Maddie Maloney has been a key contributer for the surging St. Johns girls basketball team this season.
ST. JOHNS – Like many aspiring athletes, Maddie Maloney tried her hand at several sports as a kid.
And regardless of the arena, St. Johns girls basketball coach Mark Lasceski, who is also a long-time family friend, had a feeling she would succeed.
“Watching her grow up, and watching her play, I knew she was a good athlete,” said Lasceski, who’s in his 20th season as coach. “Whatever she decided to play, whether it was soccer, softball, any of those things, she was a good athlete. She was very competitive.”
Luckily for him, Maloney gravitated toward basketball, and the competitive nature, the athleticism, Lasceski saw in her growing up has helped the St. Johns girls basketball team become one of the hottest teams in the state.
The sophomore, who is averaging a team-high 12.7 points per game, has led the charge as the surging Redwings (14-3) have rattled off 10 wins in their last 11 games.
“We were pretty young last year, so we had a feel of how tough the conference was,” said Maloney, whose team is tied for second in the CAAC Red and earned votes in this week’s Associated Press Class A rankings. “Once we started playing, and we started rolling, we knew that we could have a chance to do big things in the conference.”
The things St. Johns has been able to do in the CAAC Red, a conference that features two Class A top-10 teams in DeWitt and Haslett, this year has come as a surprise to many, including Lasceski.
The Redwings completed the regular-season sweep of the No. 8-ranked Vikings last week with a 48-38 road win — a contest in which Maloney scored 25 points. And the only two conference losses came at the hands of the No. 5-ranked Panthers, who hold 13- and one-point wins over St. Johns.
“I knew we had the potential to be really good,” Lasceski said. “As we started the season and started having success, we always talk about being able to deal with that success and not getting complacent and making ourselves better every time. They’ve bought into that.”
As a freshman, Maloney proved to be one of the Lansing area’s best 3-point shooters — most notably in a matchup against Holt where she scored 18 of her game-high 23 points from beyond the arc. And while she’s still the go-to scoring threat for the Redwings, it’s been her command of the point guard position that has enhanced the team’s play.
According to Lasceski, Maloney, who is averaging around four assists and two steals per game, is starting to see the floor and putting her teammates in position to score on a nightly basis.
“I’ve noticed if you get to the basket you find open players, and my team is always ready for the ball,” said Maloney, whose team picked up a 21-point victory over Class B No. 4-ranked Williamston Tuesday. “We get the open person the shot, we work the ball around and we’re patient. We know (any of us) can knock down a shot if we’re open.”
Contact James L. Edwards III at jledwards@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JLEdwardsIII.