Pioneers ride 3rd-quarter charge into Division 2 championship game
Brad Emons
EAST LANSING – By the end of the first half, the light bulb began to flicker on for the Detroit Edison girls basketball team.
And by the end of the third quarter, things were shining brightly as the Pioneers extended a 10-point halftime lead into a 63-46 win over Negaunee in the Division 2 semifinals on Friday night at Breslin Center.
Junior guard Isis Johnson-Musah led Edison (22-3) with 16 points and seven assists. Senior guard Myana Cooksey added 13, while senior point-guard Devin Hagemann contributed 11.
“It hasn’t sunk in just yet, I think it’s pretty good,” said the 5-foot-5 Hagemann said. “We have a good team. This is my last year and my sister (DeeDee) wasn’t able to finish out her (senior) year because of COVID (2020 season), so it feels amazing.”
Hagemann, an East Carolina commit, came through with nifty reverse layup followed by a pivotal 3-pointer from the wing to key that third quarter run.
“Today is Devin’s (18th) birthday,” Edison 12th-year coach Monique Brown said. “At one point I said, ‘Shoot it,’ she shot it and I said ‘Happy birthday.’ And that kind of got her going. I said a couple of words to her before the third quarter started. When she shot that 3 and made it, it was like, ‘Let’s go.’”
After Edison took a 10-7 first quarter advantage, Negaunee tied it at 16-all on a pair of free throws by Aubrey Johnson with 4:44 left in the half.
But the Pioneers went on a 15-6 run to end the second quarter and put it away with a third-quarter charge, led by East Carolina commit Devin Hagemann’s nine points. Her 3pointer and a nifty reverse layup to spark extend their lead to 48-31 heading into the fourth.
Negaunee (26-2) got a heroic 25-point scoring effort from senior guard Ella Mason, but she couldn’t match the Pioneers, who used a balanced attack.
Mason was 9 of 18 shooting, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range, but nobody else scored in double figures for the Miners, who brought a large contingent of fans from the Upper Peninsula.
“I just had to find a way to keep us close, I just had to starting making shots,” said Mason, who averages 20 points per game and will play next year at Michigan Tech. “They’re very athletic, they’re a very good team all-around. We don’t see that athleticism or see that size in the U.P., so it was different than what we were playing against all year.”
Edison shot an impressive 48% from the floor (28 of 57) and outrebounded the Miners, 33-24.
“Obviously, way too many leak-outs and easy transition layups and that hurt us,” Negaunee fifth-year coach Mike O’Donnell said. “We missed a couple of shots — and if we could have made those in that quarter — it could have been a little tighter. Missed some free throws, a little uncharacteristic for us. But I was proud of how we battled. Edison is very good. We respect their program. We watched what they’ve done here in the last five years understanding the players they have and the coach they have. And they showed they’re one of the top teams in the state, regardless of division.”
Negaunee’s free throw shooting was also an issue. The Miners made just 9 of 17 from the line (53%).
“Their size obviously bothered us,” O’Donnell said. “We haven’t that size this year, maybe the closest was Ishpeming (D3 finalist) when we played them. The quickness ... the athleticism on the transition up and down the floor.”
Edison, meanwhile, is looking to notch its fifth state title in school history. The Pioneers captured D2 state titles in 2022 and 2019, along with Class C in 2018 and 2017.
“We’re just really glad to be back here,” Brown said. “Our seniors — Myana, Devin and Na’kiya — they were here as sophomores (in 2022) and we have a chance to finish it out with a victory. Last year, that stung and we just had that on my mind the whole year, the whole summer, the whole year, we worked really. And to see us work hard and to be able to sit back here to get a chance to win again is an awesome feeling right now.”