Lakeview’s girls basketball team has placed three of its players on the all-Central State Activities Association first team with juniors Sadie Massie and Maddie Shurlow and senior Lauren Jaquays. Shurlow averaged 10.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Massie had 12.3 points per game. Jaquays averaged 9.8 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. Estelle Molitor made honorable mention, averaging 6.5 points per game.
Aubreigh Steed of Lowell and Hannah Evo of Fenton have been placed on the special mention list for the 2014 Michigan Associated Press Class A all-state team. Steed had 15 points in a victory over Lakewood. Evo scored 11 points in a victory over Clio.
Logan McCane of Rockford and Leah Somerfield of Greenville have been placed on the special mention list for the 2014 Michigan Associated Press Class A all-state team. McCane, a junior, has committed to play basketball at Western Michigan. He scored 19 points in a win over Hudsonville. Somerfield has committed to Oakland University.
Claudia Reid and Hannah Stoll of DeWitt have been placed on the special mention list for the 2014 Michigan Associated Press girls basketball Class A all-state team. Reid scored 10 points in a district title victory over Haslett. Stoll scored 18 points for DeWitt in a district semifinal victory over Lansing Waverly.
Karson Tripp of Haslett and Kamrin Reed of Holt have been placed on the special mention list for the girls basketball 2014 Michigan Associated Press Class A all-state team. Tripp had seven points in a regional title game for Haslett. Reed had 11 points for Holt over Jackson.
Hannah Orwat and Lindsay Orwat of Grand Ledge have been placed on the special mention list for the 2014 Michigan Associated Press Class A all-state girls basketball team. Hannah had 14 points and Lindsay 26 in a quarterfinal win over Grand Rapids Christian.
Leah Humes of Bay City Central and Allie Miller of Saginaw Heritage have been placed on the special mention list for the 2014 Michigan Associated Press Class A all-state team. Humes scored 33 points in a win over Saginaw Arthur Hill. Miller had 23 points against Midland Dow during the regular season.
Brenna Mobley of Lansing Waverly and Makenna Ott of Haslett have been placed on the special mention list for the 2014 Michigan Associated Press Class A all-state team. Mobley scored 12 points in a win over Lansing Eastern early in the season. Ott had nine points n a win over East Lansing
Article and photo courtesy of MHSAA
Vikram Shanker (center) of Midland Dow High School was honored as a recipient of the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Scholar-Athlete Award at the 2014 MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing on March 22. Shown with Shanker are: (from left) Jim Robinson, executive vice president of Farm Bureau Insurance; and John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. Shanker will receive a $1,000 scholarship from Farm Bureau Insurance to be used at the institution of higher learning he attends this fall. Farm Bureau Insurance awarded 32 scholarships, proportionately by school classification, to students with a 3.50 or higher (on a 4.0 scale) grade point average who have previously lettered in at least one sport in which postseason competition is sponsored by the MHSAA.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
Scott Keyes
Sports Scene
If you had taken a straw poll and asked high school girls’ basketball coaches how many of the them thought that the Eaton Rapids girls basketball team would walk away from the Breslin Center as Class B state champions, it is likely there wouldn’t have been many takers.
But if Eaton Rapids coach Willis Whitmyer was a betting man, he would have taken that bet in a heartbeat.
Eaton Rapids came into the tournament poised, confident, and relaxed, and it showed in their play on the court.
All the Greyhounds did was waltz through the field, defeating favorites like reigning runner-up and No. 9-ranked Powers Catholic 46-36 in the semifinal and knocking off Class B No. 1 and previously undefeated Grand Rapids South Christian 51-38 in the final to win the school’s first-ever girls’ basketball championship.
Even though the road to the title looked easy for the Greyhounds, it wasn’t by any means. However, Eaton Rapids made believers out of the naysayers in the end.
“How many of you believe Allie Dittmer is all-state first team player now?” Whitmyer asked jokingly in the press conference after the Powers victory. “Allie Dittmer is a gamer. She played her butt off tonight, and we got the win over a very good Flint Powers team.”
The Greyhounds out-rebounded the Chargers 38-22, thanks in large part to Dittmer’s 14 boards that went with her game-high 15 points.
Dittmer followed up her big game against Powers with an even bigger effort in the championship game against South Christian.
She led the victorious Greyhounds with 26 points and 13 rebounds as she dominated play inside, making nine of 15 field goal attempts.
“This was a long time coming,” Whitmyer said. “We thought we had the talent to do it last year, but we made too many mistakes. We learned our lesson.
“We tell them a thousand times to get the ball inside. We rode her [Dittmer] to victory.”
Dittmer, who is headed to Hillsdale College to continue her basketball career, said key matchups on the court played to her advantage to an extent, but she felt that the entire team stepped up en route to winning the state title.
“I just felt really comfortable out there,” Dittmer said. “My teammates would get me the ball in space, and I made my shots. I am so proud right now. It’s an amazing feeling.”
The Class B all-state honorable mention selection scored eight fourth-quarter points, despite having picked up her fourth foul with 4:50 to go in the fourth quarter.
The Greyhounds never trailed by more than two points in the game, and Dittmer was a big reason why. She helped take the Greyhounds to a 19-16 halftime lead after scoring 11 first-half points, including nine in the second quarter.
Eaton Rapids also forced 12 first-half turnovers and out-rebounded the Sailors 16-11 in the first two quarters, with Dittmer pulling down eight boards. The Sailors didn’t have a single first-half offensive rebound.
“She [Dittmer] was a force inside,” said South Christian coach Jim De Bruyn. “We tried our best to stop her, but she was just a horse in there.”
Eaton Rapids also got solid efforts from Emily Reinecke, who contributed six rebounds and five assists, and from senior Bailey Baker, who was a huge contributor in the Powers win.
The coach felt another force during the championship game, especially in the second half, which made a big difference in turning things in his team’s favor.
“I thought our fans were unbelievable,” said Whitmyer, whose team won all eight of its tournament games by at least 10 points. “I looked out there, and I thought we owned the Breslin. Our support system throughout the school and the community was really something else, and that makes this even more special.”
And rightfully so for a team that no one expected to win the tournament when it started. Now Eaton Rapids is the Class B champion, and I bet people know who they are now.
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