Top 10 candidates for BCAM’s 2019 Miss Basketball award

With the career of the 2018 Miss Basketball, East Lansing’s Jaida Hampton, coming to an end in a Class A title-game loss to Saginaw Heritage, it’s not too early to look at the field of players who might be vying to replace her next winter. She wasn’t the only one of this year’s candidates to make it to the final weekend of play, though. All four of the finalists — Hampton, Detroit Country Day’s Kaela Webb, Wayne Memorial’s Camree’ Clegg and Ypsilanti Arbor Prep’s Lasha Petree — made it to Calvin College for the semifinals. Only Webb went left Van Noord Arena with new hardware, in the form of a Class B championship trophy, the third in her four-year career. But the final weekend also showed a preview of a couple of candidates for next year’s award. Heritage floor general Moira Joiner has to be in the conversation for Miss Basketball to start the season, as does Grosse Pointe North’s Julia Ayrault, who led the Norsemen to the Class A semifinals. Joiner won that head-to-head battle by helping shut down her counterpart from GPN. And Detroit Edison’s Rickea Jackson continued to prove she’s one of the best players in the state, regardless of class or classification. If you look at it like a political event, name recognition is everything, so the players who’ve already made a name for themselves on the big stage are the ones most likely to start the season in the conversation for the award. It’s worth noting, though, that where the finalists hail from matters, too. If two or three of them are from the same region, they can split the local vote, limiting the likelihood that they can win. Had 2018 played out differently — if Ithaca’s Kayla Belles and Williamston’s Maddie Watters had stayed healthy — the mid-Michigan vote may have been split up, and one of the southeast Michigan candidates may have gotten a bump. Here are the players most likely to start the season in the running for the 2019 Miss Basketball award: <strong>Rickea Jackson, 6-3, G/F, Detroit Edison</strong> A two-time Class C champion, and the 2018 Gatorade Player of the Year for Michigan, Jackson has to be the odds-on favorite to be the next Miss Basketball, too. The lithe, pogo-stick jumping slasher is the leader of a stacked Edison team that’s bound to be back in Calvin next March. Caveat: No player from within the city limits of Detroit has won the award since King’s Markita Aldridge in 1990. [caption id="attachment_4022" align="alignright" width="225"] Grosse Pointe North's Julia Ayrault dribbles up the floor in a quarterfinal game against Detroit King. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)[/caption] <strong>Julia Ayrault, 6-2, F, Grosse Pointe North</strong> After a so-so start to the new year, the Norsemen rallied to win a share of the Macomb Area Conference Red Division, then saddled up their star, and rode her all the way to the semifinals. With Ayrault scoring the lion’s share of the points for her team, it’s likely that the Michigan State commit will put up the big numbers that seem to be required to win the award. Caveat: Only one Southeast Michigan player — Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett’s Madison Ristovski in 2011-12 — has won the award in the last 16 seasons, and two in the last 19, if you include Tabitha Pool of Ann Arbor Huron. <strong>Alyza Winston, 5-4, G, Muskegon</strong> Winston’s former teammate at Mona Shores, Jordan Walker, came away with the award last season, so the diminutive penetrator knows what it takes. If she has a full season for the Big Red like the partial season she had this year, after transferring, she could bring home her own hardware. <strong>Destiny Strother, 5-9, G, Flint Carman-Ainsworth</strong> Ever since she showed up on the scene, Carman-Ainsworth has been knocking on the door to something big. With a very good team behind her, the Marquette commit could bring the award back to Flint for the first time since Northern’s Deana Nolan won it in 1996. Caveat: If more than one Saginaw Valley League player ends up among the finalists, it’s likely to split the vote. <strong>Sophia Wiard, 5-9, G, Muskegon Oakridge</strong> If you want offensive wizardry, Wiard is likely to put up some of the gaudiest numbers around. She averaged 26.4 points per game in the postseason, including a total of 60 in two regional games, helping guide the Eagles to their first-ever regional title. It would be hard to see either win, though, if both Wiard and Winston end up on the final ballot. [caption id="attachment_4019" align="alignleft" width="222"] Saginaw Heritage's Moira Joiner (4) passes to teammate Jessica Bicknell in the Class A championship game. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)[/caption] <strong>Moira Joiner, 5-9, Saginaw Heritage</strong> The leader of the defending Class A champion Hawks, Joiner might not put up the gaudy offensive numbers needed to win Miss Basketball, and will have competition for postseason among her own teammates, particularly fellow senior Shine Strickland-Gills. That and a Strother candidacy (or Molly Davis from Midland Dow, etc.) could split the Bay area vote. Saginaw Nouvel has had two Miss Basketball winners (Jenny Ryan in 2008-09 and Danielle Kammin 2002), but a Saginaw public school hasn’t boasted a winner since Saginaw High’s Erinn Reedin 1992. <strong>Laya Hartman, 5-10, G, Okemos</strong> Hartman may inherit the mantle of the best Lansing-area senior star from Hampton, having gotten her first offer (Michigan State) before she ever suited up for the Chiefs. The second winner of the Miss Basketball award, Sue Tucker in 1982, was an Okemos grad, but the region has had a trio of winners since then — Lansing Christian’s Tiffanie Shives in 2004, East Lansing’s Klarissa Bell (2009-10) and Hampton (2017-18). Certainly, Hartman will put up numbers worthy of joining them, but team success might be the limiting factor: The Chiefs were 17-7, and won a district, before getting blasted in regionals. [caption id="attachment_4020" align="alignright" width="225"] Wayne Memorial's Janae Terry (10) drives to the bucket in a Class A quarterfinal game against Hartland. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)[/caption] <strong>Janae Terry, 5-10, G, Wayne Memorial</strong> After running sidekick to Clegg for the last couple of seasons, Terry gets the chance to run the show on her own. The two together took the Zebras to unprecedented heights — especially since the program went winless the season before they arrived — and still have enough talent to surround Terry. <strong>Kate McArthur, 5-8, G, Warren Cousino</strong> After playing second fiddle to 2017 finalist Kierra Fletcher, McArthur’s had a chance to star in her own right. The Clemson-bound sharp-shooter can fill it up in bunches, but no player from Macomb County has ever taken home the award. Fletcher came the closest, falling just 100 points shy of Mona Shores’ Walker. <strong>Jasmine Powell, 5-8, PG, Detroit Country Day</strong> The Yellowjackets seemingly always have the next Miss Basketball candidate waiting in the wings when the previous one graduates — from Madison Williams to Aerial Powers to Asia Doss to Destiny Pitts to Kaela Webb, and now to Powell. The lightning-quick Powell allowed Webb to move off the point more over the last two seasons, and now she’ll be running the show by herself, with Maddie Novak and Adrian Folk catching her passes. For all the candidates, though, no Country Day player since Peggy Evans in 1989 has actually come home with the award.