Smothering defense leads Fitzgerald to repeat district title
Spartans get past Center Line, 48-15
Friday’s district championship game at Hazel Park between Fitzgerald and Center Line started close.
Both teams traded buckets and the Panthers led midway through the first quarter — but when the Spartans switched from zone to man defense and pressured Center Line’s primary ballhandler, everything changed.
A 27-1 run between the second and third quarters propelled Fitzgerald to a 48-15 victory, earning themselves their second-straight district championship.
“It’s amazing for our school, for our community man,” said Fitzgerald head coach Juwan Shakespear. “Just to show that athletics is on the rise here at Fitz. Our boys team is doing well. They did well. We’re looking to turn this corner.
We’re looking to turn the corner and make sure Fitzgerald is not only an academic school but an athletic school.”
Center Line saw success in the first quarter while playing through freshman point guard Janiyah Thomas. She scored three points and helped facilitate on two other baskets, getting the Panthers to seven points by the end of the first.
But knowing that Thomas was only a freshman and that Center Line didn’t have anyone else comfortable with facilitating, they started bringing double and even triple teams. It forced Thomas to either turn it over or pass the ball — which often resulted in turnovers anyway.
Fitzgerald turned defense into offense, outscoring the Panthers 17-3 in the second quarter and 11-3 in the third. They pulled their starters midway through the third quarter.
“We’re so young,” said Center Line head coach Josh Banks. “Everybody knows about 22 (Thomas). I tell her every practice, like, hey, they’re going to start game planning for you, so we need to make sure you understand that. And our team has to know to make an adjustment for that.”
Janiya McWilliams, Kaylynn Millander and Asia Bowman were the primary benefactors of the defense-to-offense pipeline. Millander scored a game-high 19 points with 13 coming between the second and third quarters, McWilliams finished with 11 points and Bowman scored eight of her nine points in the second.
“We’re a feisty group,” Shakespear said. “We run. We lift. We’re going to be fast and strong if we’re going to do anything.”
That feistiness has earned the Spartans their 20th win of the sea