Top five contenders for the 2018-19 Class A title

Now that the dust has settled on the 2017-18 season, and its four newly-crowned champions, it’s a perfect time to look ahead to who might contend for state titles in the 2018-19 season. Don’t count out the defending champions from Saginaw Heritage, certainly, but the Hawks may face their stiffest competition from a couple of teams inside their own conference, the Saginaw Valley League, before they can set their sights on a return trip to Calvin College’s Van Noord Arena. If they do make it back, they could quite easily be joined by any or all of the rest of this year’s final four — Grosse Pointe North, Wayne Memorial and East Lansing — but the last two will have to overcome losing a Miss Basketball finalist or winner before they can commit to a long postseason run. <strong>Saginaw Heritage (27-1)</strong> The Hawks lose a pair of starters from their championship drive, in forward Madison Camp — who returned from injury to be a key cog as a senior — and University of Detroit-bound Jessica Bicknell, long one the state’s best snipers. But the cupboard certainly isn’t bare for coach Vonnie DeLong (107-14 in five seasons). Heritage still has do-it-all guard Moira Joiner, who’ll be on the short list of Miss Basketball candidates, as well as the powerful inside presence of rising senior Shine Strickland-Gills. Rising senior Mallory McCartney rebounded from shoulder and knee injuries to give the Hawks another outside threat in the postseason, recording double figures in points in seven of eight playoff games. &nbsp; [caption id="attachment_2208" align="alignright" width="250"] Flint Carman-Ainsworth's Destiny Strother (13) drives to the basket against Detroit Country Day in a regular-season meeting. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)[/caption] <strong>Flint Carman-Ainsworth (22-3)</strong> If the Cavaliers, winners of the Saginaw Valley League’s South Division, are going to get past Heritage — one of just two teams to beat Carman-Ainsworth in 2017-18 — it’s going to take finding a way to bust up the 2-3 zone. The Hawks employed the defense in both wins over the Cavs — 60-44 in the regular season and 63-40 in the regional finals that snapped a 16-game win streak for Carman-Ainsworth — and aren’t likely to change unless they have to. Coming off a school-record 22-win season, and losing just one senior to graduation, the Cavaliers — ranked No. 7 in the final Associated Press poll — certainly have the firepower to contend, with all-stater Destiny Strother joining Joiner on the Miss Basketball watch list, along with Xeriya Tartt and rising junior Aaliyah McQueen, who missed half of last season, after transferring from Goodrich. <strong>Muskegon (22-3)</strong> The Big Reds made the quarterfinals for the first time in program history, falling 63-45 to eventual runner-up East Lansing, and lose five seniors, including high-scoring Daz’sha Day, but there’s reason to believe they could still be a contender next season. They return a nucleus of rising senior Alyza Winston, rising junior Diynasti Dowell and rising sophomore Kailyn Nash, who will all have one more year of being able to gel together. Winston played only the second half of her junior season with Muskegon after transferring from Muskegon Mona Shores. The competition is cut-throat on the West side — just see No. 1-ranked, unbeaten East Kentwood, the defending Class A runner-up, not making it out of districts this postseason — but Muskegon has the parts to make a run. [caption id="attachment_2209" align="alignleft" width="250"] Grosse Pointe North's Julia Ayrault (40) drives to the bucket against Detroit King in the Class A quarterfinals. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)[/caption] <strong>Grosse Pointe North (20-6)</strong> The Norsemen have the one thing that helps most in making a deep run in the playoffs: a superstar player. Michigan State-bound Julia Ayrault is another of the favorites for the Miss Basketball award next winter, and she certainly proved that by dragging North to its first trip to the final four in a decade, scoring nearly 40 percent of her team’s points on the season. “She puts us on her shoulders and everybody comes along for the ride, but everybody’s gotten better because of her,” coach Gary Bennett said of his team, which ripped off eight straight wins to share the Macomb Area Conference Red Division title, after a slow start. “We have a superstar and we have a bunch of role players and the role players know that they need the superstar and the superstar knows she needs the role players, and that’s kind of been our season. We’ve had great chemistry and people have filled their roles.” North loses just one senior from this year’s semifinalist squad, Josephine Ciaravino, but returns 10 others who made the run to Calvin. [caption id="attachment_2210" align="alignright" width="300"] Midland Dow's Molly Davis pulls up for a shot against River Rouge in a regular-season meeting. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)[/caption] <strong>Midland Dow (17-6)</strong> The closest game for the champs all postseason? It came in the district finals when the Chargers — who’d lost to Heritage 61-38 in the regular season, albeit without some key pieces — stayed within a dozen points, losing 48-36. Dow loses one starter — forward Quinn McCaffrey — to graduation, while returning rising seniors Charis Queary, Maizie Taylor and Central Michigan-signee Molly Davis, along with last year’s freshman starters, Katelyn Murray and Jada Garner, and 6-foot-1 Bullock Creek transfer Haley Jaster, a rising junior. Dow held its own while Taylor returned from a knee injury, and before Jaster was eligible, and got better as the season went along, going 9-1 (lone loss to Carman-Ainsworth) in its final 10 games, before losing to Heritage in districts. <strong>Honorable mentions:</strong> East Lansing, Southfield A&amp;T, Wayne Memorial, Hartland, DeWitt