The best girls basketball player in metro Detroit might be this sophomore from Salem

There were six seconds on the clock. 

And then five, and then four. 

Madison Morson dribbled her way to the white volleyball stripe on the west end of Ypsilanti Arbor Prep's court and threw up what would have been a prayer for most girls basketball players with three ticks left in the third quarter. 

But Morson — an up-and-coming sophomore for Salem — isn't like most basketball players. 

Her stroke looked flawless. Almost professional. She had the arm strength for the attempt. 

The shot went in. It was never in doubt. 

Then she somewhat hoisted her hands into the air as if she was too embarrassed to celebrate what went down as her first career buzz-beater. The Rocks' bench erupted, jumping out of their chairs and rushing the court to greet her.

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And then Morson shrugged. But not confidently like Michael Jordan did in the 1992 NBA Finals. 

She shrugged because she's still trying to figure out all this. 

The 6-foot guard isn't your prototypical metro Detroit basketball star. She isn't hellbent on making the WNBA. She doesn't have a childhood basketball mentor leading her cheering section in the front row of the bleachers. 

She has never played AAU basketball a day in her life. She has never played against the top competition.

"I'm going to change that," first-year Salem coach Rod Wells said following the Rocks' 71-31 victory over Ypsilanti Lincoln in Saturday's Ice Breaker tournament game. "I haven't seen anyone like her. She scores so smoothly. She had 25 tonight, and it was just a smooth 25. She had 25 in the last game, but I thought she had 15 points. 

"She does it effortlessly. She does it within the flow of the offense. She doesn't really understand how good she is, but once she figures that out, the world is going to be in trouble. She doesn't even know how good she is. She just plays." 

Yeah, she does. She definitely just plays. 

That buzzer-beater was part of a 12-2 run for the Rocks. And each of those 12 points were scored by Morson, who kicked off the scoring spree with a bucket in transition, a field goal down low off an out-of-bounds play and a put-back attempt following a teammate's miss, which happened to draw an and-one opportunity that she buried. 

Then she scored again in transition. And then she hit the Steph Curry-ranged 3-pointer at the horn. 

"I knew I was going to shoot it, but I didn't know where I would be on the floor, so I kind of just threw it up," Morson said. "I saw 5, 6 seconds left on the clock, so I just threw it up when I got far enough down. It was very cool. I had never made a buzzer-beater before. It was a very cool experience." 

That's right. She can do it all. She can drive to the hoop. She has the handles of a veteran point guard. She carries herself in the post like a 6-foot-5 center.

During Salem's 11-0 run to start the game, she sailed a block 20 feet out of bounds. It landed somewhere behind Salem's bench. 

"When I took the job, I heard I had a good player," said Wells, a former state-champion coach and assistant at Arbor Prep who also has experience with the University of Michigan-Dearborn. "The way they described it, I thought she was just a forward or something. I didn't know that she could handle the ball and do all the things she could do. I'm just trying to bring the best out of her. 

"I knew she was going to be special after the second practice with her. That's when I saw her touch the rim. When she touched the rim, I said, 'Wow!' So I had her watching Kobe (Bryant film) all summer. I want her to have the mentality of Kobe, and she's starting to get it. I want her to be aggressive and to go after what she wants. And she's not even there yet.

"She's fun. She has a great attitude. The girls respect her. The girls want her to shoot the ball because she takes good shots. They know that she's a very good ball player. You wouldn't know it from her demeanor. She just plays the game. Once she gets some travel experience and plays against tougher competition, she's going to be good. Getting her was a surprise. I didn't know she was that good. I'm really happy with her."

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It's almost unfair how much of a natural Morson, the daughter of former college baseball player Theo Morson, is at playing the sport. And with how talented her teammates are this year, it makes her look almost unguardable. 

Opponents can double-team Morson, but that leaves guard Shahd Ali Bakkar (three points) open to drive through the paint to create backside opportunities for post-player Leilah Howard (seven). It allows Ashley Kopacko (11) to drain a trio of 3-pointers. It keeps Marissa Kintz (nine) open at the perimeter to make a heads-up pass from triple-threat. 

And the reality is Morson has no formal training. 

"Honestly, I owe it to a lot of the guys at my local gym," the sophomore said. "I go to Lifetime Fitness. I would play with them over the summer non-stop. Just scrimmages. Whether it's half court or full court, they've taught me a lot about taking it to the hoop. They really helped me a lot. 

"And Coach Wells. We just got him this year. Big improvement. The first couple of practices with him over the summer were an insane improvement for our team. He helped a lot, and he's still helping."

Morson has the opportunity to be the best player in metro Detroit, and she still hasn't realized it. How exciting for the Rocks, who are 2-0 to kick off Week 1 of the season. They have 18 regular-season games left to see how much Morson's game can grow. 

Plymouth Christian passes first test of season

Morganne Houk poked the ball loose, and it sailed out of bounds. 

She hardly had time to wipe the sweat off her face before she readied herself for another defensive play after the whistle. 

Only 31 seconds remained, and Plymouth Christian led by 18 points, but the junior was still gunning for steals. 

"We have one speed, and we don't know how else to play, and we're not going to play another speed," PCA coach Rod Windle said following the Eagles' 65-49 victory Thursday at Detroit Country Day. 

The Yellowjackets are just one season removed from a final-four appearance in the Division 2 playoffs, yet the D-4 Eagles were nonchalant following the road win. 

They're shooting for a deep run in this year's playoffs after last year's tough loss to Allen Park Inner-City Baptist in the district final. 

"Yeah, we have high hopes, and we're working hard to fill those hopes," Windle added. "We're kind of untested in terms of teams don't know us in terms of what we've got, and we've got kids ready to play every possession. I'm really proud of the way the girls worked tonight."

The Eagles are led by a pair of returning all-state players in Houk and Anna Fernandez, who scored 15 and 26 points, respectively, in the win. 

Country Day opened with a 10-2 lead but PCA battled back with an 18-2 run to knot the score by halftime. Hernandez scored nine points in each of the third and fourth quarters to help the Eagles pull off the comeback. 

"We were gritty on defense," Windle said of limiting the Yellowjackets to just 19 second-half points. "They (Country Day) have some really good players over there, and we talked about that. We rotated. We got off our man to give help. We did some awesome things."

Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on Twitter @folsombrandonj.