Lansing Community College's women's basketball team is rolling, led by a young group of local stars

LANSING – The speedy rebuild of Lansing Community College’s women’s basketball program didn’t just begin when Megan Hudson was hired as the Stars’ head coach over the summer. It began with the faith several of this area’s best high school players had in her. And in their faith that she’d get the job.

“I was putting my trust in that she was going to get it,” freshman guard Bailey Hosford, a former Holt High School standout, said.

LCC’s 12-3 start this winter — coming off back-to-back six-win seasons — has been a surprise to perhaps everyone but the Stars. Hudson recruited this team knowing their talent and their high school pedigrees, that they were coming from winning programs. The players themselves, well, they didn’t know any better. The Stars’ roster is primarily made up of freshmen — nine of them, eight from the Lansing area.

Hudson, a former Waverly High School and LCC standout herself, began developing relationships with this class and roster during her two seasons as an assistant under Layne Ingram, who, after last season stepped down because he no longer had time to give the program his full attention.

“Layne had an idea he was retiring. Did I know (getting the head job) was in the bag? Absolutely not,” Hudson said. “I still went through the whole hiring process. But when I went through my recruiting process, I had a vision of like, ‘How could these girls play together? How could they fit? What would that look like?’ And so that helped during the recruiting process, pitching them on that idea that no matter who was the head coach (it would be a good fit for them).”

They are familiar names in our basketball community. Peyton Anderson (Dewitt), Ellie Humble (Haslett) and Hosford are all starters. Fellow freshmen Ivana McCollumn (Waverly), Kaylin Howard (Holt) and Alexandria Charles (DeWitt) all play major minutes. Anasia Peterson (Okemos) and Jada Shakerford (Eastern) are also part of that class.

A lot of them knew each other to some degree beforehand — they’d either played together in high school or in AAU or competed against each other for years.

“They come from programs that are winning programs in the area,” Hudson said, “They know how to win. And they know how to play in big games. Their hustle and grit, they found ways to get there, to work together. The other thing that's been amazing is their chemistry. I mean these kids love each other.”

LCC, which is 8-1 at home this year, hosts Grand Rapids Community College on Wednesday, before diving into conference play, beginning with a home game against Glenn Oaks at 1 p.m. Saturday. Both games are at LCC’s Gannon Gymnasium, just ahead of the men’s games against the same opponents.

The Stars’ women’s team set a goal before the season of 15 wins. They could be there by mid-January. The players thought early on that they had a chance to be good, even when they had little idea of what was ahead.

“After our first few scrimmages, we were like ‘Oh!?’ We had some big heads for a minute,” Humble said.

Losing a game badly to a St. Clair team they’d beaten in one of those scrimmages helped bring them down to earth.

Just before Christmas break, they showed their teeth in a 98-96 loss to nationally ranked Mid-Michigan College. And that was with their leading scorer, Kara Bartels, battling the flu.

Bartels, a 6-3 center, is the one member of this class who’s less local. She played at Zeeland West and was being offered Division II scholarships, including by Grand Valley State. But she wanted to play as a freshman and had family in the Lansing area and a place to live here … so she reached out to Hudson.

“She said, ‘I’m looking for a place to play and I’m interested (in LCC),’ ” Hudson said. “Our first phone call was amazing. We hit it off right away. She made me work for her the whole (last) season. She’s been an absolute dream to coach.”

Bartels, who’s averaging 18.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.2 blocks per game, couldn't bear the idea of waiting to play major minutes in college, as she was told she’d have to at Grand Valley. And when she practiced with LCC’s players, she felt welcomed and saw the potential.

“I thought we could make a change for sure,” Bartels said. “We all talked about it. We all love to win. We all wanted to win. So I thought this group, we really could make a difference.”

Bartels and her Lansing-area classmates weren’t joining a roster entirely devoid of talent. Sophomore Shalyn Dziewiatkowski (from Portland) has started every game this season. Shelby Austin (Waverly) was back, too. And last season’s leading scorer, sophomore Alivia Densmore (Portland), has just returned this month from a knee injury.

But the crux of the roster is new to all of this.

“I think us all coming in new, we all bonded together, because there weren’t people here already,” Hosford said. “It was nice having everybody new because we all didn't know what to expect.”

A year from now, this should be a seasoned roster with big dreams. And more talent. Hudson and her staff (assistants Trafford Hannon, former Boston University player Corrine Williams and Colleen Smith) have commitments from two Holt players for next season, Claire Tobias and Presley Pazitka, and just signed Chesaning’s Charley Mahan.

This year’s team, though, has no intention of waiting to be experienced before it wins. The question now is how good they can be in this first year together.

“I truly believe we're going to make a deep conference run,” Hudson said. “I personally haven't even been to the state tournament since I've been here (since 2021 as an assistant). This is all new for all of us, including our coaching staff. That's exciting.”

MORE:Couch: For Jay Wallace, now starring for LCC's men's basketball team, there is no place like home

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: LCC women's basketball is rolling, led by familiar local stars