By John Raffel
Coach Steve Eklund’s Pewamo-Westphalia girls basketball team looks ready to have a championship postseason.
He’s in his 17th season and his team is 16-2 overall (16-0 CMAC).
“We are right where we want to be. Healthy,” Eklund said. “We control our destiny in the conference. We have played a solid schedule including tough road games to prepare for tournament play. Compared to a season ago when expectations were not nearly as high, we’re very pleased with the season’s results so far. A season ago we were not expected to come out as CMAC champions. Playing a full season without that pressure is oftentimes a lot easier than being projected to finish on top from the beginning. The girls have done a nice job managing expectations. They continue to work to get better every day. No sense of satisfaction in them.
“The season opening victory over a very strong East Lansing team jump- started the schedule. The home victory over previously unbeaten Bath back in January was a confidence builder. Sweeping rivals Fowler and St. Pats always checks some
boxes. Both road losses at Saginaw Heritage and Flint Powers, though tough to swallow, were good growth opportunities for our team. They forced us out of our comfort zones. We had a bad first quarter in each contest but adjusted in both games to play what we thought was a very competitive brand of basketball.”
Standout talent has helped P-W.
“Our three-headed monster of Elly Bengel, Alonna Thelen and Adrianna Eklund have spearheaded us offensively,” Eklund said. “All three are averaging over 11 points per game. Even with that we had a stretch of three games where three others led us in scoring, so we are a balanced team with multiple threats to go off on any given night. Defensively we benefit from having lockdown perimeter defenders and good length on the interior making it difficult to score in all areas of the floor.
“If we continue to grow in understanding roles and being in-tune to our scouting reports, there are going to be some tough nights for opponents.”