East Lansing — It was already a historic season for Utica Eisenhower before it stepped on the court to play Muskegon in a Division 1 state semifinal on Friday.
Unfortunately for Eisenhower, the biggest piece of history it wanted to make will have to wait at least one more year.
Advancing to the state’s Final Four for the first time since 1982, featuring a roster with seven sophomores and a freshman, Eisenhower didn’t quite have enough to topple a powerful Muskegon team, which earned a 69-46 victory over Eisenhower at Michigan State’s Breslin Center.
Muskegon (25-2), which has a rich history as an athletic program, advanced to its first state championship game ever in girls basketball, to be played at 12:15 p.m. Saturday.
Meanwhile, Eisenhower will take all it learned from this experience, improve even more over the summer and start the process of trying to get back to this point and beyond.
“We talked about, ‘Why not us?” Eisenhower coach Madison Ristovski said of this season. “Why not this group of kids? They believe in themselves. To be at the Final Four, the way we did it this year, it was just believing in ourselves. Just keeping moving forward and we have high hopes for the future.”
Eisenhower (24-3) knew it would have a challenge not previously seen this season trying to score against a Muskegon defense that came in allowing just 29.5 points per game.
Eisenhower did just fine in the first quarter, scoring almost half of that amount to take a 14-13 lead going into the second quarter.
But Muskegon really turned up the pressure at that point.
Eisenhower only scored 14 points combined in the second and third quarters, falling behind 44-28 going into the fourth.
“I thought they were a very good man-to-man team,” Ristovski said. “They did a good job of trying to get us out of the paint. We’re pretty good at getting into the paint and drawing defenders and kick out for shots. I thought they were really physical.”
Eisenhower managed to get its offense going again in the fourth, attacking the basket and getting to the free-throw line to climb over the 40-point mark with 5:24 remaining.
However, Eisenhower couldn’t put a dent in its deficit because Muskegon kept answering with baskets of its own. Muskegon ultimately stretched its lead to 63-42 with 2:37 remaining after a layup by Miss Basketball runner-up Mariah Sain, who led all scorers with 25 points.
One of Eisenhower’s invaluable seniors who provided leadership to a young roster all year, Gabby Gojcaj, scored 11 points to lead Eisenhower.
“They just need to keep the faith, keep the energy and just stay together,” Eisenhower senior Natalya Stojcevski said of the underclassmen who will return. “They can definitely be back here next year.”
Trips to the free-throw line were certainly a prominent theme of the game, with the teams combining for 67 free-throw attempts.
Muskegon went 28 of 43 from the free-throw line, while Eisenhower was 16 of 24.
Keith Dunlap is a freelance writer.
Division 1
FRIDAY’S SEMIFINALS
Muskegon 69, Utica Eisenhower 46
Detroit Renaissance 32, DeWitt 28
SATURDAY’S FINAL
Muskegon (25-2) vs. Detroit Renaissance (23-2), 12:15 p.m.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Muskegon overpowers Utica Eisenhower in Division 1 girls basketball semifinals
Reporting by Keith Dunlap, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
