EAST LANSING – When walking into the Jackson Lumen Christi fieldhouse for an athletic event, fans see 58 state championship banners lining the wall ─ plenty of them for football, cross country and golf. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But there are plans in place for Banner No. 59 to occupy a special space, high above center court – the first in school history to signify a state title for girls’ basketball. The Titans earned their banner Saturday by downing Pewamo-Westphalia, 52-36, to capture the MHSAA Division 3 championship at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
“I think we’ve dreamed of this ever since we were freshmen,” senior Paige Lefere said. “We didn’t have the best teams our freshman and sophomore years, and last year we got pretty close, so being able to do it this year means a lot to us. We just knew that if we worked together, we could get here.”
The game was actually tied, 34-34, following three quarters before Lumen Christi got hot down the final stretch and closed out the game on an 18-2 run. The Titans (25-3) made all four of their shots from the floor and 9-of-12 from the free throw line in the final period, while Pewamo-Westphalia missed all nine of its field goal attempts and notched its only two points on free throws.
“Going into the fourth quarter, we were tied up, but I think we just focused on what we needed to do and the basics that we needed to stick to,” said sophomore Kenna Hunt. “The game just came to us in the fourth quarter – the simple things, our defense, our help side, our rebounding – it was much better in the fourth quarter.”
Hunt, who had a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds, ignited the run with a step-back 3-pointer on the team’s first trip up the floor. A free throw from Lucy Wrozek (who finished with 14 points), and baskets by Ruby Boyce, Hunt and Lily Ganton stretched the lead to 44-36 with four minutes to play. From that point, the Titans made 8 of 10 free throws while the Pirates (26-3) didn’t score again.
“After the third quarter, we talked about it and said, we’re not losing this game,” Hunt said. “We’re not leaving our seniors with a loss. We came together as a unit and this is so special to us.”
Lumen Christi held narrow leads, 15-13 and 21-18, at each of the first two quarters. But Pewamo-Westphalia crept back to take the lead on two occasions after halftime, in stretches where the Titans were having trouble getting their shots to fall.
“As soon as that third quarter ended, my coach came over to me, and he said, ‘Those are great looks – keep shooting them,’” Hunt said. “When you have that type of support from the coaching staff, it makes it so easy to go out there and shoot that one more shot and want to do good for your team.”
The Titans got to this point guided by new head coach Scott Stine and his staff. After leading Ypsilanti Arbor Prep to the 2025 Division 3 state championship ─ which included a quarterfinal win over Lumen Christi along the way ─ Stine becomes just the second coach in state history to guide two different schools to championships, and the first to do it back-to-back. (The other was Dave Mann, who won at Redford Bishop Borgess in 1993, 1994 and 1997, as well as Inkster in 2002.)
The girls bought in from the first day Stine and his staff arrived on campus last April.
“When I first met them, they said they wanted to win a state championship,” Stine said. “I said I know what that looks like, I’ve got a good idea of what we need to do, and if you want to win one, then let’s go. These girls, from day one, have done everything I’ve asked.”
Stine said he knew he would be leaving Arbor Prep at the end of last year, and he had no prior connection to Lumen Christi beyond playing them last season. But after talking with Athletic Director Jesse Brown and chatting with team parents, even before the job interview process, Stine sensed it was a job he wanted to have.
“I coach pretty hard, I demand a lot, and I want to coach somewhere the kids want to be coached and learn how to compete, and they want to play to the best of their abilities,” he said. “I knew it was a place just based on all of the other success. They care about sports, they care about athletics, obviously, faith comes first for us, but it was somewhere I wanted to be.”
“We’ve had a lot of coaching changes over the years ─ just about four in four years ─ so you could say we’re used to it, but I think coming in from the beginning, we knew this was going to be special,” senior Lily Ganton said. “They’re a special group of coaches, and they really push us to be our best, and you don’t get that from a lot of teams. Being a senior and a three-sport athlete, I’ve been on a lot of teams; this is something special. They really came in, and it was all gas, no brakes.”
Boyce, Ganton, Lefere and Rylie O’Dowd are the only players due to graduate, so the Titans have a fair amount of talent returning for 2026-27 and should be one of the Catholic League’s top teams again.
“We can celebrate now, but once that season starts next year, we’re going to do what we need to do to take care of it again ─ just being locked in, ready to play, and as Coach Stine says, give 110% effort no matter what,” Hunt said. “We’re one unit at Lumen Christi, and it’s definitely possible to keep this going, especially with the pieces that we have. We can do amazing things.”
