Chelsea Girls' Open Districts with Rout

A showdown between two of the top teams in D2 is set for Wednesday night after Chelsea rolled to a 78-5 win over Canton Prep Monday night.

The third-ranked Bulldogs move on to face fifth-ranked Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard in the district semifinals Wednesday night at 5:30 in Pinckney.

There has been a lot of talk/complaints about the Pinckney district with three of the top eight MPR % teams in D2 in the same district. It is considered the toughest district in the state in all classes with state-ranked Chelsea and FGR and honorable mention Wixon St. Catherine all in the same district and has drawn rants that the MHSAA should change the post season tournament. 

MPR is the power-ranking % used by the MHSAA based on record, strength of schedule, and opponent's overall records and other stats during the season. 

Chelsea proved from the opening tip that they weren't overlooking 14-5 Canton Prep with FGR looming.

Total domination might be what you would call Monday's game as Chelsea did not allow Canton a basket in the first half. They jumped to a 35-0 lead after one quarter and 50-0 at halftime. 

Canton finally got on the board in the third, but Chelsea continued to pour it on with a 63-2 lead after three and coasted in the fourth for the 78-5 win.

Megan McCalla led the Bulldogs with 20 points, followed by Leila Wells with 17.

Avery Lay finished with 15, Braiden Scheffler six, Maggie McKale five, Ella Day and Caroline Knight four each, Maya Valik three, Alex Davis and Megan Bareis two each.

The Chelsea/FGR meeting Wednesday night is intriguing on how the teams got to this point. 

The Bulldogs are 22-1 overall and their schedule was front-loaded with strong competition.  Two wins over Tecumseh and two over Dexter are the only victories over opponents with winning records since early January with the SEC White being down this season.

Gabriel Richard is 19-3 on the season and they have played some top-notch competition all season long. They have recent wins over D1 4th ranked Detroit Renaissance and D1 6th ranked Farmington Hills Mercy in the past week. Their three losses are to state ranked teams.

The teams have two common opponents in state-ranked Ypsilanti Arbor Prep and Pinckney.

Both routed Pinckney in their matchups, while Chelsea beat Arbor Prep 59-50 in overtime in December and FGR lost to Arbor Prep 58-52 in early December. 

And this is just a district semifinal game. The winner will likely be facing a strong Wixom St Catherine Friday night in the district finals.