Country Day Girls Basketball Undefeated for 2nd Straight Year

Detroit Country Day guard Amber Deane had one wish for her birthday on Tuesday. The junior wanted a win over University Prep to give the girls varsity basketball team its second consecutive undefeated regular season.

Her wish came true.

“Soon as I woke this morning, that’s all I wanted,” she said after scoring 12 points in the Yellowjackets' 64-35 win. 

The girl’s varsity team will head into the playoffs next week with an 18-0 record. Country Day hasn’t lost a regular season game in two years, with the team's last regular season loss a 46-45 defeat to East Lansing on Feb. 24, 2009.

“I’m very proud of them,” Coach Frank Orlando said. “We’ve built a tradition and they’ve really lived up to it." 

That tradition includes more than 600 wins for Orlando and 10 championship titles. Country Day has made the Class B finals three years in a row and won championships in 2009 and 2008. Last year’s squad was one win away from making it three consecutive championships, but lost in the finals to Catholic Central 51-43.

The Yellowjackets graduated a trio of impressive seniors last year in Madison Williams, Troy Hambric and Imari Redfield. Williams, a 6-foot-7 center, was a McDonald's All-American and Michigan's Gatorade Player of the Year in 2010.  

With all the talent leaving, not everyone was as high on Country Day as they were in the previous two seasons. That was on Deane’s mind after the Tuesday night win.

“This season was a little bit different,” Deane said. “People were kind of doubting us a little bit from the beginning. This season (being undefeated) means a little bit more because we proved a lot of people wrong.”

Orlando knew the talent level on this year’s team matched up with his championship teams of the past, but he wasn’t sure how quickly it would all come together for them. He admitted that before the season began, he wasn't sure if the girls would continue to go undefeated because of the team's inexperience.

“I thought it was going to take some time to build and formulate what we were trying to do,” Orland said.

A combination of hard work and team chemistry quickly eliminated those doubts. Dean and Aerial Powers provided the leadership while fellow juniors Kasey Crockett and Mary Kate MacLean were among the players to step up and fill the void left by the previous year’s senior class. 

“The kids really found a way all year to overcome a lot of adversity and a lot of their inexperience by their willingness to learn and play hard,” Orlando said. “They're also good teammates — you can see that on the floor. They give the ball up and pass the ball. I think our team chemistry has also made the difference this year with our ballclub.”

That chemistry quickly developed with all the girls focused on one thing: "We want to win," Deane said.

Powers, who lead Country Day with 15 points on Tuesday, echoed those thoughts when she talked about the undefeated season. However, she spoke more about what comes next than achieving a perfect season.

“It feels great, but we got to focus on the future,” Powers said. “We had an undefeated season last year and came into the championship and lost. It feels great, but we have to still keep working.”

The Yellowjackets first district playoff game is Monday against Lamphere (3-10). All the games during district playoffs will be at Lamphere, with the winner taking on Clawson (4-9) on March 2 in the district semifinals.

According to Orlando, the postseason is no reason for his girls to get sloppy. “The playoffs are like a new season,” he said.

However one difference — and Orlando called it an advantage — the Yellowjackets will have going into the playoffs this year is their experience playing in close games.

“This is a team versus last year that dealt with being behind,” Orlando said. “We were hardly ever behind last year, we won big games by a lot. (This year) We really learned how to play within three and five points.”

Orlando pointed to close wins earlier in the season over Canton and Inkster — both three-point victories for Country Day — as games that tested the team’s character. In the game against Inkster, the Yellowjackets erased a 12-point deficit to come back and win.  

The rest of the week, Orlando said, will be spent preparing for the playoffs. As she and the team begins to prepare mentally for the stress of postseason, Powers only had one message to send to the rest of the Class B teams:

“I think we’re better than last year."