Mason, Mich. — It has been one of the mottos of the DeWitt girls basketball team all season: “Don’t sleep on us.”
The Panthers were to prove they could make some noise in the Division 1 state tournament despite losing two 1,000-point scorers from their 2025 team that made a run to the state quarterfinals.
And DeWitt made a loud statement on Tuesday.
The Panthers earned a trip to Breslin Center with a stunning 48-41 upset victory of defending state champion Belleville in a Division 1 quarterfinal at Mason High School.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” DeWitt’s Jaynie English said. “I can’t even believe that we just pulled this off, but I knew we could do it. We had a great mindset going into the game. We all just stuck as a team and we played together and we did what DeWitt knows how to do best.”
DeWitt (22-4) handed Belleville (25-2) just its third loss over its past 56 games since the start of the 2024-25 season while advancing to face Detroit Renaissance in a state semifinal. The Panthers avenged last year’s state quarterfinal loss to Belleville while reaching the state semifinals for the first time since 2015.
“That team is loaded,” DeWitt coach Bill McCullen said of Belleville, which features Miss Basketball finalist and Marquette signee Se’Crette Carter and one of the nation’s top prospects in the 2027 class in Sydney Savoury. “We had a lot of respect for what the challenge was tonight. Credit to our kids and credit to our coaching staff.”
DeWitt trailed by 11 in the second half and faced a 35-28 deficit heading into the final quarter before mounting a strong finish. English and Golden Nicholson each made big plays in the final quarter to help send the Panthers to Breslin.
English had nine points in the fourth, which included a 3 that tied the game at 37 and then hit the go-ahead basket with 2:30 to play.
Nicholson had all five of her points in the final 1:05, hitting some key free throws and also grabbing some key rebounds.
“It was a good feeling because I tried as hard as I could to provide for my team,” Nicholson said.
Seniors Carly Dennis and Sophia Beland were also key throughout to help DeWitt continue its run. Dennis had six of her 12 points in the final quarter, while Beland had 11 points.
McCullen said it was rewarding to see his players have a moment like Tuesday as they celebrated with classmates, family and other supporters on the court.
“For this team, the biggest thing was for us to try to build that confidence knowing that we had graduated some really good players off of a team that broke 10 program records last year,” McCullen said. “These kids were part of that, some bigger roles than others, but they were all kind of around it and learned some things. I’m just so excited for them to now get that opportunity to go to East Lansing for finals weekend. It’s a great experience.”
Savoury finished with 23 points to lead Belleville.
Girls quarterfinals
Division 1
At Hudsonville
Muskegon 54, Grand Haven 28
At Mason
DeWitt 48, Belleville 41
At Detroit Mercy
Detroit Renaissance 67, Dearborn 29
Utica Eisenhower 57, Fraser 43
Division 2
At Hudsonville Unity Christian
Grand Rapids South Christian 61, Grand Rapids West Catholic 48
At Chelsea
Tecumseh 75, Carleton Airport 44
At St. Clair County Community College
Goodrich 58, Detroit Country Day 30
Division 3
At Houghton Lake
Roscommon 67, Morley Stanwood 63 (OT)
At Kalamazoo Loy Norrix
Niles Brandywine 50, Hart 38
At Ypsilanti Lincoln
Jackson Lumen Christi 64, Plymouth Christian Academy 32
At Millington
Pewamo-Westphalia 55, Cass City 33
Division 4
At Cadillac
Onekama 38, Frankfort 33
At Mason
Portland St. Patrick 29, Concord 21
At West Bloomfield
Kingston 29, Morenci 21
Freelance writer Nathan Korp contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Prep roundup: DeWitt stuns defending champ Belleville in girls basketball quarterfinals
Reporting by Brian Calloway, USA TODAY Network / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
