MHSAA girls basketball: Fowler, led by Riley sisters, repeats for D4 title over PCA, 61-46

EAST LANSING — Fowler proved once again it can handle the bright lights of Michigan State's Breslin Center by repeating as Division 4 girls basketball champions Saturday morning with a 61-46 victory over Plymouth Christian Academy.

Fowler (24-3), which defeated PCA (22-5) for the second time this season, earned its third title in school history in its fifth MHSAA finals appearance.

Returning four of five starters from last year’s championship squad which demolished Bellaire, 54-20, the Eagles were led once again by the Riley sisters.

Mia Riley, a senior guard, finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, while Emma Riley, a junior guard, added 14 points.

“Last year the fans couldn’t come ... it just wasn’t the same environment,” Mia Riley said. “To be able to be have it this year and to be able to achieve everything we wanted ... it was such a great experience and I’m very glad to have gone through it with these group of girls.”

Other contributions came from Grace Epkey (10 points, 11 rebounds) and Taylor Weber (nine points off the bench).

Fowler held a 42-20 rebound advantage, including 15 on the offensive end and made seven 3-pointers to PCA’s five.

An expected tight game never materialized as the well-seasoned Lansing area school put the clamps on a PCA squad making its first-ever trip to Breslin. (Fowler took the regular season meeting, 43-35.)

Trailing by 13 at the half, PCA junior Morganne Houk heated up with 11 points in the third quarter, but Fowler countered with three straight 3-pointers to close out the period, including back-to-back 3s by Madison Wirth to lead 44-33.

“We play a lot of juniors, I’m so happy for her because she’s always ready to take that shot,” Fowler coach Nathan Goerge said of Wirth, only one of three seniors on the Eagles’ roster. “She hit a 3 in the finals last year, and kind of when there started to be a momentum swing, she came down and scored. And it felt to me at that time the momentum swung back our way.”

PCA, getting a game-high 23 points from senior guard Anna Fernandez, never got closer than nine the rest of the way. Houk scored 17.

“Our kids came to win, we came to put it all on the line, and so it was a little bit of a disappointment at the end, in terms of what they dreamed for and what they hoped for,” PCA coach Rod Windle said. “But I’m really proud of the effort these kids gave. They’re competitors. They dreamed big and they got after it tonight. We played a very good team that gave us some challenges. They beat us on the boards the first half a little bit.”

With 6:42 left in the second quarter, Fowler built a 16-7 lead on a basket by Mia Riley and extended its advantage to 27-14 by halftime on a scoop shot by Riley and a layup by Epkey during the final 43 seconds.

Three-pointers by Mia and Emma Riley staked Fowler to a 11-5 first-quarter advantage. PCA went 2 of 10 from the field, while Fowler made 4 of 14.

“The girls executed the gameplan pretty well with one day of practice,” Goerge said. “We kind of got back to our original defensive principles, and I thought they did a great job. Plymouth Christian is fantastic team with exceptional guard play. The challenge was to contain them and run them off the three-point line as best we could. Overall, I thought the girls did an amazing job defensively and I thought we rebounded really well all things considered.”

Fowler's section chanted “MVP, MVP’’ at the end of the game, when Riley stepped to the free-throw line.

“One of the best, if not probably one of the best leaders probably that we’ve ever had,” Goerge said. “I told her yesterday it’s going to be extremely sad to see her go. She’s been an awesome role model for little girls coming up through the program, and I’m just so happy for her that she got to go out this way.”

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Fowler, led by Riley sisters, wins MHSAA D4 girls basketball title