KALAMAZOO, MI - At this point in Michigan’s girls high school basketball tournament, it doesn’t matter if a team scores 40 points or 140 points.
Even a team’s worst-shooting night will end with smiles as long as their number on the scoreboard is higher than that of their opponent.
Schoolcraft and Martin embraced grit and eschewed style points during Wednesday’s girls basketball regional title games, and both the Eagles and the Clippers were rewarded with trips to the state quarterfinals.
In Division 3, Schoolcraft held Gobles to under 15 points for the second time this season to pull out a 37-12 win at Watervliet and claim its third regional title in five seasons.
It marked the third meeting between the Eagles and Tigers this season, with Schoolcraft winning the first 45-26, despite Gobles star junior Amanda Barber scoring a game-high 22 points.
The second time around, Schoolcraft held Barber to five points in its 36-13 win, and on Wednesday, the Eagles kept the Gobles junior sharpshooter scoreless thanks to tough defense from sophomore Caley Kerwin and junior Hannah Thompson.
Gobles junior Amanda Barber (20) attempts a shot against Schoolcraft during the first half at Schoolcraft High School in Schoolcraft, Michigan on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)Joel Bissell | MLive.com
“I took my best guard defensive player, Kaylee Kerwin, and we basically just face-guarded her, and basically told Caley, ‘Where she goes, you go,’” Schoolcraft coach Steve Kulczyk said. “Caley had no responsibilities as far as no help defense was going to come from Caley, and she was just going to shadow Amanda Barber all night.
“We tried it in our last meeting, and it was very effective in limiting Amanda Barber to five points, so there was really no reason to change the game plan.
“It’s also Hannah Thompson, another girl that comes off the bench and the first person in my guard rotation, and so when Caley gets a little tired, we come in with a fresh set of legs and put Hannah Thompson on here, and the girls got the job done tonight.”
“She’s a very talented player, and I have a lot of respect,” Kulczyk added of Barber. “I mean, she put 22 on us the first time we played them, so we learned from that. We didn’t give any special attention to her, and she made us pay.
“Somebody else was going to have to beat us tonight besides Amanda Barber, so the girls followed the defensive game playing very well.”
Schoolcraft sophomore Caley Kerwin (10) attempts to steal a pass away from Hackett senior Bianca Cronen (5) during the first half at Schoolcraft High School in Schoolcraft, Michigan on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)
Emily Baxter and McKenzie Lisowski led Gobles with three points apiece, while Deanna Wood, Karlee Henderson and Kaya Huizenga each added two points.
Senior center Anna Schuppel led Schoolcraft with 15 points, while Mackenzie Miller and Allie Walther added seven. In addition to her strong defense, Kerwin scored six points.
Schoolcraft trudged to a 4-2 lead after the first quarter and increased its advantage to 14-5 at the half, before pulling away with 13 points in the third and 10 in the fourth.
Part of the Eagles’ offensive struggles was the fact they shot just 7 of 20 from the foul line.
“I think we just still showed some fatigue from Monday night but that’s taking nothing away from Gobles,” said Kulczyk, whose team defeated rival Kalamazoo Hackett in Monday’s regional semifinals. “This was another typical Schoolcraft-Gobles name; it was going to be low-scoring, it was going to be kind of tough to watch at times, but they pack in and play a really good zone. Regardless of their talent, Gobles always plays a tough zone, and we came in and went 7 of 20 from the free throw line.
“We’re not a great free-throw shooting team, but we’re not bad, and I think we were a little fatigued still. I don’t think we were 100-percent recovered, and we just grinded it out.
“There’s nothing to apologize for -- sometimes you just win that way, and that’s how we won tonight. It was a workman-like game, where it wasn’t going to be pretty, and we missed some shots early, and Gobles plays a tough zone, so maybe a little tougher for the fans to watch, but as a coach, when you get a regional championship, we’re happy.”
In Division 4, Martin captured its first regional crown since 1995 by holding a Colon team to its third-lowest point total of the season in the Clippers’ 42-31 win.
Colon was coming off a win over St. Joseph Michigan Lutheran in which the Magi sank 12 3-pointers, but Martin held them to three makes from beyond the arc.
Senior Briana Warner led Martin with 19 points, including a 6 of 7 mark from the foul line, while sophomore Cirsten Coburn added 12 points.
“What a phenomenal, gutsy performance our girls gave tonight,” Martin coach Ben Schipper said. “The success we have had this season has been so rewarding. I’m so proud of our girls for their consistent effort and execution. We continue to rise to the occasion… Bri was the steady force for us tonight. When we needed a bucket, she got it for us. She is the glue of our defense and held No. 23 (Reese Williams) scoreless tonight.”
Martin also defeated Colon, 40-23, in last year’s regional semifinals, but two days later, the Clippers lost their shot at a regional title when the playoffs were postponed and later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Clippers graduated three four-year starters from that team, but have relied on some newcomers like Coburn and freshman Makala Goddard, while seeing other players, such as Warner and Gracie Shettler (7 points), step into bigger roles.
“This one feels very, very rewarding,” Schipper said. “I don’t want to make it about last year because these girls deserve all the credit on this team, but last year to have it pulled away from us the day of the regional finals, and then to be able to do it this year, it just felt that much more rewarding than I ever thought it would.”
Schipper said his team’s quest for that elusive regional title started in the summer under unique circumstances caused by the pandemic, but his players never lost hope and have steadily improved every step of the way.
“With all the rules that were put into place, we had to get creative, and we did everything by the book. We wanted to do it the right way, so we were doing four-player workouts out on the playground at the school. We did the fall workouts, even when we didn’t even know if we were going to be able to have a season, and we had girls showing up wearing masks every single day, just doing everything the right way,” Schipper said. “We were just hoping that it was going to pay off, and from the very beginning, our goal was to just be playing the very best basketball at the end of the year.
“I don’t like having a set goal for the team; I just want us to be our best at the end of the year, and this team has really taken that to heart.
“We’re young, and we knew coming into this year there were going to be some growing pains, but all along, the girls were resilient, and they wanted to be pushed, they wanted coach VandenBerg and I to get on them and make them better, and we did that day in and day out.” “We’re a completely different team; that’s how far we’ve come,” Schipper added of his team’s growth. “If we had not progressed throughout the season, we would not be here right now. I mean, every single girl has improved by leaps and bounds.”
Martin (11-5) advances to Monday’s 7 p.m. state quarterfinals, where it will face Fowler (13-4) at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix.
The Eagles ended the regular season ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Division 4 poll, and they defeated Athens 62-32 in their regional championship contest.
“Just looking at scores, Fowler obviously had a pretty dominant season,” Schipper said. “I know Athens’ record was really good -- I think they only had one loss -- so it looks like they manhandled some teams pretty easily. It will be interest interesting to see what their team looks like when we get some film and figure out a game plan.”
Schoolcraft (14-2) also has it its work cut out when it faces Division 3 No. 3 Kent City 7 p.m. Monday at Portage Northern.
Kent City sank 14 3-pointers in its 69-23 regional championship win over Grand Rapids Covenant Christian, and the Eagles opened the season with 125 points in a runaway win over Lakeview, so the chances Schoolcraft’s holds its next opponent under 20 points are pretty slim.
“I’m aware of who they are. I know who Kenzie Bowers is, I know she’s a Miss Basketball candidate, and I know she’s a D-I player,” Kulczyk said of Kent City and its star player and Illinois State signee. “I know they’re going to get after us, which nobody does down here in Southwest Michigan, so we’re going to have our hands full, but I also know if we execute and we shoot the ball well, anything can happen.
“You can’t call it March Madness anymore because it’s April -- I don’t know; they’ve got to come up with a new term -- but we’ll believe, and we’ll be ready, and we’re going to give it our best shot.”
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