John Raffel
Sports Scene
It was fun while it lasted; Pewamo-Westphalia’s girls basketball season ended at 25-1 following its only loss of the season in the semifinals on March 17 to Detroit Edison PSA 50-39, at Calvin College.
Rickea Jackson scored half of Edison’s points with 12-of-20 from the floor for 25 and had seven rebounds. Amiya Hagemann added 13 points.
“I was pushing her to come in and get more rebounds,” Edison coach Monique Brown said. “That was our issue last year.”
P-W coach Steve Eklund noted Edison was ranked in the country and went on to beat Ypsilanti Arbor Prep 51-34 in the finals. Edison edged Pewamo-Westphalia 46-44 in the 2017 finals.
“We knew what we were up against,” Eklund said. “I couldn’t be prouder of our group of girls. They battled for 22 minutes. The scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story some of the times.”
Edison was up 22-14 at halftime.
“We don’t see that type of athleticism in the CMAC,” Eklund said. “We were 4-of-19 from the 3. We as a team shoot over 40 percent. We didn’t shoot the ball well. It was uncharacteristic of us. We would have liked to have shot the ball better. It might have been a different story.”
Emily Spitzley ended her career at P-W with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said. “We made so much progress and have gotten so much better. It’s been a great ride.”
“It’s tough to lose in the finals and semifinals,” Eklund said. “A 25-0 start matched the best start in school history.”
Ellie Droste scored 11 points and Hanna Spitzley had nine.
“The whole tournament run was the best part,” Spitzley said. “We faced better teams and had some great wins against some good teams since we had that huge run last year, we wanted to play Edison. It didn’t come out the way we hoped it would.”
Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes
It was looking good after two quarters for Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes in its Class D semifinal game on March 16 at Calvin College. The Lakers were up 33-24 at halftime, but were outscored by Chassell from the western Upper Peninsula 18-8 in the third and 13-10 in the fourth. Chassell shot 22-of-44 from the floor.
“Down the stretch, I felt we were able to get to the basket,” Our Lady coach Steve Robak said. “Even though we were getting good looks, I didn’t feel we had many turnovers. We had nine turnovers and they had 18. In that regard, we did what we wanted. The second half, we struggled shooting. That was really the difference there.”
Milly Allens scored 24 for Chassell
“We had trouble with her when she had the ball,” Robak said.
The team’s final record was 20-5.
“We had an incredible season,” Robak said. “We had four losses to some incredible teams.”