Breslin Bound: Boys Report Week 11
February 22, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half
This week’s list of Michigan boys basketball teams to watch next month includes quite a few that have taken next steps toward elite this season, plus a few looking to hold on to top spots.
Most weeks during the season, we check in with four teams from each class that have been especially impressive. After a bit of a hiatus, we’re back for the rest of the winter starting with this look at 16 more.
Class A
Detroit East English (15-3) – The Bulldogs won a nail-biter over Detroit Collegiate Prep to advance to the Detroit Public School League tournament final, then won their first PSL tournament championship with an 86-62 victory over Renaissance.
North Farmington (15-2) – The Raiders have been surging since last losing Jan. 14 to Clarkston; they’ve won eight straight, including beating Clarkston 58-53 on Feb. 12, and are tied with Clarkston for first in the Oakland Activities Association Red standings with two league games to play.
Petoskey (15-1) – The Northmen are a perfect 10-0 in Big North Conference play and have lost only to Cheboygan, by a point Jan. 5. Petoskey must beat Gaylord tonight and then finish a season sweep against second-place Traverse City Central on Friday in order to clinch the league title outright.
Ypsilanti Community (15-1) – The Grizzlies are Class A contenders and have their destiny in their control; they can clinch the Southeastern Conference White title outright by winning out.
Class B
Birch Run (15-2) – Save for a two-game losing streak over six days in early January, Birch Run has been on point and sits second in the Tri-Valley Conference East. The Panthers take on league leader Frankenmuth on Wednesday with a chance to take a share of first place.
South Haven (14-2) – The Rams have clinched the outright Wolverine Conference North championship after tying for second in the South a year ago. A one-point loss last week to Edwardsburg was the team’s first since opening night.
Wayland (15-1) – The Wildcats earned a share of the Ottawa-Kent Conference Gold title with an 81-41 win over Hastings on Friday and have won 12 straight since their only loss, 63-56 to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central on Dec. 29. Wayland finished second in the league last season.
Wyoming Godwin Heights (15-2) – The Wolverines earned a share of the O-K Silver title by beating Hopkins 77-42 on Friday, coming off a surprise three-point loss to Portage Northern three nights before. The reigning Class B champion hadn’t fallen since opening night, but Northern is solid in Class A at 11-5.
Class C
Kalamazoo Hackett (16-0) – The Fighting Irish have won the Southwestern Athletic Conference Valley title and need only one more win to equal last season’s team that finished 17-7. They haven’t had an opponent come within single digits since Schoolcraft – their next opponent – did so Feb. 1.
Muskegon Heights Academy (13-2) – The Tigers’ only losses were to Class A teams – Rockford last week and Battle Creek Central in December. They’ve equaled the 13 games won all of last season and with four more to play before the tournament begins.
Niles Brandywine (13-5) – The Bobcats came back from a three-game losing streak Feb. 5-12 to win twice on back-to-back nights last week and hold a half-win lead on Bridgman in the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Conference Red with a league game to play.
Southfield Christian (16-1) – The Eagles have won 14 straight since falling to West Bloomfield by a point in overtime Dec. 12, and they can finish a perfect run in the Michigan Independent Athletic Conference Blue by beating fourth-place Ann Arbor Greenhills this week. They own wins over Belleville by a point and Southfield by three.
Class D
Bellaire (15-1) – The Eagles have won 12 straight since falling to East Jordan on Dec. 18 and can clinch a share of the Ski Valley Conference championship against fourth-place Indian River Inland Lakes tonight after handing second-place Johannesburg-Lewiston a loss on Friday.
Frankfort (15-1) – The Panthers finished their first back-to-back league titles since 1961-62 by beating Buckley on Friday to clinch the Northwest Conference championship; they lost only to Traverse City St. Francis, by a point Dec. 17.
Onekama (15-2) – The Portagers clinched the West Michigan D League title outright with a win over Custer Mason County Eastern on Friday after tying annual league power Baldwin for the title last season; Onekama has a two-game lead on Baldwin this time.
Wyoming Potter’s House Christian (14-3) – The Pumas’ 80-50 win over two-loss Kalamazoo Heritage Christian last week earned them the Alliance League South title; their losses this winter were by a combined six points, and they beat Pewamo-Westphalia 55-53 on Friday to extend their winning streak to 11.
PHOTO: Rivals Saginaw and Saginaw Arthur Hill are among many teams prepping for tournament runs with Districts set to begin in two weeks. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Concord Finishes Strong to End Longest Playoff Run in 40 Years as 1st-Time Champ
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 14, 2026
EAST LANSING – As his teammate Connor Stevens strode to the free throw line to put the finishing touches on Concord’s 60-47 win over Detroit Douglass in the Division 4 Boys Basketball Final on Saturday, Brady Garrett pulled his jersey over his face.
The Yellowjackets senior shook his head, almost in disbelief before looking up to the massive Concord crowd assembled at the Breslin Center and screaming, “Let’s go!”
“First of all, I love basketball and I love the group of guys that I’m with,” Garrett said. “As time was winding down, it was hitting me. I’m a senior, this is it. This was everything I played for my whole life. To capture it with a state championship, it meant so much to me. I wouldn’t ask for a better group of guys to do it with.”
Garrett and his teammates brought Concord its first Finals title in boys basketball, finishing off the school’s first “final four” appearance since 1986.
“They’ve been waiting on it,” Stevens said. “All season they’ve been riding with us, and there’s no other way I’d want to go out than this. We all looked at each other and knew that’s what we had to do.”
Concord did it for its city and fans, as well as for Fred Garland, who had passed away in a car crash after leaving a Concord practice in December of 2024. Garland was a standout college basketball player who played for Concord coach Marcus Gill Sr. at Albion and was a former club coach of Stevens.
“We did this for Fred Garland,” Gill said. “(His death) rocked our heart and soul, and he wanted this bad. We did this for Fred.”
The Yellowjackets were able to channel all that emotion into an incredible fourth quarter, which broke open a game that was tied after three.
They outscored Douglass 19-6 in the fourth, holding the Hurricanes to 2-of-16 (12.5 percent) shooting from the field, while hitting 60 percent of their shots and not committing a turnover.
Much of that success hinged on a switch during the quarter to a zone defense, which caught Douglass off guard.
“We are primarily a man-to-man team, but we have our (3-2 zone) in,” Gill said. “We knew we wanted to save it a little bit for the second half today, because they’re a really good driving team, and we knew (Douglass guard Damani Oliver) can really shoot it, so we wanted to wait for the right time to try and get them out of their rhythm. We got into it, it was working and we were making stops, so we just stayed in it.”
Douglass coach Pierre Brooks Sr. credited that zone for slowing his team, but thought it was Concord’s senior-led roster that made the difference down the stretch.
“I think Concord’s experience kind of got the best of us in the second half,” Brooks said. “They’ve got seniors that were pretty hungry, and we just didn’t convert.”
The late push from Concord came despite not having star guard Jett Smith on the court for half of the fourth quarter, as he picked up his fourth foul during the final seconds of the third.
With him out, though, the Yellowjackets jumped ahead, leading by five when he re-entered the game with 4 minutes, 26 seconds to play.
“It was huge, but that’s why we’re a championship team, because we’ve got other guys,” Gill said. “Just like (in the Semifinal against Wyoming Tri-Unity Christian), they did a good job of taking (Smith) out of the game, but we’ve got a lot of good ball handlers. Yesterday it was Darrell (Dean) with the ball in his hands, today it was Brady Garrett. I thought he ran our team unbelievably.”
Smith still finished with 14 points, despite the foul trouble and hounding defense from Douglass junior Jacodi Nathan. Stevens led the Yellowjackets with 15 points and 19 rebounds, while Dean had 15 points. Garrett added six points, five assists and two steals.
Oliver led Douglass (21-8) with 15 points, while Nathan had 12, including a five-point stretch over the final seconds of the first half during which he hit a 3-pointer, stole the inbounds pass and laid the ball in, giving his team a 26-22 lead going into halftime.
“Today, we didn’t finish the first 16 minutes great, but we came out and battled and played Concord basketball the last 16 minutes,” Gill said. “And this is the outcome right here. Can’t be more proud of these guys.”
PHOTOS (Top) Concord boys basketball coach Marcus Gill Sr. holds up his team’s newly-won championship trophy Saturday at Breslin Center. (Middle) Douglass’ Jacodi Nathan (11) drives hard to the hoop with Concord’s Tyler Rundle working to wall him off. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)