason’s Lizzie Liedel makes a move toward the basket against Carleton Airport. (Middle) Liedel shows off the family barn where she’s sharpened her shot. (Top photo by Tom Hawley; middle photo courtesy of Brad Liedel.)