GRAND RAPIDS — Following Friday’s Division 3 semifinal win over Ypsilanti Arbor Prep, Pewamo-Westphalia coach Steve Eklund talked passionately about winning the state championship for all the Pirate teams that couldn’t take the final step in the past.
Ten different times, P-W had played into the final week, falling in three quarterfinals, four semis and three championship games — most recently two years ago.
Saturday, the Pirates finally broke through with a 40-33 win over Flint Hamady at Calvin College.
The girls’ state crown comes just one week after the Pirate boys won a state championship with a last-second win over Iron Mountain.
Droste was a freshman on the P-W team that fell in the 2017 state final by two points to Detroit Edison.
Saturday’s title wasn’t handed to P-W, either. After the Pirates led, 20-14, at halftime, Hamady dialed up its defense in the third quarter. The Hawks got more physical and forced 12 P-W turnovers, including 10 in a row over a five-minute stretch which saw the Hawks pull to 29-24.
Following Hannah Spitzley’s 3-pointer with 3:00 remaining in the third, the Pirates didn’t score another field goal the rest of the way, though they did sink 8 of 12 free throws to prevent Hamady from leading at any point during the game.
And even though the 6-foot Spitzley — P-W’s tallest player — fouled out with four minutes remaining, the Hawks could only play up the height advantage into two more points, as Aryana Naylor posted up with 4.1 seconds left.
It was tough to watch from the bench for Spitzley, who only fouled out of one game before, back in her freshman year.
“This year, I’ve been getting into some bad foul trouble, but we’ll figure it out for next year,” said Spitzley, a Western Michigan commit.
Despite giving a few inches away height-wise, the Pirates were tough on the boards, outrebounding the Hawks 32-19 and limiting Hamady’s 6-2 Naylor to six points and 6-1 forward Treshondra Williams to seven.
Ellie Droste, a Grand Valley signee, had a game-high 18 points. Rachel Huhn had 10, and Spitzley added eight.
Even with the comeback, Hamady missed 14 shots in the low post during the second half.