Sports

Blue Devils Wrap Up Division Crown

Victory over Cousino earns South MAC White title.

It wasn’t an ordinary game and everyone in the gym Tuesday night knew.

When the Grosse Pointe South Blue Devils girls basketball team jogged onto the floor before the home crowd for warm-ups, there was a smattering of applause from the stands.

“We knew what tonight meant, and that it was a big game,” South coach Kevin Richards said. “I think everyone knew.”

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The reason it was a big game for South was simple – a win wraps up a Macomb Area Conference White Division title.

Standing between the squad and this crown was a very good basketball team in division foe, Warren Cousino.

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“They’re a really good team, and Cousino gets up to play us and we get up to play them,” the coach said. “It’s become kind of a rivalry over the past few years. And the other thing was if we win tonight we the league outright. Put those things together and you have a pretty big game.”

Despite a first half where the team’s nerves might have hindered the team offensively, the defense was spot on, earning the squad a, 48-34, victory over the Patriots and a second division title in as many years.

“We stared out slow this season, we did,” Richards said. “For whatever reason, but we learned from it, and that’s what we needed to do. I’m just really happy for this team and for Aisha (Rodney) especially.”

Rodney is the team’s lone senior.

Tuesday night’s contest, particularly the second half, was typical Blue Devils basketball–a smothering defensive effort, coupled with athletic play on both ends of the floor.

“I think in the second half we did a much better job of getting out on the break,” Richards said. “It’s something we try to do every game, but we did a good job, I thought, in the second half tonight which led to some easy baskets.”

Getting out on the break is only part of the equation, however.

South is a one of the few teams that has the speed (junior Caitlin Moore is one of the fastest players in the MAC), the athletic ability to run the break consistently and seamlessly, and the skill to make an accurate long pass while being pressured.

The combination of this ability led to 18 second-half fast-break points for the Blue Devils–and fueled a 12-2 run to open the third quarter, essentially putting the Patriots away.

Despite this stellar closing half, the first half saw the Blue Devils struggle on the offensive, scoring just 14 points before the break and committing numerous turnovers that were very uncharacteristic of a club playing as well as any team in the conference.

The big-game atmosphere might have played a part, the coach says, but so did the play of Cousino.

“I think it would be hard not to think about it,” Richards said, in regards to whether nerves played a part in the team’s 14-point first half showing. “But, you have to remember they really packed it in on us and took some things away that we did well the last time. It was an ugly half, but luckily our defense was there.”

Cousino only managed to score nine points in the opening half.

Moore led all scorers with 21 points for South, while Rodney finished the game with 15 points.

With only a few games left in the regular season and the division title already sewn up, the playoffs, which tip off Feb. 28 at home, are certainly on the collective minds of everyone involved with the program—more specifically, a showdown with rival Grosse Pointe North in the opener Feb. 28 beginning at 7 p.m.

South fell to the Norsemen earlier in the season, 52-41, at North. 


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