Countdown to Calvin: Girls Report Week 7
January 15, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Picking the five most impactful girls basketball results from last week was a challenge.
Picking this week’s most intriguing five next Monday could prove even tougher.
A great set of matchups is coming Michigan’s way this week as schedules reach a halfway point for most teams. None may pack the boom of the first in our “Week in Review” below, but plenty more will resonate through league standings and state polls.
Countdown to Calvin is powered by MI Student Aid and based on results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com. To offer corrections or help us fill in missing scores, email me at [email protected].
Week in Review
The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results:
1. Ann Arbor Huron 46, Ypsilanti Arbor Prep 36 – Might Huron be the state’s best team regardless of class? This result combined with the next two below start the discussion.
2. Ypsilanti Arbor Prep 54, Detroit Edison Public School Academy 49 – Reigning Class C champ DEPSA was building a reputation as that top team in the state, until Arbor Prep battled back from the Huron trip-up. But DEPSA did hand Huron its only loss.
3. East Kentwood 52, Caledonia 45 – The reigning Class A runner-up keeps impressing as it remains undefeated, this time handing Caledonia its first loss of the season (and week; the Fighting Scots then fell Friday to Hudsonville as well).
4. Negaunee 59, Marquette 45 – These are two of the best from the Upper Peninsula, and now the Miners are contending perhaps only with St. Ignace for the title after handing the Redettes their first loss this season.
5. Coldwater 54, Battle Creek Pennfield 45 – The Cardinals bounced back from suffering their first loss this season in overtime two weeks ago by handing the first loss to Battle Creek Pennfield, creating a four-team first-place tie in the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference.
Watch List
With an eye toward March, here are two teams in each class making sparks:
CLASS A
Jenison (7-3) – The Wildcats are sitting in the middle of the Ottawa-Kent Conference Black, for now. They are quite close to equaling last season’s 10-13 success already this winter. Jenison earned a 45-40 win over O-K White leader Lowell last week and followed that up with an impressive 43-30 victory over Muskegon Reeths-Puffer, last season’s league runner-up.
Macomb Dakota (8-1) – The Cougars are sitting alone atop a Macomb Area Conference Red that again looks like one of the toughest leagues in the state. Dakota got there last week by handing reigning league champion Warren Cousino a nine-point defeat and improved Romeo a five-point loss. The Cougars have fallen only to Ann Arbor Huron.
CLASS B
Chelsea (9-1) – The Bulldogs are in first place in the Southeastern Conference White after finishing second both of the last two seasons, and they are only a three-point loss to annual power Marshall from a perfect first half. Chelsea hasn’t played Tecumseh – which also hasn’t lost in the SEC White – but their first matchup is set for Jan. 23.
Comstock (9-1) – Comstock is undefeated through the first round of Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Conference Red games, with its only loss to Class A Richland Gull Lake. The run has included a 19-point win over Buchanan, with which the Colts shared last season’s championship, and an early 22-pointer over second-place Niles Brandywine – which remains Brandywine’s only defeat.
CLASS C
Kent City (8-2) – The Eagles moved into first place alone in the Central State Activities Association Silver with Friday’s 59-43 win over Morley Stanwood and have won outright or shared the league title the last three seasons. The two losses were good tests, in the opener against Class A Rockford and then by a point to Class B Comstock Park. No other opponent has come within single digits.
Traverse City St. Francis (5-1) – The Gladiators have won or shared the Lake Michigan Conference championship every season this decade, four times splitting it with Kalkaska. But a 49-46 win over Kalkaska on Friday put St. Francis a half-game ahead of Charlevoix and in first alone for now, and its only loss was in the opener to still-undefeated Maple City Glen Lake.
CLASS D
McBain Northern Michigan Christian (5-2) – Generally a dweller in the middle of the Highland Conference standings, NMC is making itself at home on top as the first half of the league schedule draws to a close. The Comets beat reigning champion Leroy Pine River by 30 last week and have handed second-place Manton its only league loss while also just falling to Class C Grand Rapids Covenant Christian (8-2).
Munising (7-1) – Despite graduating valuable veterans from last season’s 20-1 team, Munising is back in the mix. Last week’s 56-52 win over second-place Bark River-Harris has the Mustangs sitting in first place in the Skyline Central Conference’s Large School division. The lone trip-up came to Class C Gwinn.
Can't-Miss Contests
Be on the lookout for results of these games coming up:
Tuesday – Flushing (7-2) at Fenton (6-3) – The reigning Class A champion Raiders have rattled off seven straight wins after opening with a pair of defeats, but second-place Fenton would love to move into a first-place tie in the Flint Metro League by breaking the streak.
Wednesday – Gaylord St. Mary (7-1) at Bellaire (9-1) – Revenge surely is on the Eagles’ minds as St. Mary beat Bellaire twice to win the Ski Valley Conference title last season and a third time in the District.
Friday – East Kentwood (10-1) at Hudsonville (9-1) – These two are the only two left undefeated in O-K Red play after only a handful of games and also met in last season’s Regional Final as the Falcons advanced.
Friday – Okemos (7-2) at East Lansing (9-0) – Both are 5-0 in the Capital Area Activities Conference Blue, with the Chiefs surely anticipating this matchup to show they belong in the conversation with a strong group of Lansing-area Class A teams.
Friday – Maple City Glen Lake (9-0) at Kingsley (8-0) – These are shaping up as the two best in the Northwest Conference again this season after a Glen Lake sweep of Kingsley gave the Lakers the title over the Stags a year ago.
PHOTOS: East Kentwood contained Grand Haven for a 51-47 win earlier this month, its closest of 10 victories this season. (Photo courtesy of the Grand Haven Tribune.)
DEPSA Finishes Championship Beginning
March 18, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Rickea Jackson was the freshman last year, an all-stater in the making, but also the player getting triple teamed by opponents as the most immensely talented of Detroit Edison Public School Academy’s lineup.
On the sideline, coach Monique Brown almost couldn’t watch as her star kept getting “smashed” by opponents. But Jackson wouldn’t let her get down.
“I’d be looking to the side, and she said, ‘Coach, next year,’” Brown recalled Saturday after their season ended in a way neither could have fully expected. “She knew she had eighth graders who were going to be ninth graders who would be able to help her out.”
They sure did.
A program that had never won a District title before this winter won this season’s Class C championship edging Pewamo-Westphalia 46-44 with freshmen combining to score half of those points to follow Jackson’s game-high 21.
“Our dream has finally come true,” Jackson said. “(Coach) would get frustrated on the sideline. But when I was hugging her (Saturday), I told her, ‘I’ve got you, and I will always have your back – no matter what.’”
DEPSA finished this season 21-5, and as players piled onto each other in hugs and screams on the Breslin Center floor, there was only one question left to ask:
Was this just the first of celebrations to come?
In addition to playing numerous freshmen, the Pioneers blazed this trail without a senior – paced also by two juniors to go with Jackson, the lone sophomore and an all-state second teamer this winter.
“People are saying the season is over," said DEPSA freshman Gabrielle Elliott, who made the all-state first team, “but it’s just beginning.”
For these players, yes. But the program’s beginnings were far more humble.
DEPSA’s team is six years old, and Brown has led it from the start. The Pioneers have had winning records every season, but played the first with only six players – and finished their last game that winter, a District Final, with only three on the floor.
A loss Saturday wouldn’t have made this season less successful – something Pewamo-Westphalia coach Steve Eklund also emphasized to his players as they fell into heartache after just missing on a first championship as well.
DEPSA pushed its lead to nine just more than a minute into the fourth quarter, but P-W – which trailed for all but 14 seconds of the game when the score was tied – whittled the advantage down to one point with 1:19 to play.
The Pioneers drained most of the clock before P-W was forced to foul, and the Pirates looked to catch a break after a missed free throw – but a scramble that saw at least three players dive to the floor ended with the ball back in DEPSA’s hands. Another P-W foul and another Pioneers missed free throw, and the Pirates got the ball back for what looked to be a final attempt to take the lead – but a 3-point attempt from the corner was enveloped by DEPSA freshman Shaulana Wagner and tossed out of bounds.
“As I was going, I was just like, don’t make them score because then we’ll be down,” said Wagner, who has been working through a left ankle injury and seemed to re-aggravate it earlier in the half. “The energy from the crowd and my team picking me up, it gave me the energy to get that.”
The Pirates had one last chance then inbounding the ball with 3.4 seconds to play – but the pass from the corner never made it safely in, knocking off the leg of a DEPSA player and then off P-W on the deflection.
“They’re long. Their arms were everywhere,” Pirates junior Emily Spitzley said. “It was just a blur."
“Five seconds after that inbounds play I told myself I should’ve run the other one. It’s amazing a whole season comes down to just five seconds,” Eklund added.
“I just told the girls no regrets. You’ll have a lot of people come up and tell you what an awesome game it was. You’re going to get tired of saying thank you, but mean it.”
P-W will continue to be a force as well, as freshman Hannah Spitzley led this time with 17 points as her all-state second-team sister Emily had 15.
Jackson added nine rebounds and three blocks to her game-high 21 points, and Wagner had 12 points and two blocks.
“It definitely started off a couple years ago with our middle school program,” Brown said. “To get them to stay with me was a little tough, so when they came over (to high school), when they decided, yes, we will continue to stay here with you and continue this roll with you, we started in August running on the track and in the weight room. We were just trying to build our bodies because I knew we would have to go against seniors going off to college.
“When they committed themselves to that, I knew we had something. But not until the 9 o’clock p.m. practices on Friday nights – then I thought we might have a championship team. And the 5 in the morning practices … everyone showed up, and I commend the ladies for that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) DEPSA’s Rickea Jackson rises above a pair of P-W defenders to launch a shot Saturday. (Middle) Pirates junior Emily Spitzley drives around a Pioneers player during the Class C Final.