Lady Cardinals Win District Championship

Michigan Center celebrates with the district trophy. Photos by Sara Scaife, JTV Sports.

David Rice | JTV Sports

Friday, March 8th

(3-8-2024, 10:30PM): Springport came as close as four, but the defense of the Lady Cardinals was too much, as Michigan Center won another Girls Basketball District Championship on Friday night at Springport High School.

Freshman McKynley Gaddy scored seven points in the opening quarter for the Cardinals. Hailey Mees opened the game with five and Aaralyn Tripp added exceptional defense with two first-quarter blocks. Rylee Siefert scored four in the first for Springport as MC led 12-6 after one.

Springport opened up the second quarter on a mission, scoring six straight to cut it to a 5-point deficit just over a minute into play. Four different Spartans scored in the second including Chloey Speer leading with five points. Michigan Center still led by six (23-17) going into the halftime break.

Michigan Center opened the second half with a run of their own, scoring six of the first eight points in the third to make it 29-19 with 5:38 left. Hailey Mees exploded in the third, scoring 10 for the Cardinals. 

Maddux Locke scored four straight to cut it to the game’s closest point: 34-30 with 2:28 left. But, the Cardinals never looked back the rest of the way, as they led 40-33 after three quarters. 

They were able to pull away and walk off with a 57-42 victory over Springport on Friday night. Hailey Mees finished with 19 points for Michigan Center, McKynley Gaddy and Samantha Wynn each added 13. Rylee Siefert led Springport with 14 points.

Michigan Center (21-3) will play Jonesville (14-10) in the Regional Semifinal on Monday (3/11) at Leslie High School at 5:30pm. 

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