By David Fleet
Editor
East Lansing— The Lady Martians quest for a state title ended in the high school girls state semifinals on March 17. The Frankenmuth Eagles defeated the Goodrich Martians 37-30 in the Division 2 MHSAA State Semifinals at the Jack Breslin Event Center on the campus of Michigan State University.
A defensive battle, Goodrich trailed 13-10 at half and 22-19 at the end of the third quarter.
“It was not a very good half with only 10 points but we were only down by three points,” said Head Coach Jason Gray in his 24th season at the helm. “We should have been down by more but we were not. If we could have just taken the lead, in the fourth quarter. But it certainly was not due to a lack of effort.”
Alexis Kosmowski led the Martians with 14 points. Riley and Ella Place each had six points.
“Frankenmuth did a great job of controlling the pace of the game,” said Gray. “Good defense and they made it slower than we wanted to play.”
Coach Gray characterizes the team as extremely quiet.
“They’re not one attention or accolades,” he said. “They like playing basketball and being in the gym. There were some challenges this year with the attention they garnered for good reason.”
The Lady Martians (24-4) fought their way to the state semifinal championship by defeating Yale 60-32, Detroit Country Day 76-71 (3 OT) and Warren Regina in the Division 2 Quarterfinals.
Gray said the triple overtime Country Day win in the drive to the state semifinals was memorable.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be in another game like that one,” said Gray. “This team never gets up or down. We were trailing most of the game and down by 10 with three minutes left. There was no real panic. Clutch free-throws and shots. We just ran them out of players.”
The same mentality was reflected in the Lake Fenton win in the district finals, he said.
“These girls brought joy to the students and the community,” he said. “The support from the school and the ‘clap outs’ before the game was amazing. This will never be forgotten, it’s a great legacy. Glad the team could see the support.”
Under coach Gray the Lady Martians have made it to the state finals five times.
In 2012 the Goodrich Lady Martians won the Class B state title defeating Grand Rapids Catholic Central 60-53 and in 2013 Goodrich defended their state crown by topping Flint Powers Catholic 51-34 at the Jack Breslin Center on the campus of MSU site of the MHSAA State Championship. At one point during the 2011-13 season the teams tallied 77 wins in 82 games, including a 2012 perfect season at 28-0. The back-to-back state championships followed a double overtime loss to Dearborn Divine Child in the state semi- final Class B championship game on March 18. 2011 the Goodrich girls varsity basketball team completed an impressive postseason run after a stellar 24-2-0 season which included blasting the state’s top-ranked Class B team Detroit Country Day (24-1-0) on March 15.