Lenawee Christian's Title Time Arrives
March 17, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – As daughter of the coach and sister of the star, sophomore Dani Salenbien was in unique position to forecast the success of this season’s Adrian Lenawee Christian girls basketball team.
She knew one thing for sure.
“I know we can do anything when we play together,” Salenbien said. “We’re fighters and we haven’t stopped fighting this whole season, so I’m proud of every single one of them.”
Two days after freshman sister Bree sank a last-second overtime shot to send their team to the championship game, Lenawee Christian won it. The Cougars caught fire during Saturday’s second half to claim their first MHSAA girls basketball title with a 57-36 win over Chassell at Van Noord Arena.
Lenawee Christian previously had finished Class D runner-up in 2010 and was making its first trip to Finals weekend since that title game run. The Cougars capped a season that saw them finish 26-1, with their only loss by one point to Class A Monroe.
They had only one senior on the roster, and 51 of their points Saturday were scored by Bree Salenbien or sophomores.
“Three or four weeks ago, we started hitting our stride a bit,” said Lenawee Christian coach Jamie Salenbien, who’s also Bree and Dani’s father. “And I told Coach, ‘Wow, something good is happening.’ They’re jelling well, the chemistry’s good, they’re sacrificing for each other, and to boot we were getting a lot of progress as far as the skill level goes – shooting, ball handling and passing. It all got crisper.
“And we peaked at the right time, so we’re just really thankful for that.”
Leading by a point at the break Saturday, Lenawee Christian went on a 19-7 run over the final 7½ minutes of the third quarter to build a 13-point lead. The Cougars then held Chassell to only four points – on 20 percent shooting – during the fourth quarter.
Bree Salenbien, the team’s leading scorer this winter at more than 21 points per game, left the floor briefly during the first half after twisting an ankle. The 6-foot-2 guard finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds – and despite hitting only 7 of 21 shots from the floor. She disrupted Chassell’s defense just by being out there and opening up space for teammates.
Sophomore Libby Miller added 11 points, while Dani Salenbien and sophomore Caitlin Anderson both scored 10. Salenbien had six assists and five steals, and Anderson grabbed seven rebounds.
“We kinda let her control a little bit of the second half. I felt like we scrambled a little bit, over-helping and not getting back where we needed to be – we had too much help and not enough on-the-ball defense,” Chassell coach Brandi Hainault said.
“I felt we had momentum from the first half into the second half. They hit some big shots, and we weren’t hitting ours, and eventually you dig yourself a hole.”
Senior center Sydney Danison led Chassell (26-2) with 17 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots, showing sharp post moves especially early on. Senior guard Milly Allen, also a Semifinal star Thursday, added 10 points.
Chassell was making its first MHSAA championship game appearance in girls basketball and first in either girls or boys since 1958.
“They’ve done something no other Chassell team had done,” Hainault said. “They’re a team that deserves to be here, and I couldn’t be prouder of what they’ve done.
“The first time being here, it’s a great thing. I couldn’t ask for anything more, except maybe the win. It’s a hard thing – these girls played with a lot of heart, played with a lot of hustle and did the right things. A lot of our mistakes just cost us the game today.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Lenawee Christian celebrates its first MHSAA girls basketball championship after claiming Saturday's Class D Final. (Middle) Chassell’s Sydney Danison and Lenawee Christian’s Brooke Brinning battle for possession.
Edison Closes Dominant Run as Champ Again
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 23, 2019
GRAND RAPIDS – The Detroit Edison girls basketball team has been leaving people in awe all season.
On Saturday night, the Pioneers' own coach was a bit star struck after they defeated Freeland 77-58 to claim the Division 2 championship.
“This is a phenomenal group that I have,” Edison coach Monique Brown said. “I don’t even know where to start with this group and what we’ve accomplished together as one unit. Today up and down with our defense, they had so many 3s on us, but we just kept fighting and fighting and pushing and communicating. I’m just so happy to be up here with these young ladies and to say I’m their coach.”
The title is the third straight for Edison, with the previous two coming in Class C. Edison is the sixth school in MHSAA history to win three straight girls basketball titles, and the Pioneers’ run was a dominant one. Through its first seven postseason games, their average margin of victory was 48.7 points, with their closest game prior to the Final coming in a 27-point win against Haslett in the Semifinal.
With that type of run, it could have been easy for the Pioneers to lose focus, but they never did.
“The way we were able to stay focused was our practice and each other,” Edison junior forward Gabrielle Elliott said. “We were always on each other’s back in practice. We were blowing people out, so we had to stay focused. Our biggest competition was ourselves, and we were going so hard in practice. That’s what people didn’t see as to why we were beating people by 50.”
Unfortunately for the rest of the state, Edison’s powerhouse may not be going anywhere. While graduating senior Rickea Jackson, this year’s Miss Basketball Award winner, is certainly going to hurt, she’s the only senior on the Pioneers’ roster.
“Many, many years with more state championships,” Jackson said when asked what’s to come. “It doesn’t just run on me, it was a team effort. There are other great teammates and great shooters, scorers, rebounders that are still here, so I think it can go a long time.”
Jackson was the star again Saturday night, scoring a game-high 28 points and adding five rebounds in her final game. Next year, she’ll be playing at Mississippi State.
“Amazing,” Freeland coach Tom Zolinski said. “She really is. We would make a little run then she’d come back and hit a quick shot, a mid-range shot or even a three. She’s tough.”
During the Division 3 game, which directly preceded the Division 2 Final, Jackson was awarded the Miss Basketball trophy. It could have made an already large target on her back even bigger, but she said that she used it as motivation.
“It made me feel like I had to win this championship even more,” Jackson said. “Why not finish your season with Miss Basketball and a third state championship? If we didn’t get it, I would have been very hurt. It made me more confident. Getting that award definitely made me way more confident just knowing that I could go out there and play my game. There was nothing more I could do to go out there and prove to nobody. I could play my game.”
Edison did struggle from the perimeter in the first half, hitting just 1 of 10 attempts from 3-point range. But the Pioneers made up for that with 12 second-chance points and 11 points off turnovers to lead 37-24 at the half.
Freeland didn’t back down from the state’s top-ranked team, and every time it looked like Edison was about to blow the top off the game, the Falcons found points either from the field or the free-throw line to remain within shouting distance.
While they weren’t great from the field, shooting just 6 of 23, they were perfect on their 10 first-half free-throw attempts.
In the second half, those perimeter shots started falling for the Pioneers as they hit their first four attempts from beyond the arc, three coming from sophomore guard Damiya Hagemann.
“We were rushing a little bit offensively and settling for the 3-point shot,” Brown said. “In the first half we were 1 for 10, and when I’m looking at these numbers, we were 7 for 19 (for the game), so we went 6 for 9 in the second half, which is pretty good. That says a lot about who we are and how we listen and pay attention, and how we go out there and work together as a unit.”
While the lead grew to 19 heading into the fourth quarter, Freeland hit its own shots to again keep the game from getting completely away.
The Falcons were able to cut into the lead a bit in the final quarter, but never got closer than 14 points over the final eight minutes.
Elliott scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds for Edison, while Hagemann had 13 points and nine assists.
Alyssa Argyle led Freeland with 18 points and five rebounds, while Kadyn Blanchard had 16 points, four rebounds and four assists, and Autumn Kloha had 11 points and five assists.
“They made history in Freeland,” Zolinski said. “Tonight, they gave it their all. It was a tough task tonight, and a lot of credit goes to them. But what a group of girls right here. In four years, they won 94 games and lost 11. Never lost a conference game, and I’m definitely going to miss them. They’ve set it up for the future.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Edison players raise their Division 2 championship trophy Saturday night at Van Noord Arena. (Middle) Rickea Jackson gets an open look in the lane.