EAST LANSING — Brenna Thelen remembers watching from the stands in 2019 as the Pewamo-Westphalia girls basketball captured a state championship.
That experience inspired her and others to want to do the same when she got to high school.
And Thelen played a key role in the Pirates getting back to that final stage for the first time since that 2019 championship this season.
Things didn’t end as Thelen and teammates ultimately hoped as a championship slipped away in the final quarter for the Pirates in their 52-36 loss to Jackson Lumen Christi in a Division 3 state final at Michigan State’s Breslin Center on Saturday, March 21.
But the Pirates are proud of what they accomplished this season in finishing as one of the state’s top teams.
“I’m very proud,” Thelen said. “This experience is just something you dream of and I’m just grateful to have done it with this group and just worked hard every day for this.”
Alonna Thelen agreed and thought it was special for the Pirates to to add to the school’s athletic success with their run to the title game. Saturday capped a strong winter sports season for the school with state titles in boys basketball and competitive cheer. The state runner-up finish was the fourth for the Pirates in girls basketball.
“P-W has brought a lot of championships home and not a whole lot for girls basketball so we’re so happy to add a fnalist to that list,” she said.
The Pirates were plagued by a rough final quarter that derailed their bid for their second state title in program history. Lumen Christi went on a 12-2 run over the opening five minutes of the final quarter.to gain control of a game that was tied at 34 after three quarters.
P-W didn’t have a field goal in the final quarter and its lone points came on a pair of free throws by Alonna Thelen.
“We played a great 24 to 26 minutes and it just kind of got away from us a little bit and then we started taking tougher shots as the pressure and the lead built for them,” P-W coach Steve Eklund said while flanked by seniors Alonna Thelen, Brenna Thelen and Elly Bengel.
“We’ve got a great program. We’ve had a great program for almost probably some 40, 50 years now. These three seniors established that foundation isn’t breaking.”
Bengel had 12 points to lead the Pirates in her final career game before she heads off to play at Lansing Community College. She became the ninth player in school history to surpass 1,000 career points in late February, but was proud to help the Pirates achieve one of their top goals after their 2025 season ended in a regional final.
“It’s been meaningful to see how hard that we’ve worked to get to come here and play here,” Bengel said. “It’s just something that we wanted to work hard for and get at the beginning of the season. We did get that goal, but we just didn’t end out how we would like.”
Star sophomore Kenna Hunt finished with a game-high 21 points for Lumen Christi, including a 3 to start the fourth quarter that started the strong finish for the Titans.
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway and Bluesky @briancalloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Pewamo-Westphalia girls basketball falls in D3 state final
Reporting by Brian Calloway, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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