Breslin Bound: Girls Report Week 9
February 3, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It’s rematch time for MHSAA girls basketball teams.
Fewer than four weeks remain until the start of District play March 2. From this point on, most teams will be seeing league opponents for the second time – and often with much on the line.
See below for teams that impressed last week, many doing so in rematches or with key ones coming up.
CLASS A
Midland Dow (10-2) – The Chargers took a half-game lead in the Saginaw Valley Association North by beating previous leader Saginaw Heritage 45-39 on Friday. Dow had fallen to Heritage 49-39 on Dec. 16 and now can keep an eye out for third-place Midland, which it will host Feb. 13.
Muskegon Reeths-Puffer (11-3) – Friday’s loss to Grand Rapids Union aside, this has been a nice run for the Ottawa-Kent Conference Black co-leader. The Rockets finished third last season but led the league this winter until falling to third-place Union by a point, 46-45. Reeths-Puffer takes on co-leader Mona Shores on Friday.
Southfield-Lathrup (11-1) – These Chargers are undefeated in Michigan with their only loss coming by a bucket to Toledo Rogers on Dec. 13. Southfield-Lathrup has beaten a solid group of opponents including last week Oakland Activities Association Red second-place Rochester Hills Stoney Creek, which is 10-3. The Chargers get another second-place OAA Red team this Thursday in 11-3 North Farmington.
Wyoming (11-2) – The Wolves sit atop the O-K Bronze standings at 5-0 through the first half of the league schedule. They haven’t lost a league game since Jan. 8, 2013, but face second-place Grand Rapids Northview on Friday in their second matchup of this season.
CLASS B
Croswell-Lexington (11-2) – The Pioneers have won eight straight since falling to Port Huron Northern in the semifinals of the Marysville Invitational and are tied with Armada for first place in the Blue Water Area Conference. The only league loss came to Capac, and Croswell-Lexington avenged it with a 33-29 overtime win last week.
Houghton (12-2) – It’s shaping up as another special season for the Gremlins, who split last season’s West Peninsula Athletic Conference title but lead second-place Calumet after beating the Copper Kings by three on Jan. 20. Houghton beat last season’s co-champion, L’Anse, 64-31 on Monday after edging 10-win Kingsford in overtime Friday.
Kalkaska (11-1) – The Blazers' only slip-up this winter came Jan. 9 to Traverse City St. Francis, the only team ahead of Kalkaska in the Lake Michigan Conference standings. It’s a nice jump from last season’s 12-win finish – and with the rematch against St. Francis still to play.
Midland Bullock Creek (14-0) – The Central-leading Lancers dominated a tough Tri-Valley Conference crossover week, beating East leader Frankenmuth 57-40 (both of Frankenmuth’s losses are to Bullock Creek) and then handing West leader Ithaca its first loss this season, 63-52.
CLASS C
Laingsburg (13-0) – The Wolfpack edged 10-win Class B Perry 31-28 last week to remain perfect and lead Pewamo-Westphalia by half a win in the Central Michigan Athletic Conference thanks to a 36-33 win over the Pirates in mid-December. Those two meet again Thursday.
Leroy Pine River (8-1) – The Bucks have won seven straight and lead the Highland Conference after finishing second to McBain a year ago. McBain is in second to start this week and hosts Pine River on Thursday.
Ishpeming (11-2) – The Hematites took a tough loss Monday, 34-32 to Iron Mountain. But they remain in first place in the Mid-Peninsula Athletic Conference with their only other loss to nonleague Gladstone during the season’s second week. Ishpeming had beaten Iron Mountain by 15 in their first meeting.
Niles Brandywine (12-1) – Last week we highlighted Class A Kalamazoo Central, the only team to beat Brandywine this season (and in double overtime). Brandywine continued to cruise last week, finishing with a 62-59 win over Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph West contender Buchanan – Brandywine has dealt the Bucks both of their losses this winter.
CLASS D
Baraga (8-4) – The Vikings have bounced back nicely off last season’s six-win finish. They are tied for first place in the Copper Country Conference despite a tough stretch of three straight losses, including two to league foes, in mid-January.
Gaylord St. Mary (12-3) – The reigning champion in the Ski Valley Conference is chasing from third but has won seven straight and with the teams it trails next up on the schedule – first-place Johannesburg-Lewiston tonight and second-place Bellaire next week.
St. Ignace (10-5) – The Saints are holding on to slim lead in the Straits Area Conference thanks in part to senior Margo Brown, an MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award winner this week who has a season high of 41 points and recently set the school record with 11 3-pointers in a game.
St. Joseph Lake Michigan Catholic (9-3) – The Lakers are one of few teams in Michigan that play in multiple conferences; they’re in third place behind Class C Brandywine and Class B Buchanan in the BCS West, but are undefeated atop the Red Arrow Conference.
PHOTO: Detroit Pershing opened this season's Public School League Tournament with a victory over Detroit Communication Media Arts last week. (Photo courtesy of the Detroit Public School League.)
Few in Number, Tecumseh Pursuing Sizable Success with Zajacs Setting Pace
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
December 5, 2023
TECUMSEH – First, the good news: Nearly everyone on the Tecumseh girls basketball team has aspirations to play college basketball – and several of them at a very high level.
Now, the twist: There are only eight girls in the entire program.
Tecumseh head coach Kristy Zajac, starting her seventh season, is unfazed by the lack of numbers. Tecumseh will field just a varsity team this season but should contend for a Southeastern Conference White championship and pursue a deep playoff run as well.
“This is a great group of girls,” Zajac said. “At least six or seven of them want to play college basketball. The basketball IQ is so much higher than we have had in the past. We’ve never had a full team of basketball-first kids.”
Zajac said that dynamic has changed practices and the approach on the court.
“We do a lot more high-level skill stuff and high-level thinking,” she said. “We do more read-and-react stuff where they have to play on the fly, which makes us harder to scout. We want to try and give the kids a chance to use that basketball IQ and make opportunities for themselves on the floor so they can score without having to run a set play.”
The list of college prospects starts with her daughter, 6-foot-2 junior Alli Zajac. She holds about 15 Division I offers, and the list seems to grow daily.
She’s been receiving recruiting attention since before she played a game in high school. As a freshman, she was the Lenawee County Player of the Year and has been all-state both of her first two seasons. Last winter, she scored 433 points as Tecumseh went 20-5.
Her sister, Addi Zajac, hasn’t played a varsity game yet but has received a lot of attention as well as a college prospect after several great years of travel ball. She’s 6-foot and a true center.
“She wears a size 14 shoe,” Zajac said. “We are hoping next year she is 6-3 or 6-4. She has such a strong body; I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone that strong at her age. She can push people around.”
The sisters are very different types of players. They also are extremely competitive, as witnessed when they play 1-on-1 at home.
“It usually ends in a fistfight,” Zajac said. “They are both very competitive.”
The team is loaded with more talent than just the Zajac sisters.
Sophomore Makayla Schlorf made 28 3-pointers last season, and sophomore Chloe Bollinger made 26. Junior Ashlyn Moorhead averaged just under double figures in scoring and averaged 3.7 assists a game last year. Junior Lauren Kilbarger also is back from last season and joined by newcomers Faith Wiedyk, a junior, sophomore Sophia Torres and freshman Amaria Brown.
Maddie VanBlack is another travel ball veteran but is out this season due to tearing an ACL.
Tecumseh athletic director Jon Zajac – Kristy’s husband – said it is disappointing Tecumseh won’t field a junior varsity team this year. He said kids playing travel ball in other sports, along with the youth of the current team, are factors.
“It is frustrating,” he said. “Hopefully this is the only year for that.”
Kristy (Maska) Zajac grew up near Tecumseh in Britton, played four years on the varsity and scored more than 1,800 career points under coach Bart Bartels, now an assistant on her staff. She played at Eastern Michigan University, where she was one of the top scorers in school history. Jon Zajac, played at EMU and professionally overseas.
The entire family is crazy about basketball. In addition to Alli and Addi, son Ryder played four years at Tecumseh before heading off to college to play football, and the youngest in the family, Avery, is a budding star in her own right.
“There were a few travel games this year where my team was short on numbers and Avery got to play with Addi and Alli,” Kristy Zajac said. “That was cool to see. She held her own. She won’t get to play with Alli in high school (Avery is in seventh grade), but she’ll get two years with Addi. I got to play with my sister, and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything.”
Jon Zajac stops by practice now and then to coach as well. He and Kristy coach Avery’s travel team.
“He is a great person to have as part of the program,” Kristy Zajac said of her husband. “Anytime I can get him to help with the post players and with the girls is great. He’s a huge help.”
The family often schedules trips around basketball and is seemingly always pulled in multiple directions as the three girls compete at various levels.
“It’s pretty much basketball all day, every day,” Zajac said. “It’s fun to see how the kids enjoy it and love the game.”
Tecumseh, which has won a combined 39 games over the past two seasons, has loaded up its schedule, playing a collection of nonconference teams that made deep tournament runs and won conference championships last season. Tecumseh plays in the Icebreaker event at Ypsilanti Arbor Prep against Detroit Country Day on Saturday and also faces Temperance-Bedford (23-1 last season), reigning Division 3 runner-up Blissfield and Grand Blanc.
Without a senior on the team and no JV squad, Tecumseh will play essentially this group for the next 50 or more games. It’s a two-year window with virtually the same team.
“We’re doing what we can to win this year,” Zajac said. “We want this year to be super successful. We are just taking it one game at a time and going from there. We want to keep building and getting better every day, every game. Hopefully by the end of next year, we’ll be where we need to be.”
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) Tecumseh’s Alli Zajac makes her move toward the lane last season against Adrian. (Middle) Kristy Zajac coaches her team, which finished 20-5 in 2022-23. (Photos by Deloris Clark-Osborne/Adrian Daily Telegram.)