Marian Wins Rematch of Top-Ranked in A
March 20, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Bloomfield Hills Marian is the reigning Class A girls basketball champion.
But sophomore guard Samantha Thomas admitted Friday the Mustangs were nervous the first time they faced Detroit Martin Luther King this season, on Feb. 26.
Marian didn’t see always-powerful King during its championship run. The Mustangs did win that first meeting this winter, but by only one point.
Nerves aside for their Class A Semifinal rematch, the story unfolded much differently – but with a similar ending.
Top-ranked Marian never trailed after the first five minutes and furthered its already-impressive body of work this season by downing the No. 2 Crusaders 57-37 at the Breslin Center.
“I think today we were ready for them. We actually played with confidence,” Williams said. “The last game we were nervous. We’d never played them. Today we went out and played the best we could.”
On Saturday, the Mustangs can prove for the second straight season that no other team in Class A can play better. They’ll take on DeWitt in the noon Final at Michigan State.
Marian’s surge in confidence was just one change from the first meeting. Coach Mary Cicerone made some adjustments to the Mustangs’ stingy man-to-man defense designed to make life a little harder on King senior point guard Janae Williams, who had 17 points in February.
Williams scored a game-high 18 points this time, but eight came on free throws as she had a tougher time driving to the basket against additional defensive attention.
“In this particular game, they were a little bit more aggressive,” King coach William Winfield said. “They took us out of what we wanted to do, which was good on their part. We did the same thing when we played them (the first time).
“They put a lot of pressure on my point guard, and that was it. Any time you have a situation when they take my point guard out of the game, now we have problems.”
Thomas scored with 36 seconds left in the first quarter to launch an 11-2 run that put Marian ahead 20-11 three minutes into the second. The Crusaders cut the deficit back to seven points three minutes later, but never got closer.
Thomas had 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds, plus three blocked shots. Senior guard Jaeda Robinson led Marian with 15 points and senior forward Brittany Gray added 14 as the team made 50 percent of its shots from the floor.
Senior center Malaysia McHenry added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Crusaders (24-2); she and Williams both were four-year varsity players for Winfield and led this first King run to the Semifinals since 2006.
Marian (25-1) is undefeated against in-state competition, its only loss to Chicago Whitney Young. The Mustangs are 50-3 over the last two seasons – and beat the team that handed them their 2013-14 losses, rival Farmington Hills Mercy, in last year’s Semifinal.
Four starters from last season’s championship game likely will be in the lineup Saturday, and Robinson was the team’s top sub a year ago.
“This is what we planned for. Nothing else would’ve been satisfactory,” Cicerone said. “I’m sure you’d see a lot of tears if we weren’t here. But they came to play today, and I’m very proud of them.”
Click for the full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marian’s Samantha Thomas works to get past King’s Leah Mathis during Friday’s Class A Semifinal. (Middle) King’s Janae Williams starts the offense; she finished with a game high 18 points. Bailey Thomas defends for Marian.
Edison Ends 2023-24 Winter Season Back at Breslin, Back on Top
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
March 23, 2024
EAST LANSING – Detroit Edison wanted the opportunity to gain redemption in its return to Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
The Pioneers needed stout defense during the final quarter Saturday to accomplish that goal.
Edison held Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard to only three fourth-quarter points on its way to a 41-33 win in Saturday’s Division 2 title game.
The Pioneers (23-3) won the program’s fifth Finals championship over the last 10 years and handed the Irish their only loss of the season.
“We set a goal, and that was to go back here and win,” said Edison coach Monique Brown, whose team lost in a Regional Final last year after winning Division 2 in 2022.
“I gave them a theme this year, and it was leadership. We had six seniors, and they bought into everything we were doing. To see them fight through adversity at the end of the game was great. We made a run, and we fought through. We wanted to be smiling at the end of the year, and we are.”
Edison led 22-17 at the half and still maintained a slight edge going into the fourth quarter when Myana Cooksey dropped in a short baseline jumper to make it 34-30.
The Irish trimmed Edison’s lead to one (34-33) when Cora Williams scored inside and converted the and-one with 4:49 left.
But the Pioneers held the Irish scoreless the rest of the game.
“There was a little squabble that happened, and I think it woke us up and gave us a kickstart,” Brown said. “I told them it wasn’t a boxing match, it was a basketball game and we had to score the ball and play good defense.
“We do so many defensive drills, and we started something the last two weeks where we play defense for a whole minute. If you want to win you have to play defense and make sure they don’t get good shots.”
Senior Isis Johnson-Musah led the Pioneers with 16 points and five rebounds, while Cooksey finished with nine points and six boards.
“To come in here in my first year and help them win their fifth (championship) means a lot,” Johnson-Musah said. “We were just trying to play good defense and not foul (in the fourth quarter). And no 3-pointers because we saw what they did (Friday night). We tried to not let that happen.”
FGR (28-1) was seeking a perfect season and the program’s first Finals win since 1993 in Class D. The Irish advanced to Saturday on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in Friday’s Semifinal against Grand Rapids West Catholic.
However, a tough shooting night this time proved to be the Irish’s downfall as they were 12 of 38 from the field and 1 of 12 from beyond the 3-point arc. FGR also was just 8 of 14 from the free throw line.
“Sometimes you don’t have that rhythm, and it was just one of those days,” Irish coach Tim Cain said. “Our shot wasn’t falling, and when they went to four guards it got us out of our comfort zone defensively. We thought we could dominate down low, but we got into foul trouble. They played well, and Isis made a lot of plays.
“The special part of the season is the players and the relationships. We won a lot of games, and I will miss my seniors.”
Junior Charlotte Miller, who made the game-winning shot Friday, led FGR with 12 points and five rebounds.
PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Edison’s Isis Johnson-Musah gets to the basket Saturday with FGR’s Bethie Benz (12) defending. (Middle) The Pioneers’ Myana Cooksey, left, drives the lane. (Below) Edison’s Devin Hagemann, left, considers her options with FGR’s Vanessa Rodriguez guarding her. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)