Breslin Bound: Boys Report Week 6
January 15, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
We’re heading into the midpoint of this boys basketball season, and the surprises keep coming.
Detroit Henry Ford and Grand Ledge were full of them last week, and Berkley has been one of the state’s most intriguing all season. We touch on those a little bit below, along with a number of others that most recently caught our attention.
Breslin Bound is powered by MI Student Aid and based on results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com. To offer corrections or fill in scores we’re missing, email me at [email protected].
Week in Review
The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results:
1. Detroit Henry Ford 63, Detroit Cass Tech 60 – The Trojans should be back in the Class B title talk after handing a first loss to one of the major favorites in Class A.
2. Grand Ledge 59, East Lansing 53 – The Comets are 6-1 but weren’t getting much attention until this upset broke East Lansing’s 45-game regular-season winning streak.
3. Frankfort 69, Buckley 53 – The Panthers handed the reigning Class D runner-up this defeat after falling to Buckley by 39 and then only three last season.
4. Detroit Cass Tech 85, Muskegon 78 (OT) – The Technicians did not waste time bouncing back from the Henry Ford loss, downing Muskegon in overtime the next day at Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills.
5. Macomb Dakota 64, Clinton Township Chippewa Valley 62 – The Cougars took big losses early to Detroit U-D Jesuit and New Haven, but are undefeated in the Macomb Area Conference Red after handing Chippewa Valley its first defeat in the league and overall this winter.
Watch List
With an eye toward March, here are two teams in each class making sparks:
CLASS A
Ann Arbor Skyline (7-0) – The Eagles have been building toward a start like this, even winning the Southeastern Conference Red title a year ago. They started the new year with a 20-point win over second-place Ann Arbor Pioneer on Saturday and have impressive wins by 14 over Belleville, one over Detroit Pershing and 20 over frequent nemesis Ann Arbor Huron.
Berkley (8-0) – The Bears have doubled their win total from last season after going 4-17, and they’re only a few more from guaranteeing a first winning season since 2010-11. They’ve pulled off a few close ones including a two-point victory over MAC Bronze leader Madison Heights Madison a month ago. Next up is Rochester with first place in the Oakland Activities Association Blue on the line.
CLASS B
Detroit Henry Ford (7-2) – The 2015-16 Class B champion still made the Regional last season despite finishing 13-11 overall, and another big run could be on the way. Ford opened this season with a two-point win over 2017 Class A semifinalist West Bloomfield, and has beaten a series of Class A teams including Cass Tech (see above). The losses came to Class A powers Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills and Hazel Park, the latter in overtime.
Ovid-Elsie (5-1) – The Marauders have hovered around .500 the last few seasons, but might have something more in store over the next two months after a fast start. Ovid-Elsie sits atop the Tri-Valley Conference West standings and hasn’t lost since its opener (to still-undefeated Fowler). Coming up Friday is a matchup with second-place Hemlock.
CLASS C
Norway (5-2) – The Knights moved over to the Skyline Central Conference after sharing the Mid-Peninsula Conference title last season and finishing 18-3 overall. They’ve won four straight and hold a half-game lead in the SCC’s Large School division. The two losses came in December in overtime to Powers North Central and by eight to nemesis Iron Mountain, which knocked Norway out of the tournament last season. Those two will face off again Feb. 9.
Sanford Meridian (7-1) – The Mustangs are playing for a second straight Jack Pine Conference championship and already have wins against usual annual contenders Beaverton and Clare. Meridian’s only loss was by 10 in early December to Class A Saginaw Heritage, and it’s got another similar test coming up against Midland Dow in two weeks.
CLASS D
Cedarville (7-2) – The Trojans are approaching the season’s midpoint in position to take back the Eastern Upper Peninsula Athletic Conference title after tying for second a year ago. Cedarville got past reigning champion Pickford 67-59 last week and has lost only to undefeated Hillman and Class B Boyne City.
Frankfort (6-0) – The Northwest Conference sent Buckley all the way to the Class D title game last year, and early this winter it’s Frankfort that could be setting up for a run. The Panthers held onto first place all alone in the league last week with a win over the Bears, and now face the other two teams with only one conference loss – Kingsley on Tuesday and Maple City Glen Lake on Thursday.
Can't-Miss Contests
Be on the lookout for results of these games coming up:
Tuesday – Rapid River (7-0) at Powers North Central (6-1) – The Rockets ended North Central’s record 84-game winning streak Dec. 7, but the Jets can make it six straight by taking the rematch.
Tuesday – Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (7-2) at Warren DeLaSalle (6-2) – In a strong Detroit Catholic League Central, these are two of the best; DeLaSalle leads and St. Mary’s is third after falling to second-place U-D Jesuit by a point last week.
Thursday – Bellevue (8-0) at Camden-Frontier (8-2) – Both are pushing for Southern Central Athletic Association titles; Bellevue is tied for first in the West and Camden-Frontier is second in the East, and this game counts in the standings for both.
Thursday – Maple City Glen Lake (5-1) at Frankfort (6-0) – The Panthers also must survive Kingsley on Tuesday to keep their perfect start going, and Glen Lake is aiming to gain a share of first place in the Northwest Conference too.
Friday – Hazel Park (8-0) at West Bloomfield (3-3) – Hazel Park and reigning Class A champion Clarkston have been the talk of a strong OAA Red, but West Bloomfield also is undefeated in league play after opening with three tough nonleague losses including two by only two points apiece.
PHOTO: Berkley, here against Clawson in December, is one of this season’s biggest surprises. (Photo courtesy of C&G Newspapers.)
Senior-Dominated Falcons Finish Freeland Careers in Best Way Imaginable
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 14, 2026
EAST LANSING – Not many teams had a sense of urgency to win it all as big as Freeland’s this season.
And Saturday night, they capped off a run to a title that went well beyond just this year.
Led by its 12 seniors – and two senior student managers – Freeland claimed its first Boys Basketball Finals title, defeating Hudsonville Unity Christian 42-32 in the Division 2 championship game at the Breslin Center.
“To go back home with this big thing (trophy) and do something that no Freeland boys team has ever done, win a state championship, is pretty special,” senior guard Wilson Huckeby said. “Not just for me, but for all these guys, I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Everyone that saw the floor for the Falcons in the Final will graduate, and they’ll go out in the best way they could imagine.
The game started slowly, as the Crusaders led 6-4 after the first quarter with the teams going a combined 4-of-19 from the field.
Some space opened up during the second quarter, but not much, as Unity Christian held a 17-15 lead at the half.
It was Freeland, though, that started to find a groove toward the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth, going ahead by 13 with under three minutes to play.
“In the locker room, you walked in and it was just poised and composed,” Freeland coach John Fattal said. “Everyone knew in that locker room what the second half was going to look like. Everyone knew in our locker room what the belief looked like. Everyone understood that these guys were going to handle pressure, were going to make free throws, they were going to handle everything that Unity Christian threw at them, everything the environment threw at them, and they were just poised and composed the whole second half.”
The run was highlighted by 3-pointers from Tristan Comer and Connor Lasceski on back-to-back possessions, stretching a three-point lead to nine.
“Obviously I’m extremely confident in the shot,” said Comer, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound center who will play offensive line at Michigan State next year. “But I gotta give it to my teammates for setting me up with the perfect pass. I’ve only been able to develop a shot like that because of Coach Fattal and how he runs his practices and how he teaches when to take those shots.”
Comer finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Falcons (26-3), while Huckeby had 12 points, six rebounds and four steals. Senior Cooper Wagner had five points and six assists, and Lasceski had six points.
“Every shot (Huckeby) made was contested,” Unity Christian coach Scott Soodsma said. “We kind of screwed up a little right before half. We went to a zone and all of the sudden I think we forgot and left that kid open. He’s a great player. If you would have told me that Huckeby and Comer had 24 total, one of those could score 24 on their own. So, yeah, it was just one of those nights where I thought our defense didn’t let us down and it was right there. I thought we just weren’t able to put the basketball in the basket.”
Jack Kamminga led Unity Christian (25-4) with 14 points and five rebounds.
Unity Christian lost senior guard Brogan Sherd early in the third quarter to a leg injury. He was carried back to the locker room and returned on crutches to watch the end of the game. Owen VanderWaal was also limited because of an injury.
“We were down a little horsepower and we had a hard time scoring, that was the issue,” Soodsma said. “Those are our top two leading scorers and both of them are down on the bench. I thought Jack really stepped up and made a couple key baskets. (Kyler) Berghuis did a great job on Huckeby fighting over all those screens. But we couldn’t score. If you would have told me we were going to hold them to 42 points, I’m thinking we win that ball game by 10. I thought we’d get to 55, probably. But, tonight, it just wasn’t meant to be.”
PHOTOS (Top) Freeland’s Wilson Huckeby attempts to cut between a pair of Unity Christian defenders during the Division 2 Final on Saturday. (Middle) Unity’s Kyler Berghuis (3) dribbles into an opening just inside the arc. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)