Traverse City Record-Eagle

Emmet County

March 20, 2009

Flint Hamady too much for McBain

BY MIKE ECKERT

YPSILANTI -- The basketball season ended for McBain Saturday the same way it started some three months ago in December... with a loss to a state champion.

The Ramblers battled early with top-ranked Flint Hamady at Eastern Michigan University, but couldn't match a third-quarter run as the Hawks earned the Class C state championship with a 63-48 victory.

"It's bittersweet," McBain senior center Jamie Geeseman said. "I've had (coach Todd Hamlet) for five years. It's great to get here, but it sucks all at the same time. It's the extremes. You go from one to the other."

"Our kids hate to lose and that's what I like about them," Todd Hamlet said. "But on the other hand, the balance part of it is really hard to deal with. You come in and you beat a 25-0 team in Napoleon, we played a great Houghton team coming out of the U.P. and we're riding high coming into this. Something like this goes on, and it's tough."

Losing was something the Ramblers (26-2) didn't do much of this season. McBain started the year with a 51-44 home loss to returning Class D state champion New Lothrop. The Hornets repeated as state champs Saturday with a 50-32 victory over Marine City Cardinal Mooney.

After the loss, McBain ran off 26 straight wins en route to an appearance in the Class C state finals, the first for the district since the Ramblers won the Class D title in 1984.

Coincidentally, it was a pair of wins against 3-point laden New Lothrop in Genesee Area Conference play that helped Flint Hamady to a 28-0 campaign and Saturday's Class C crown.

"We felt if we could defend New Lothrop, we could defend anyone in the state," Hawks coach Keith Smith said. "It's one thing to watch it on television, but to be out there defending them or coaching against them, it's not an easy task."

Defensively, Smith said he put senior forward Whitney Rogers on McBain freshman guard Annemarie Hamlet to try to disrupt the Ramblers' attack.

"They tried to take Annemarie out of the game a little bit and they did a nice job doing that," Todd Hamlet said. "She's a freshman. I thought she handled the pressure well, for the most part."

After trailing 28-22 at the half, McBain made a quick run to get back in the game. Macy Vanderhoef converted a lay-up off a steal before Annemarie Hamlet nailed two free throws after a hard foul to make it 28-28.

Hamady scored on a Kathryn Thomas bucket, but the Ramblers came right back when Geeseman got an offensive rebound and put-back for a 30-30 game with 5 minutes left in the third quarter.

And that would be as close as McBain would get as the Hawks closed the quarter on a 20-7 run.

"They kicked it up on us right when it was 30-30," Todd Hamlet said. "I kind of let it get away, I'll take responsibility for that. I probably should have taken a timeout a little earlier, but our team all year has been good at taking runs, taking hits. I just wanted to see if we could do it again because that usually gives us a little gas."

Thomas highlighted the run with 11 of her 15 points.

"Kathy brings a lot of energy to our team," all-state senior guard Jasmine Thomas said. "She's our sixth person, she brings great athleticism and quickness to the game and she leaped out and we found her."

Arlesia Morse also had 15 points for the Hawks while Jasmine Thomas had 13 points and India Hairston added 12 points and 12 rebounds.

"It's pretty much been that way," Smith said of the balanced attack. "On the offensive end, we have quite a few weapons. So if you try to over-play one, we try to move to the next option."

For Jasmine Thomas, Saturday's win was retribution two years in the making. Thomas -- who will play next year at Michigan State -- was the lone player on Hamady's roster Saturday to see action in the 65-56 state final loss to Saginaw Nouvel two seasons ago.

"The emotion I feel now can't compare to two years ago," she said. "It's amazing, exciting, I don't know how else to describe it."

McBain was led by two-time all-state senior Elizabeth Hamlet's 18 points. Morgan VanderVlucht had seven points while Vanderhoef and Annemarie Hamlet each had six.

Hamady, which scored 38 points in the paint, held a 37-24 advantage on the glass.

"I thought Jamie Geeseman, Elizabeth and Ashley VanHouten gave their heart out there tonight trying to keep them out of the middle," Todd Hamlet said. "I'm not going to take anything away from (them), I just felt Flint Hamady did a nice job crashing the boards. They keep coming at you.

"He only plays six or seven kids. We thought we could wear them out, but they kept coming after us today."

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