Ypsilanti, MI. – The Arbor Prep Gators girls basketball team finished their regular season Friday night with a hard-fought 66-61 victory over Madison Heights Bishop Foley to finish 18-2 for the 2022 season and they will be hosting a very tough Canton Prep team Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. as the playoffs will get underway.
The Gators are the top-ranked team in Division 3 and they know all the other teams will be gunning for them trying to not just win a championship but make a big statement. The Gators are consistently good and have made the State Championship several times taking home the big trophy in 2016. They were on a roll to take the championship in 2020 but Covid shut the state and tournament down.
The Gators are coached by Scott Stine who is also Athletic Director. As a small independent school that doesn’t belong to a conference, it’s up to Stine to schedule the competition, and that he does. Stine believes that you don’t play so-called patsy’s you play tough schools to show what you have, to learn if you lose, to make you better, and to help you improve. And that shows as the Gators consistently play every top-ranked school in the state in higher divisions. As a matter of fact, the Gators only played one team this season with a losing record. The Gators’ only two losses on the season are very close defeats by the top 2 Division two teams in the state of Michigan, Detroit Edison, and a 1 point heartbreaking loss at Parma Western. After both losses, the Gators bounced back thanks to Stine and his outstanding coaching staff of Colleen Dumas, Ant-Juan Simpkins, Cameron Smiley, and Jibri Taylor.
The Gators soundly defeated last year’s State Champions, the Grass Lake Warriors, and many other great teams in the state including Jonesville, Frankenmuth, South Lyon East, and a big Division 1 school (class A) Holt.
The Gators are led in scoring by Senior guard and Miss Michigan Basketball finalist and Texas A & M commit Mya “Money” Petticord. Petticord is all over the court during games leading her team through her play and sharpshooting ability whether it’s from behind the three-point line or driving through three defenders for the score. The opposing team’s strategy is to always try to shut her down and take her out of the game but it never seems to pan out for them. Because the Gators might not be deep with players, they are very deep with talent.
The Gators are a young team with only 3 seniors on it (Petticord, Jazmin “Jazzy” Chupp, and Kari Woods). But they are very talented playmakers. The rest of the team is comprised of sophomores and freshmen. Again, nothing but talent. Sophomore guard Taylor Wallace has shown great strides this season and is deadly with the three-point shot, as well as Eliza Bush and Tyra Wright, and their defense is very sound and solid. And add to that the strong sophomore forward duo of the Utomoi twins (Stephanie and Stacy) who do it all. They block, they steal, and they score through traffic as they are two of the toughest players you will see that show no fear.
Arbor Prep is just a small charter school with only about 320 kids. It is a very diverse school with high academic standards expected from its students. The athletes have to pay to play and there are no buses to take the teams to their opponent’s schools to play. There is not even a girl’s junior varsity team for basketball so unlike your bigger schools, there is not much depth on the bench in the playoffs. But one thing Arbor Prep does have is support for each other in their school. They are big on heart. And they want a championship.
