Class A Final: Trojans ring up a title
March 24, 2012
EAST LANSING – Every time Draymond Green visited a Saginaw basketball practice this season, he reminded the current Trojans of the same thing:
The Michigan State and former Saginaw star has two Class A championship rings. They had none.
And he brought that up one more time when he went to dinner with the team Friday night.
He can’t tease them anymore. Saginaw – top-ranked entering the tournament – ended it that way with a 54-42 win over Rockford in Saturday’s Class A Final.
“Now I don’t gotta hear Draymond Green’s mouth saying we don’t have a ring. Now I can take my ring to his face and say, ‘Yes, now we do,’” Saginaw senior Davario Gaines said. “He said (Friday), ‘You’re happy just to be here,’ since we won yesterday. We said, ‘No, we’re not happy to be here.’ We hadn’t won anything yet.
“So now we won.”
The championship is Saginaw’s sixth, and first since 2008, when Green led the Trojans to their second straight. But this title-winner had a different look from those that won under previous Saginaw coaches Lou Dawkins and Marshall Thomas.
Those two sat behind the Trojans’ bench Saturday as first-year coach Julian Taylor guided a team that didn’t have a Green-esque star, but a number of contributors who didn’t get down during the streakiest play of the weekend.
Saginaw jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Rockford countered with 18 straight points. The Trojans came back from that with an 18-6 run to lead 25-24 at halftime.
The score was knotted 40-40 with 5:01 to play. But Saginaw finished on a 14-2 run, scoring the final 11 points of the game.
“You try to control runs and limit them,” Rockford coach Nick Allen said. “Saginaw is a very good team, and obviously we didn’t do a very good job of it.”
The Rams did hit 10 3-pointers, tying for fourth-most in MHSAA boys basketball championship game history. They made 55 percent of their first-half tries from beyond the arc.
But the Trojans turned up the pressure to full-court, and limited mistakes at a level rarely seen. Saginaw had just five turnovers and only nine fouls – and Rockford didn’t get to shoot a free throw.
Senior guard Travontis Richardson led the Trojans with 13 points and junior Julian Henderson had 12. But seven players scored at least four points and six grabbed at least six rebounds.
“We don’t have to have a big player. As long as we have parts to the team, they balance out the floor,” Gaines said. “We played D that they haven’t seen before, probably. We fought hard.”
So did Rockford, just to reach Breslin. Allen also was in his first season coaching after taking over for longtime coach Steve Majerle, who is battling Parkinson’s disease. The Rams entered the postseason unranked, but won seven games to finish 22-6.
Junior Chase Fairchild scored 14 points off the bench Saturday to lead the team for the second straight game. He’s one of seven juniors who won’t be nearly as big a surprise if they make a run again in 2013.
“No one expected us to go all the way to the state championship game,” Rockford junior guard Chad Carlson said. “We got here and played together as a team. It was a great season for us. We just couldn’t get it done.”
Click for box score or to watch the game and press conferences at MHSAA.tv.
PHOTOS: (Top) Saginaw players embrace each other at midcourt after clinching the 2011-12 Class A championship. (Middle) Saginaw sophomore Joseph Williams-Powell (42) sends up a shot above the reach of Rockford senior Ivy Johnson. (See more at Terry McNamara Photography.)
Lincoln Comes Through at Crunch Time Again to Complete Division 2 Repeat
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
March 15, 2025
EAST LANSING — With the game – and a second-straight Division 2 championship – hanging in the balance Saturday, senior guard Markus Blackwell stepped to the free-throw line at the Breslin Center.
Swish. Swish.
Ballgame.
Blackwell’s two free throws with 26.9 seconds to play helped push Warren Lincoln to a 58-51 victory over Romulus Summit Academy North and the first repeat championship in Division 2 since Lansing Sexton double-dipped in 2011-12.
“I was thinking we could win it there,” Blackwell said. “When I go to the free-throw line, I gotta make my free throws. All these games prepare us for that type of stuff. I knew I was going to make the free throws.”
Blackwell’s free throws gave the Abes a two-possession lead in a game that was tight throughout. After Summit missed a 3-pointer, the Dragons were forced to foul senior Christopher Morgan, who also made his free throws and put the game out of reach.
“Man, what a game. What a Final,” Lincoln coach Wydell Henry said. “Hats off to Summit for a great game. They had us down, and it was back and forth. But these guys showed what they were about all year. Just persevering, resilience. Just playing hard. They never quit, they never gave up, we never got down. We’re battle-tested.
“I told my guys to stay with it and we’ll be successful, and these guys made plays down the stretch to get us the victory.”
Lincoln (23-4) spread the offense around nicely, with Markus Blackwell scoring 13 points, Morgan, Da’Marion Bozeman and Geon Hutchins 12 apiece, and Moses Blackwell nine. All five scorers are seniors, with Hutchins the only newcomer among that group this winter.
“When I came up here, that was the whole goal was to go back to back, and they welcomed me in, and this whole season we fought hard and we won,” he said.
Andrew Ashwood led the Dragons with 11 points, while Amir Perryman had 10.
Summit jumped out to a 13-6 lead in the first quarter and ended it with a 15-13 advantage. Lincoln responded by taking a five-point lead in the second quarter, but the teams entered halftime knotted at 25-25.
A three-point play by Ashwood in the third quarter put the Dragons ahead 38-34. Perryman hit a 3-pointer, and Chase Houser made a layup to push Summit to a 43-36 lead.
Late in the quarter, Da’Marion Bozeman recorded a steal and went coast to coast, making a layup at the buzzer to pull Lincoln within 45-41 entering the fourth. He wasn’t done there, as back-to-back 3-pointers by Bozeman and Markus Blackwell to start the final quarter launched Lincoln out front 47-45, and the Abes never trailed again despite Summit’s efforts.
Trailing by four with 1:21 left, Houser made a bank shot and drew a foul, but missed the free throw, leaving it 53-51. That’s when Markus Blackwell was fouled and sealed the game.
“Only one team wins their last game,” a somber Summit coach Derek Smith said. “This team went out like a team, and I can’t ask them for nothing more.”
Smith – the program’s third coach in three seasons – closed out his first year at the helm with a 24-4 record.
“They overcame all the adversity in the world,” Smith said. “They’re a resilient group, and we’ll be back. We’ll be back.”
Henry also believes his team isn’t making its last Finals appearance.
“We started from ground zero. Getting kids to believe in what you’re trying to do and the program you’re trying to build,” he said. “It’s a blessing, and I don’t take these things for granted. To come up here two times in two years and go out 2-0, I’m excited.
“We’ll be back. We’re going to do it again.”
PHOTOS (Top) Warren Lincoln’s Geon Hutchins dunks during his team’s Division 2 Final win Saturday night at Breslin Center. (Middle) The Abes’ Markus Blackwell (3) drives with Summit’s Jordan Fuller defending. (Below) The Gators’ Amir Perryman (1) makes a move toward the basket. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)