EAST LANSING, Mich (WLNS) – The East Lansing high school girls basketball team has had an incredible 2021 season. It’s been one they have described as payback for the way COVID-19 ended what could have been a 2020 state title run. The Trojans are undefeated and have outscored their opponents by a total of 407 points so far this season.
After winning the Division 1 District 15 championship, the Trojans’ sixth straight district title, they were supposed to face Jackson Northwest in the Regional Semifinal round. Upon looking through the schedule for the week on the Michigan High School Athletic Association website on Sunday morning, it shocked me to see that East Lansing had already advanced to the Regional Championship game after Jackson Northwest forfeited the semifinal game, as is shown in this tweet.
This quickly prompted me to make some calls and investigate the situation to find out whether or not the forfeit was due to COVID-19 positive test results within the Mounties program, seeing as our 6 Sports Team had been around the Jackson Northwest team during the Mounties’ district championship game against Mason on Friday night.
After investigating the situation, I confirmed that eight of the Jackson Northwest girls decided to go on spring break which made their number for the Regional Championship game slim. This led to the decision to forfeit the game against East Lansing.
The Trojans will have a few days to rest up and game-plan for the winner of the Regional Semifinal game between Battle Creek Lakeview and Kalamazoo Central. The Regional Championship game is still set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Gull Lake High School.
