Michigan: Husband-Wife Duo Bidding for Titles

By John Raffel

MaxPreps.com

It's not often that a husband and wife team are coaching different high school basketball teams at the same time.

It's also not often that both win the state championships at the same time. But the possibility exists at Cedarville, the small eastern Upper Peninsula school that produced a boys state championship in 2007.

The Cedarville boys team is still in the postseason, hoping for back-to-back state titles.

Tuesday night, the Cedarville girls won their quarterfinal game against Iron Mountain North Dickinson 63-54 and plays later in the week against Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart in the state semifinals.

Sonja Duncan is the coach for Cedarville's girls basketball team while her husband David Duncan is coaching the boys. The girls are 24-1 after their quarterfinal victory.

"The kids are working together very well," Sonja Duncan said. "The kids are handling the ball well."

Billie McLeod is averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds a game. Sonya's daughter, Jessica Duncan, is averaging 16 points and five steals.

"Our only loss was to St. Ignace, the second game of the season," Duncan said. "The girls had been in the regional play of volleyball and I didn't have them very long before they played that first game."

More Girls Basketball

Portland is still alive in the state girls basketball tournament after surviving a battle of unbeatens late last week with Midland Bullock Creek in the regional title game.

Both teams entered the game at 24-0. But Portland escaped at 25-0 with a 43-41 victory.

Lindsey Pettit led the winners in the game with 18 points, but slumped at the free throw line with a 1-of-8 clip in the fourth quarter. For the game, Portland was 14-of-30 from the line but still pulled it out.

"We usually shoot free throws a lot better than that," Pettit said.

"We were able to find other ways to win the game," Portland coach Ray Kimball said.

On Tuesday of this week in the quarterfinals, Portland defeated Ludington 51-32. Pettit scored 31 points in that game, which put her team in the state semifinals for the first time in 25 years.

"Our defensive effort was great against Ludington," Kimball said.

Boys Basketball

This is the second of the three-week boys basketball postseason playoffs. But getting to this round is never easy.

It wasn't for 40 years for Belding's basketball team, which won its first district title since 1967. Belding ended its long-time drought with a 59-56 victory over Portland.

Belding was down by 14 points late in the third quarter.

"Now we won't have to worry about hearing not having won it in 41 years," Belding head coach Brian Babbitt said. "This is a great thing for our program."

But on Tuesday of this week, Belding took on 22-2 Frankenmuth and its Mr. Basketball candidate Bradley Redford, who scored 39 points in an 80-75 victory for Frankenmuth.

Frankenmuth led 25-24 after the first period.

"It was a shootout in the first period and Belding hung tough," Frankenmuth coach Tim Crawford said. "They played aggressive and did a nice job."

Wrestling

Four state wrestling champions were crowned in Michigan Saturday at Battle Creek, including Greenville, which won its first state title in school history.

Greenville defeated Eaton Rapids 33-30 in the championship match. Justin Drobish got a pin at 189 pounds for Greenville against Jared Grant, who had a 44-11 record.

"Getting a pin on him was a great start," Yellow Jacket head coach Paul Johnson said. "Then to come back and win the next three matches for a 15-0 lead was big."

Greenville ended the season at 28-1.

Jordan Miller also won by pin for Greenville.

"The whole community deserves a state championship," Johnson said. "It's a tribute to all the things the community has done for us over the year. There have been a lot of setbacks in Greenville over the years. The community deserves something like this. This is for everybody."

Other state wrestling champions were Holt in Division 1, Goodrich in Division 3 and Hesperia in Division 4.