New Cast Maintaining Marian's Success
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
January 28, 2016
BLOOMFIELD HILLS – When word leaked out last April that sisters Bailey and Samantha Thomas would be moving to Nevada and not returning to Bloomfield Hills Marian for the 2015-16 school year, reporters and basketball fans alike did a quick math equation.
Marian would graduate three seniors who started plus its top reserve and, with this news, would lose its top six players from a team that won the program’s second consecutive Class A title.
Everyone outside of Marian anticipated a changing of the guard. No longer would the Mustangs be the team to beat in the Detroit Catholic League, and any thoughts of a third consecutive title were dismissed.
That’s not all. Senior McKenna Landis, who would have been a three-year varsity player and the starting point guard, suffered a season-ending knee ligament injury in a non-basketball incident.
Mary Cicerone is in her 33rd season as head coach, and she’s uncertain whether she’s entered a season before where experience, and the amount of seniors, was at such a premium.
But as far as assessing coaches, Cicerone is at the top in maintaining a competitive edge, and thus, a positive outlook.
“Most of my players play more than one sport,” Cicerone said. “Many (five) play soccer. Another plays volleyball. For the first time, basketball is second fiddle to most of my players.
“We’re going to show up. I thought we’d be competitive. What are we, 9-3 now? I thought we should be 10-2. I’m competitive. I have some good athletes. We’re figuring out what they’re good at.”
Marian is 9-2 and, at 6-1, in first place in the league’s Central Division. Its lone division loss was at Warren Regina, 35-33, on a shot at the buzzer. Few would have thought this before the season but, at this point, Marian is the favorite to win the league title. Should the Mustangs win the title, it would be Cicerone’s 13th.
If it happens, it’s not a fluke. Like all of Cicerone’s teams, this one plays defense – and few teams, at least in Metro Detroit, play defense with more intensity than Marian.
Take the Regina game as an example. Marian trailed by 11 points late in the third quarter. The Mustangs forced 10 turnovers in the fourth quarter and nearly shocked the Saddlelites.
Maria Hickey and Elizabeth Grobbel are the only seniors on the team and quite possibly Cicerone’s hardest workers.
Hickey said it’s up to her and Grobbel to set an example for the younger players. Last season they earned valuable experience during and more so in practice going against the state’s best.
“We returned four players,” Hickey said. “We didn’t know McKenna would be out. We were very underestimated. We adjusted well. We had a target on our back. Everyone wants to say they beat the defending state champs.
“Defense has to be above the offense. Defense takes up 60, 70 percent of our practices. Maybe more. We press some. Our favorite is the man-to-man, full court. We never play zone. (Cicerone) laughs when we bring it up. We also run the 1-2-2 zone press. We call it the mustang. It’s risky. When it works, it works great. It changes things up.
“Experience? Every player has experience in the program. But not everyone has experience playing this type of defense.”
This team doesn’t have a go-to player. Grobbel, a 6-1 forward, might be the team’s top 3-point shooter. Lauren Montalbano, a 5-5 junior, is one of the best at going to the basket. And at point guard, Olivia Moore is a fine ball handler, but she’s a freshman still gaining varsity experience. Uche Ike, a 5-11 sophomore, is a strong and athletic post player but didn’t start playing basketball until the eighth grade and is still learning the fundamentals.
“I told the kids in the beginning that we’re not going to win because we’re great basketball players,” Cicerone said. “It’s our defense that will carry us. Many of them don’t pick up a basketball until November. I ask them, why shoot? You haven’t touched a basketball in months.”
Cicerone is all for her players to play other sports. And it’s these other sports that are their main ones. But it does try her patience when some compete in travel leagues or AAU events so much so they miss a practice here or there, and a game now and then.
On the other side of the coin, playing the other sports does contribute to their athleticism. For a team like Marian that relies heavily on defense, having good, all-around athletes is a plus.
Cicerone knows her team will have a challenge competing with Class A powers like Saginaw Heritage and Southfield-Lathrup in the MHSAA Tournament. But it’s not a stretch to forecast the Mustangs winning another league title, possibly a District title, and pulling off an upset in the Regionals.
Whatever the opposition, no matter how talented they are, Cicerone refuses to give in. Marian has won six MHSAA titles with her on the bench, and a coach doesn’t win that many by taking anything for granted.
“I’ve had my day in the sun,” Cicerone said. “I go up and down with my team. I don’t expect much on offense. But we can play defense.
“We’re not going to do what we’re not good at. We want them to do the things they are good at."
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marian's Uche Ike works to move the ball upcourt against Farmington Hills Mercy. (Middle) Hannah Redoute works to corral a loose ball. (Below) Elizabeth Grobbel moves to the basket with a pair of Mercy players defending. (Photos courtesy of the Bloomfield Hills Marian athletic department.)
Pittsford Pair Leads Repeat Title Charge
March 18, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – They could make left-handed layups as second graders. That just doesn’t happen. This was bound to be a special group.
Chris Hodos made that observation and prediction a decade ago, five seasons before taking over the Pittsford girls basketball program. He proved to be quite right – but never could’ve expected to say good-bye Saturday to a senior class including the most victorious pair in MHSAA girls basketball history.
The Wildcats finished a second straight Class D championship run Saturday and extended a two-season winning streak to 55 straight victories with a 71-31 title clincher over Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary at the Breslin Center.
Pittsford students chanted “automatic” after Maddie Clark’s first basket of the fourth quarter, and the Wildcats nearly have been the last four seasons. Four seniors played their last game Saturday morning – Clark, Jaycie Burger, Katelyn Kafer and Katie Clement – and after tying the record in Thursday’s Semifinal, Clark and Burger ended their careers 103-2 over their four varsity seasons – and with the MHSAA girls basketball record for career victories.
“I’m just so thankful to have been able to do this with all my best friends in the whole world. I love this team so much,” Burger said. “I’m sad this is our last game ever in a Pittsford uniform, but I wouldn’t have wanted it to go any other way. A running block in the state championship is pretty special, and I’m just happy that I got to take part in that. It’s sad, but it’s happy.”
This season’s Pittsford team finished 28-0, to go with a 27-0 record in 2015-16. The Wildcats fell in overtime to St. Ignace in the Class D championship game to close 2014-15, as their only loss of 2013-14 came in a Class C District Final to Adrian Madison.
Clark was named Class C Player of the Year this winter by The Associated Press, and Burger also was selected to the all-state first team. Both started during all three trips to Breslin, and Kafer saw the floor briefly in both the 2015 and 2016 Finals before starting Saturday.
“They’re winners up and down the line,” Hodos said. “They’re all 4.0 students, or close to it. We were academic all-state as a team last year and we’ll be close again this year. They’re all active in the community; they do a lot of good things off the court. They’re not just winners on the basketball court.”
As Burger drove into the lane two minutes in, saw the defense shift toward her and dropped a pass to an open Clark under the basket for two points, it was surely familiar to anyone who has followed the final weekend of girls basketball the last few years. Clark and Burger combined to score their team’s first 11 points against the Cardinals and 14 total during the first quarter as Pittsford took a 16-6 lead into the second.
Certainly to its credit, MLS (18-10) stuck within 10 of the Wildcats past the middle of the second quarter – something many teams have not been able to accomplish the last few seasons. And it was a memorable weekend as well for a Cardinals program that played in both its first Semifinal and championship game.
MLS kept within 30-17 heading into halftime. But Pittsford came out on a 26-6 run during the third quarter and pushed the lead further in the fourth.
Junior guard Reese VanLue led MLS with 13 points and nine rebounds.
“I’m definitely proud of our team. We achieved so much,” Cardinals senior center Rylee Pankow said. “It really does actually hurt, but we let our light shine on the court. It may not have been the score we wanted it to be, but I think we’re a better team than that but we didn’t play our best today.”
“We have a great group of leaders on this team. They played for each other all season, and they kept battling and battling,” MLS coach Brian Blaine added. “Our goal was to make a tournament run, and I know it hurt for these girls because they didn’t want it to end. But definitely when they get some time to take a look at this, they’ll realize it’s been a pretty magical run.”
Clark (29) and Burger (27) scored 56 of their team’s 71 points before coming off the court together as the clock ran under 30 seconds. Clark made 11 of 15 shots from the floor and all seven of her free throws, and also grabbed 10 rebounds. Burger added three assists and three steals, and junior guards Sydni Brunette and Marissa Shaw had six and four steals, respectively. Shaw finished this winter with 175 steals, tied for sixth most in MHSAA history for one season.
“We know our roles as a team,” Clark said. “I know a couple times Sydni had a wide-open look but she passed it to Jaycie because Jaycie was feeling it. We’re very unselfish and we know what our roles are, and that’s very important. And these girls are really special. … These last two seasons we have been perfect, and that doesn’t happen very often. And I’m thankful for my team, because they make me a better player.”
To answer again a question that’s been frequently asked this weekend, Pittsford is located southeast of Hillsdale and just west of U.S. 127, about 12 miles from the Ohio border.
The high school has a few more than 200 students, and friendships go back generations – this team certainly adding to that bond.
“We’re a pretty close group. Jaycie’s dad didn’t go to Pittsford, but him and I were friends in high school – actually, we hated playing against each other, but we loved it,” Hodos said. “And Mad’s dad and I were good friends in high school.
“And a lot of the other girls too; it started in kindergarten, and they’ve grown so much.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Pittsford’s players, coaches and fans celebrate at the end of Saturday’s Class D championship game win. (Middle) The Wildcats’ Jaycie Burger maneuvers to put up a shot over Michigan Lutheran Seminary’s Rylee Pankow.