DEXTER — It wasn’t looking good for the Pinckney girls basketball team early on. Then again, it wasn’t necessarily meant to.
The Pirates began the season 0-4, but, in a way, that was part of Pirates coach Jarrett Cogswell’s plan. Not to lose those games, per se, but with just four girls returning from last year’s team and the rest coming up from junior varsity, he believed thrusting the girls into the proverbial fire with a challenging nonconference schedule would be the best approach to benefit long term.
After demolishing Dexter on Friday night, 44-27, to win for the fourth time in their past five games — improve to 5-8 overall and, most importantly, 4-2 in the SEC White, where the Pirates currently sit in second place — it’s safe to say that strategy has thus far worked to perfection.
“To start off 0-4 is a tough thing for the kids to grasp,” Cogswell said. “But I continued to tell them we are preparing for districts, and that we were getting better for the end of the season, and asked them to buy into what we were doing. And they believed, and we have been getting better every day.”
The way Cogswell set it up, the Pirates, who are enjoying their first season in a new conference, would start the year by doing battle back in their old conference, the KLAA, taking on familiar foes such as Grand Blanc, Milford, Hartland and Brighton.
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The Pirates lost those games, but still played good basketball, Cogswell said, especially for a team that was still in the infancy stages of figuring each other out, and with the formerly JV girls rapidly trying to adjust to the speed of varsity basketball.
“Before Christmas break, we had those nonconference battles, and it was a tough schedule. ... It helped a lot. After break, we started to turn a corner.”
It began two Saturdays ago with a victory over Adrian, a win led by a 14-point output from Morgan Elliott and 18 points from Maya Narayan. That gave the Pirates just their second win.
However, the win sparked something in Pinckney, as it has since erupted. The Pirates followed that Adrian game with a comeback effort against Canton, with Elliott scoring 12 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter to lead the charge.
Elliott and Narayan then scored 14 to spearhead Pinckney’s triumph over Ypsilanti Lincoln.
On Friday night, Elliott provided a game-high 12 points.
“Morgan, I can’t say enough about. She’s having a great season,” Cogswell said. “A switch went off in her around Christmas. We went to a scrimmage in (Livonia) Churchill, and she played with great confidence, and has ever since.”
“I guess I started off playing OK, but I wasn’t really playing how I usually play,” Elliott said. “After that scrimmage, it stated at the Adrian game, and it just kind of made me realize that I can score more and I have to keep building on it.”
Elliott certainly has built on it since the Adrian game, and so have her teammates.
After the frustrating start, the Pirates have a renewed excitement for the 2017-18 campaign.
“It’s really exciting,” Elliott said, “and I feel like we have a bunch of momentum now going into the next game. We’re super excited and we’ve grown close as a team and hopefully, we’re going to keep going and keep winning.”
Howell 68, Livonia Stevenson 32
HOWELL — Alexis Miller had 23 points and six steals to lead Howell.
Leah Weslock posted 18 points and seven rebounds.
Howell is now 12-1 on the season.