Canton Beats Grand Blanc to Win KLAA Championship

hosted Grand Blanc Thursday night to play for the KLAA girls basketball championship.

In a lopsided win, the only lead Grand Blanc saw was when it scored the first basket of the game. The Chiefs held their opponents off throughout the contest to win the KLAA championship, 47-31.

“It’s good because it means we’re then best in all four of the divisions,” Canton’s Robyn Mack said. “So it’s good to say we’re number one. My teammates did well, as always. Sara (Schmitt) had to leave early, so it was a big void to fill, but we did pretty well with that.”

It took Canton over two minutes to score, but when it did, the Chiefs didn’t want to stop, going on a 10-0 run, setting a tone for the game.

In an unusual turn of events, two of Canton’s top players, the Schmitt twins, had to leave the game early because they both also play hockey and are in the state championship game in that sport as well. Sara Schmitt played the first half, while sister, Kari, made it through the third quarter.

“We had some other kids that rotated in, stepped up and played,” Canton coach Brian Samulski said. “When you’ve got a group of five seniors, where four of them are going to play Division 1 (college) in different sports, it’s something in the past three years we’ve had to work with, you just got to roll with it.”

Coach Samulski praised great defense and his players stepping up to fill the void left by the Schmitt twins.

“Thirty-one points isn’t bad” said Samulski, referring to the defense his squad played against Grand Blanc. “I thought we were able to wear them out as the game went on. We wanted to pressure their guards, get after them and make it hard on (Sharteta) Brown inside. For the most part, I thought we did a good job of that. We sagged a little bit. Our whole thing was guards [Destiny Stephens and Brown], and make one of those other kids step up and make some shots and for the most part, I thought that worked well.”

Kayla Bridges, who led her team in scoring with 13 points, was thrilled with the victory, but knew it wouldn’t come easy with the Bobcats senior, Brown, on the court.

“It feels great to have the privilege to play for it and win it, it’s a great feeling,” Bridges said. “It shows our team is doing its work. We were dealt a tough task with guarding [Brown] today. Guarding her is going to come along with some fouls. We got in some foul trouble, but I think our team handled it well, having two of our big dogs out.”

Grand Blanc coach, Megan Noll praised Canton’s play but felt her team took too long to adjust to Canton’s style of play.

“Canton is fabulous. Their disciplined, they see backdoor cutters very well, they’re well balanced,” Noll said. “They’ve got five players on the court at all times that can score.”