Marching On, Marshall Laces Up with Otsego
April 1, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Marshall girls basketball team brought one of the largest, loudest and most supportive groups of fans to the Breslin Center during last month's two weekends of MHSAA Basketball Finals.
But as the Redhawks faithful cheered their local team to its first Class B title, Marshall had another community rooting for the best as well.
Otsego shared the court with Marshall the week before for a Regional Final, won by the Redhawks 57-37. And Marshall’s team and coaches shared in a recent fight by the Otsego athletic family, which is supporting parent Val Davis, who is suffering from a fatal brain disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Davis has been known as one of her school's most passionate supporters through the careers of four children who have played on Bulldogs teams.
After the Regional Final, Otsego basketball player Liz Barwegen wrote the following to MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts:
“We have dedicated our season to one of our parents that has a brain disease. She is not doing very well. Doctors have told her she doesn’t have long. Our team began wearing bright neon green shoelaces because they were her favorite, and she likes seeing the bright color. The Marshall coach heard about this and so their team wore the bright green shoelaces also.
"That was not the only thing that the Marshall coach did that showed great sportsmanship. When there were about two minutes left in the game and Marshall had put their subs in, our coach also subbed in. However, Marshall had the ball and the time started ticking down. So the Marshall coach called a timeout just so we could get our subs in the game. I am not sure if their coach knew if the sub was Hailey (the girl with the sick mom), but Hailey was able to play the final minutes of the game for the last time in front of her mom.”
Hailey Davis was a senior this season. Barwegen, who so poignantly authored the letter, is only a sophomore.
This season’s Girls Basketball Tournament was storied to say the least, with all four champions first-time winners after two played in MHSAA championship games also for the first time. Marshall had arguably the most exhilarating final week, downing No. 4 Grand Rapids Catholic Central by 11 in a Quarterfinal, then No. 2 Bay City John Glenn on Nikki Tucker’s two free throws with 1.4 seconds to play in the Semifinal. The No. 7 Redhawks completed their first title run with a 51-42 victory over No. 3 Grand Rapids South Christian, led by coach Sal Konkle, who played on the Marshall team that finished runner-up in 1981 in the program's first trip to an MHSAA Final.
“I hated losing that game,” Barwegen wrote after her team's loss that kicked off the Redhawks' championship week, “but surely hope Marshall can go on and win the rest of the way.”
Click to read a piece from the Kalamazoo Gazette that tells more of Val Davis’ story and fight.
PHOTO: Marshall and Otsego players line up together, showing off neon green shoelaces both teams wore in honor of Otsego mother and fan Val Davis during their Class B Regional Final. (Photo by Gary Shook.)
Lansing Catholic Closes Season With Memorable Victory Close to Home
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 18, 2023
EAST LANSING – The Lansing Catholic girls basketball team took a short drive to end a long wait.
Playing just three miles from their high school, the Cougars defeated Frankenmuth 43-29 Saturday at the Breslin Center to win the MHSAA Division 2 Final. It was the first Finals title for the program since 1995.
“It felt like homecourt advantage a little bit,” Lansing Catholic senior guard Hannah Pricco said. “Our bus trip wasn’t super long. It just kind of felt like we were coming to our own court.”
The Cougars treated it that way, dominating from the beginning of the matchup in their first Finals trip since that 1995 title. They scored the game’s first 11 points and never looked back.
“This is, as you can imagine, extremely surreal,” Lansing Catholic coach Kacee Reid said. “You’re going through literally every emotion on the bench, especially in a game like that. Frankenmuth is making such a great comeback, and we knew they were going to fight to the end. To go through the anger and sadness and happiness, and now it’s over and we’ve won it. It’s just been a rollercoaster of emotions, and I can’t describe the pride I have in these girls.”
It was the second meeting between the two teams, with Lansing Catholic taking the first 74-42 on Feb. 2. But Reid wasn’t going to let her team come in overconfident.
“They didn’t get here by accident,” Reid said. “They’re in the state championship because they’re playing their best ball of the year. We played them a month and a half ago. … We’re a totally different team, and we knew they were a totally different team. We knew they had been playing some really good basketball, and it didn’t matter at all what that first outcome was. We knew this was going to be a battle.”
Lansing Catholic (24-5) never trailed, and led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter. Leah Richards led the Cougars with 16 points and nine rebounds, while Anna Richards had 14 points. Gabby Halliwill added seven.
The Cougars were spurred by their defense throughout, holding Frankenmuth to 9 of 36 shooting from the field and forcing 13 turnovers.
“For us, defensively, we had to switch it up,” Reid said. “We had to keep switching up between man and zone. They were making adjustments and we couldn’t really sit in one thing for too long; they got comfortable. That’s a credit to their coaching staff always making adjustments. We had to continue to switch things up defensively and try to hopefully make their shooters second-guess their shot, or maybe not know where we were coming from.”
Frankenmuth (25-3) didn’t go away, despite trailing by double digits for the majority of the game.
That was helped by Lansing Catholic shooting 1 of 11 from the field in the third quarter, and going scoreless for the final 5:26 of the frame.
The Eagles cut the lead to seven with 2:45 to play on a steal and layup from Clare Conzelmann, but never got closer.
“There was always belief no matter what detriment we got ourselves in,” Frankenmuth senior Lexi Boyke said. “I wouldn’t want to choose any other girls to play with and be in with at that point. I think we fought back and really prided ourselves on, ‘We can still do it.’ We didn’t stop fighting until the end.”
Lansing Catholic always figured Frankenmuth would make a run to get into the game, but was ready when it came.
“We knew they were going to make runs, we knew we weren’t going to hold them to seven points the whole game,” Anna Richards said. “We knew in the third quarter they were going to score, so we just had to stay composed, work the ball around on offense to get the good shots that we wanted.”
Boyke, who scored Frankenmuth’s first 10 points and was its only scorer well into the third quarter, finished with 16. She also reached 1,000 career points in the game, and had six rebounds, while Izzy Bernthal had seven.
Frankenmuth was making its first Finals appearance since winning the Class C title in 1996, one year after Lansing Catholic.
“That’s a really good Lansing Catholic team, and you’ve seen that from their postseason run and beating an undefeated West Catholic team, and tonight finishing their season off with a state championship. So, congratulations to them,” Frankenmuth coach Joe Jacobs said. “I’m super proud of our kids. They didn’t quit tonight. They could have. … Fun experience, one that we want to treasure forever, but the motivation to come back again is here after tonight’s loss.”
PHOTOS (Top) Lansing Catholic celebrates its Division 2 championship Saturday night at Breslin Center. (Middle) The Cougars’ Anna Richards (10) attempts to get a shot up over Frankenmuth’s Lexi Boyke. (Below) Tessa Roe (12) works to get past Clare Conzelmann and to the basket.