The Powers Catholic girls’ basketball team’s talent is the unquestioned part – the team, one of most consistent and successful programs in the Flint area over the past five years, has won its first five games by an average margin of victory of 40.8 points per game. The special component goes beyond just what they can do athletically on the court, though.
“We know that every player has a special talent and we know that we have to keep pushing each other to our best potential,” said sophomore Evah Smith. “We have confidence in each other, we keep our energy going, so it just helps everybody throughout the whole game.”
That mentality was on display in a win over Hartland on December 23 in what proved to be the most competitive game the Chargers have had so far. Powers led most of the way, but couldn’t pull away. Foul trouble limited how much leading scorer Kendyl Smith played during the game, and Hartland mixed up its defenses and lineups to keep Powers off balance and collapse around Evah Smith whenever she’d get touches inside.
Powers led by eight with around four minutes remaining, but a late Hartland run forced overtime. That’s when junior Bella Harley, who hadn’t scored in regulation, took over. With both Smiths continuing to receive extra attention from the defense as overtime began, Harley made them pay. Harley began overtime with a flourish, hitting a three to give Powers the lead. After Hartland tied it again, Harley scored off an assist from Evah Smith to put Powers up 51, and then got fouled while grabbing a rebound and went to the free throw line and hit both free throws, scoring the first seven points of overtime and helping Powers to a 58-51 win.
“A lot of times Bella kind of does all the dirty work and the grimy work and she’s the one that establishes our physicality,” said Powers coach Ryan Trevithick, who has coached the team since 2020. “Early on, she didn’t have the ability to establish a physical game, because they (Hartland) had the four guards on the floor and it was tough to match up. But she got herself moving a little bit in the second half, and her defensive rebounding kind of set her tone and she’s always been able to put the ball in the bucket. Bella’s always been somebody that steps into a big moment, so mentally, she’s always ready for that space.”
Harley wasn’t exactly calm and collected in that moment, but that’s OK – the stress of tense game situations is actually a motivator for her.
“I was kind of panicking, but that works really well with my brain,” she said. “I was like, these have to go in, they have to go in, I gotta do it for the team. That mindset really just helps me.”
A Balanced Team
Kendyl Smith, a senior who will continue her basketball career at Liberty University, has long been a known commodity in Michigan hoops. She went over the 1,000 career point mark at Powers last season, makes plays as a passer, and has limitless range on her three-pointers.
Evah Smith, the daughter of Michigan State legend Antonio Smith, provides a strong interior presence on the glass and as a scorer around the hoop. Against Hartland, Kendyl Smith had 22 points and Evan Smith scored 15.
But Powers is far from a two-person attack offensively, as Harley’s overtime performance showed. Freshman Presley Schriner scored 11 points, including hitting three 3-pointers, against Hartland. Senior Paige Ringwelski scored 13 in a win over Carman-Ainsworth. Trevithick said that balance will be the key to their season as they move into conference play soon.
“It’s about how well those 12 can play together,” Trevithick said. “For us, they do have lofty goals, but our focus and our goal right now is having a great holiday season with our families and being present. We’re blessed to have a really challenging schedule and we have kids that really do want to win. But we’re not fast forwarding anywhere.”
The program has won 15 or more games in three straight seasons, and advanced to the state quarterfinals in 2024. The team lost six games a season ago, and already avenged one of those losses by beating Frankenmuth by 24 after losing to them by six last season. Powers gets another chance to avenge a loss from a season ago when they face currently undefeated Pewamo-Westphalia at home on January 4.
Trevithick was happy to see the team have to close out a tough Hartland team and make plays down the stretch, including without Kendyl Smith on the court at times, as Powers’ schedule continues to get tougher. He credits the work the team put in during the offseason and over the summer as the foundation for being able to finish strong in competitive games.
“We want to be able to play playoff basketball as often as we can to prepare,” Trevithick said. “We’ve been playing really strong up to this point, and a couple of games have gotten away from opponents and we’ve been able to put them away early where this game (against Hartland), I mean, all the credit in the world goes to Hartland and Mike (McKay) and his staff for getting them prepared to play, they came out and never quit. We faced a lot of stuff this summer and trained a lot this summer in that adversity and I think that helped us here down the stretch.”
A Foundation on Defense and Trust
Although Powers has shown impressive offensive firepower, the team will truly go as far as its defense takes it. So far, they’ve held three of their first five opponents under 40 points, and their deep rotation makes it possible to have fresh players on the court pressuring opponents throughout the game.
That mentality allows the team to play through any struggles they experience on offense and keep them in games. For the first time this season in the Hartland game, the offense had some cold stretches but a series of defensive stops late after Hartland took a 48-45 lead in the fourth quarter helped the team bounce back. Shriner hit a three to tie the game with under a minute remaining, and then the defense drew an offensive foul on Hartland’s final possession when the team had a chance to win in regulation.
“We hang our hat on the defensive end of the floor,” Trevithick said. “So for us to really establish a defensive identity, that helps us regain focus.”
Arguably the most critical component of being a good defensive team starts with trust and communication, and those are things that the program has built in practices and training environments.
“We’re all friends on the team,” Harley said. “We all love each other so much. I feel like it shows as we play. We do not play selfishly at all. Nobody does. And I just love that about our team.”
Evah Smith credits that trust, in part, for her ability to have confidence making plays out on the court.
“Honestly, it’s not just me (when she’s rebounding),” Smith said. “It’s my teammates, like the encouragement on the bench and on the floor. Everybody’s just encouraging me. So I always know that I don’t need to get down on myself because people have my back and when I know they have my back, I feel way better out there.”
Trevithick said the team gets along well, but that they also compete with and push each other. He said that competitiveness is especially critical in settings like the weight room, where they’ve all worked to get stronger and help teammates reach and push toward new goals.
“They don’t ever let anything go. They don’t let anything slide,” he said. “They hold each other accountable and they know that if they hold themselves accountable.”
Although Powers isn’t looking too far ahead, the team clearly has enough talent to make a postseason run, and one of the biggest strengths is simply players on the team embracing whatever role they’re in and what it takes to win games.
“They know it’s not personal, it’s about winning,” Trevithick said. “And they all put their egos aside to win. We’ve got some good players that can put the ball in the hoop, and then we’ve got some good players that can change the momentum of games. And for us, it’s just really about staying on the same page together. That chemistry is big for us.”
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