Grand Blanc's dialed-up defense bounces Belleville in Division 1 girls semifinal

EAST LANSING — It was a scene we’ve seen countless times this March, the clock winding down and players standing with tears in their eyes.

That is the way it was Friday afternoon on the Breslin Center court with Grand Blanc’s Chelsea Bishop and Rayven McQueen standing there together, arm in arm.

“I started crying right at the end of the game,” Bishop admitted. “It was me and Raven. There were 3 seconds left. I told her we can’t start crying until it’s 0:00.”

Soon enough, the clock expired, and the tears flowed for Bishop and her teammates.

Together they had pulled off a major upset in knocking off Belleville, 54-45, to move into Saturday’s Division 1 state championship against West Bloomfield (12:15 p.m.).

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The championship game assignment will be an even tougher test for Grand Blanc. In the last regular-season game, the Lakers throttled the Bobcats, 67-28.

Talk to the Grand Blanc players and they will tell you they expected to win the semifinal game even though they had never been this far before.

It helped No. 6 Grand Blanc (23-4) that No. 5 Belleville (24-3) clearly was not ready to play from the jump.

The team did not arrive at the Breslin Center until 15 minutes before the game began, and it showed when Grand Blanc took a quick 10-0 lead.

By the end of the first quarter, the Bobcats had a 19-4 lead and it appeared the rout was on.

Bishop knew this was not going to be a rout; she let her teammates know they were going to be in for a long second half.

“When we got off to a big start, I kind of had a feeling that in the second half they would be coming out playing their game, because that’s how it usually tends to go,” Bishop said. “But we held our composure. We kept playing defense.”

As expected, Belleville rallied to make a game of it. The Tigers finally hit shots they had been making all season as they narrowed the gap.

Sydney Savoury, Belleville’s freshman sensation, hit only two of her first 12 shots but finished the third quarter nailing consecutive 3-pointers to give Belleville a 37-35 lead.

That is the point when a team with no state tournament success usually folds like a cheap suit: Hey, they gave it their best shot for three tremendous quarters, but what did they expect, a miracle?

Then it was time for a few words from Bishop, the team leader who has signed with Alabama A&M.

“I told them in the huddle — we didn’t come this far to go home,” she said. “I told them we’re going to make it to the end.”

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In the third quarter and the early part of the fourth, Belleville had become the aggressor, which bothered the Bobcats.

Bishop wanted to turn the tables again.

“Hey, we can’t hold our heads down,” she said in a huddle. “We can’t give up so we’ve got keep pushing to apply pressure, because they were applying pressure to us so we had to apply it back.”

Belleville led by two when Bishop was fouled and made two free throws with 5:26 left to play. After a defensive stop, Bishop attacked the basket and scored, because no one attacks the basket quite like the 5-foot-10 Bishop, who plays tough inside with the quickness of a guard.

“I was just thinking to attack,” Bishop said. “Before the game, they tell me there’s nobody out there like me. And I really don’t think nobody’s out there like me. Nobody can stop me from getting to the rim. I decided to prove that.”

Grand Blanc also turned up the defensive intensity. No longer were the Tigers able to get open looks at the basket.

Over the last six minutes, Belleville hit only one shot over eight possessions.

“Keep them from shooting,” Bishop said. “We know who their best shooter are, and they started to get hot in the second half. So we had to stop them.”

Savoury is Belleville’s best shooter and Grand Blanc made things difficult for her; she made just nine of 22 shots, including a 3-for-9 mark beyond the arc, for 24 points.

“Last time she shot it, she made it in my face, even with a hand up,” Bishop said. “I said I had to body on her, I had to be all up on her because she’s not going to shoot it.”

Bishop scored 13 points and proved to be a thorn in the Tigers' side all afternoon.

“She’s really aggressive,” Belleville coach Jason Wilkins said. “She don’t settle for jump shots, she likes to get into the paint. She’s a great offensive rebounder and she can finish with either hand. She’s not a college D-I player for nothing.’’

But for one more day, Bishop is a high school player. She and her teammates will be back at the Breslin attempting to complete what seemed like a near-impossible dream only three weeks ago.

Grand Blanc has been a top-10 team most of the season, meaning the Bobcats don't quite qualify as a Cinderella squad, but they weren't a favorite to reach the state championship game, until the Belleville win.

“They’re a good team, I’ll give them credit, they’re really good,” Bishop said of Belleville. “All of their players are good, but we’re good, too. We’ve still got athleticism, too. We’ve got everything that they have, so we just had to throw back what they threw at us.”

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him @mickmccabe1.

Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Grand Blanc dials up defense in Division 1 girls basketball semi upset