Class D: Follow the Blue and Yellow Road
March 22, 2012
EAST LANSING – The blue and yellow brick road was paved with character and hard work.
So read T-shirts worn by Climax-Scotts basketball players making their first appearance at the MHSAA Semifinals on Thursday.
How excited is the school much better known for its nine straight football playoff appearances? The rest of those shirts sold out to the student body in less than a day.
And that yellow haze swallowed up the Panthers as they celebrated a 52-44 win over Carney-Nadeau that earned Climax-Scotts its first berth in an MHSAA hoops championship game.
“It means the world to do something nobody in the history of our school has done before. The feeling’s pretty much indescribable,” Climax-Scotts senior guard Brandon Eshuis said. “Our student body probably wanted this just as bad as we did. … We had a huge crowd and a huge support group, and it really helped us.”
The No. 5 Panthers (26-1) will face No. 7 Southfield Christian in the Final at 10 a.m. Saturday.
They advanced by taking advantage of a few big ones.
Carney-Nadeau’s tallest player was just 6-foot-1, good news for Climax-Scotts’ 6-7 junior Aaron Cook (12 points, 14 rebounds) and 6-7 all-state senior Malachi Satterlee (12 points, nine rebounds). Total, the Panthers outscored Carney-Nadeau 28-6 in the paint.
The Wolves also have relied almost solely on five players for the last two weeks and never subbed in the Semifinal. Climax-Scotts looked a little worn at the end Thursday night – but went on a 9-3 run over two minutes to turn a three-point lead into a 49-40 advantage with 1:08 to play.
What Carney-Nadeau (23-3) does best is shoot from outside, and "3-pointer" became the buzzward among the Panthers over the two days leading up to the game. Climax-Scotts’ second stringers were given green lights to shoot from NBA 3-point range at practice Wednesday in an attempt to imitate what the team would see.
“We had anticipated shooters, and they were just amazing when we got here,” Panthers coach Steve Critchlow said.
Wolves junior Wade Schetter scored 15 points, with three 3-pointers, while senior Keenan Lampinen added 12 points and senior Lucas Moreau scored 13. All three took at least 15 shots from the floor. But as a whole, the team made only 29 percent.
“This has been a long two weeks for us, with tough games night in and night out,” Carney-Nadeau coach Jason Polfus said. “Maybe the kids were worn out a little bit. But they stuck it out today. They kept fighting today, and I can’t say enough about that.”
Click for box score or to watch the game and press conferences at MHSAA.tv.
PHOTO: Climax-Scott's Aaron Cook attempts to block a shot by Carney-Nadeau's Lucas Moreau on Thursday. Cook blocked two shots in the game. (Photo courtesy of Terry McNamara Photography.)
Lights-Out Loyer Leads Clarkston to Final
March 23, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Warm-ups don’t count, but it seemed like Foster Loyer couldn’t miss while getting ready for Friday’s first Semifinal at the Breslin Center.
The last four seasons, that’s been a good sign for Clarkston.
The Wolves’ senior point guard went on to make 12 of 17 shots from the floor and score 42 points – becoming the fifth player ever to drop at least 40 in a boys basketball Semifinal – in leading reigning champ Clarkston back to the Class A Final with a 74-49 win over Warren DeLaSalle.
Loyer scored 17 of his team’s 23 first-quarter points, on 6 for 10 shooting, as the Wolves quickly built a double-digit lead that never fell below nine points the rest of the game.
“When he gets going, there are not a lot of people who can stop him,” Clarkston senior backcourt mate CJ Robinson said. “When he gets going like that, we try to key on getting him the ball. He knocks shots down for us, and it opens things up for others, and he does a good job of finding everybody.”
Clarkston (25-1) will attempt to finish a repeat at 12:15 p.m. Saturday against Holland West Ottawa.
Loyer drained seven 3-pointers among his 12 field goals and all 11 of his free throw attempts – against a DeLaSalle defense focused on slowing down the recently-named Mr. Basketball Award winner and Michigan State recruit.
“I don’t think in 31 years of being a varsity coach that anyone has remotely scored that many points,” Pilots longtime leader Greg Esler said. “I think about when we were here in (20)07, Manny Harris had 13. But the thing about Loyer that’s so good is he’s so deceiving – he reminds you of Cassius Winston in the fact that he’s not the most athletic guy, he might not be the fastest but all of a sudden he’s shooting the 25-footer and getting to the rim and making everybody on his team better. So there’s no question, he’s a winner.”
Those comparisons, of course, are high praise – Harris, who went on to star at Michigan, had 14 for Detroit Redford in a Semifinal win over the Pilots that season, and DeLaSalle saw its share as well of Detroit U-D Jesuit’s Winston, who’s currently running the point for MSU.
Longtime Clarkston coach Dan Fife extended the praise to include Robinson, who had nine points and five assists while sharing a game-high 31 minutes on the floor.
“When you’ve got two guards who can play like this, it makes it a lot easier to coach,” said Fife, who’s in his 36th season. “My first year coaching, we had a bunch of bigs, and our guards weren’t near like this, we played Flint Central and we just got tattooed because we couldn’t handle the pressure. These guys handle the pressure.
“The two of them feel comfortable, and it makes everybody else relax a little bit.”
As a team, it was a smooth performance. The Wolves had only 10 turnovers to 11 assists and made 53 percent of their shots from the floor.
“I think as a point guard, for both of us, it’s important that we’re in control of the pace of the game, that we play how we want to play,” Loyer said. “Just to come out and throw that first punch and get an early lead is very important for us.”
Of course, Clarkston has more than great guards – senior forward Taylor Currie, headed to Wisconsin after graduation, chipped in 16 points and 12 rebounds and had the first basket of the game. As a team, the Wolves outrebounded the Pilots 36-19.
Senior forward Luke Pfromm led DeLaSalle (19-8) with 17 points, while senior forward Jordan Winowiecki had 12 and senior forward Kole Gjonaj had 10. Senior guard Justin Fisher had nine assists.
PHOTOS: (Top) Clarkston’s Foster Loyer launches a shot during Friday’s Semifinal win over Warren DeLaSalle. (Middle) DeLaSalle’s Justin Fisher had nine assists and four points for the Pilots.