Glen Lake wins basketball state title

EAST LANSING — “Score!” Ruby Hogan said as she approached the postgame press conference podium and bottles of chocolate milk awaited the players.

Then the Glen Lake senior guard noticed her seat didn’t have a bottle in front of it. “Wait, I didn’t get one!” she exclaimed.

A Michigan High School Athletic Association employee then gave her two because she was so excited.

Hogan scored 19 points and Maddie Bradford had 28 to lead Glen Lake to a 60-43 win over Baraga in Saturday’s Division 4 girls basketball state championship game at the Breslin Center at Michigan State University.

“It feels like not even real right now that we get to make that history,” Lakers senior guard Gemma Lerchen said. “It’s amazing. We’re going to have our names up in that gym forever. That means a lot.”

The Lakers bring home the school’s first team state championship since winning the 2004 Class B-C-D boys skiing crown and the first girls team state title since skiing won in 1998 and 1999.

The title marks the first girls basketball state crown for a northwest Lower Michigan team since Frankfort went back-to-back in 2005 and 2006.

“That’s a good ballclub right there that we just played, and our girls fought right to the end,” Baraga second-year head coach Tyler Larson said of Glen Lake.

Glen Lake’s assistant coaches basked in the state championship as well.

Donna King was on the 1978 Glen Lake team that won the school’s last girls basketball title, and alumnus Liz Moeggenberg won the high school title on the same court where she starred for Michigan State from 2002-06.

“It’s very different from this perspective, but it’s really cool to come back to the Breslin,” Moeggenberg said. “It’s the greatest arena to play in for these girls. It can be very nerve-wracking. I remember my first time at Midnight Madness, going out there and the bright lights shining down. It’s nerve-wracking. But these girls, they have composure, a lot of maturity, and it was just an amazing ride with them.”