BY TERRY FOSTER, WHMI.COM

Howell senior guard Gabby Piepho ended her prep career during a lethargic 58-44 loss to Belleville in a Division I regional semifinal at Northville High School.
However, Piepho has not given up hope of winning a state championship. Her pathway could come as a coach. Her grandfather coached basketball at Howell. Her dad Jason Piepho is the current coach.
Basketball is in her blood. So is coaching.
“I would love to coach my kids or other people’s kids,” Gabby Piepho said. “That would be a dream of mine. That is the plan, hopefully.”
Her first hire would be her dad to become her chief assistant.
She needs players. Hopefully, one of her players is as talented as Belleville junior guard Sydney Savoury, who finished with 21 points and screamed “My House” to the crowd when the game was no longer in doubt. She should be a strong Miss Basketball candidate her senior season.
Savoury scores points in bunches. She hit three three-point shots in the third quarter leading a Belleville charge that turned a close halftime lead (20-18) into a blowout. Belleville outscored the Highlanders 23-9 in the third quarter to go up 42-27.
Savoury wasn’t done. She hit an early three in the fourth quarter to punch the lead to 48-30. Belleville avenged a 59-51 loss to Howell in the KLAA championship game.
Piepho could pass along to her team how joyful it is to win a conference championship but also remind it how painful it is to lose in the state tournament.
“I love this team,” she said. “It hurts so bad. This is my favorite team I’ve ever been a part of.”
Maybe her team can snag a big person inside like teammate and Michigan State commit Lilly Williams who scored 16 points with six blocked shots. Williams was hounded and pounded inside. Belleville called it tough defense. Others might call it a mauling.
“I thought she should have been at the free throw line a few more times,” head coach Jason Piepho said.
The third quarter was obviously the key.
“They hit a couple of threes which got them going,’ Jason Piepho said. “We had a couple of turnovers and we could not dig ourselves out of the hole. The story of the game was they had people outside of Sydney who hit big shots.”
Belleville attempts to speed people up with full-court pressure and ball hawking man to man defense.
“I don’t think they sped us up,” Piepho said. “I thought we had good looks. We just didn’t hit shots. Their defense may have gotten us off-balanced a little bit.”