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.)
Breslin Bound: Boys Report Week 9
February 10, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The first week of February saw the final boys basketball showcase events of 2014-15 and the first league tournament of this winter, with the Detroit Public School League beginning its countdown to Calihan Hall.
The following teams were among those that impressed as the final month of the MHSAA regular season got underway.
CLASS A
Macomb Dakota (11-2) – The Cougars sit atop the Macomb Area Conference Red standings and are coming off their best week. Dakota beat second-place Clinton Township Chippewa Valley 75-67 on Thursday and then edged Ypsilanti Community 69-65 on Saturday at the Lumberjack Classic at Delta College.
Salem (11-3) – The Rocks have finished third three straight seasons since their last league title in 2011-12, but they’re tied with Novi for first this winter in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association Central. Next up? Novi tonight, with sixth place South Lyon to finish out the league schedule Friday.
Sterling Heights Stevenson (10-3) – The Titans are 7-0 in the MAC White, two games ahead of the field with a loss to Dakota its only defeat of 2015. Stevenson finished third in its division last season and second in 2012-13.
West Bloomfield (12-1) – The switch from Blue to the White division of the Oakland Activities Association has been a nice change; West Bloomfield was seventh in the Blue last season but sits atop the White standings with three of four league wins by 14 or more points.
CLASS B
Detroit Communication Media Arts (13-3) – Despite its first loss since Dec. 18, to Detroit Osborn, CMA finished its run to a Detroit PSL division crown and then doubled up Class A Detroit Southeastern 40-20 in the first round of the league tournament.
Detroit Osborn (11-5) – The Knights claimed their second straight Detroit PSL division title and continued a nine-game winning streak by beating CMA in overtime and then Detroit Cody in the first round of the league tournament.
Edwardsburg (10-3) – The Eddies’ aspirations of repeating as Wolverine Conference West champs took a blow with a two-point loss to first-place Dowagiac on Jan. 26. But they’ll travel to Dowagiac on Friday with a chance to create a three-way tie at the top.
Imlay City (12-2) – The Spartans pulled within half a win of the Blue Water Area Conference lead by handing Yale its first defeat this season, 49-42, on Feb. 3. Imlay City's lone league loss came by a point Jan. 20 to Richmond, the league leader and opponent Wednesday.
CLASS C
Burton Atherton (10-5) – The Wolverines posted a 3-0 week, avenging a previous loss to Flint Hamady with a 65-60 win Friday and then beating Bridgeport in the Lumberjack Classic. Atherton is third in the Genesee Area Conference Blue.
Cassopolis (9-6) – The overall record isn’t stunning thanks in part to a tough schedule featuring a number of larger schools, but that experience gained is paying off in the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph East. The Rangers sit in first place and beat a solid BCS West team in Buchanan 61-52 on Thursday.
Muskegon Heights (8-4) – The Tigers again are playing a variety of schools of all sizes and are 5-1 after a 3-3 start. Wins against Baldwin and Muskegon Catholic Central are impressive, but so are losses to Rockford, Lansing Sexton, Bridgman and Benton Harbor.
Shelby (14-0) – These Tigers can clinch their second straight West Michigan Conference championship tonight against second-place North Muskegon, which they beat 48-45 on Jan. 27. North Muskegon and Whitehall are the only opponents to come within single digits of Shelby this season.
CLASS D
Cedarville (9-0) – With much the same cast as last season’s MHSAA semifinalist – and the key players from the fall’s 8-player football runner-up – Cedarville sits atop the Eastern Upper Peninsula Athletic Conference and has won at least 41 straight league games dating to the 2009-10 season (which is as far back as MHSAA regular-season archives go).
Frankfort (12-1) – The Panthers boys are matching the powerhouse girls team this winter, sitting tied for first in the Northwest Conference with Maple City Glen Lake. Frankfort plays Glen Lake again Friday after falling to Lakers 45-44 on Jan. 13.
Holland Calvary (13-1) – The Crusaders have clinched a share of their fourth straight league title and can make it an outright Alliance League North championship by beating second-place Kent City Algoma Christian on Friday for the second time in two weeks.
Powers North Central (12-0) – The Jets are preparing to land their third straight league title with a three-win lead atop the Skyline Central Conference West. An MHSAA quarterfinalist last season, North Central hasn’t lost a regular-season game since 2012-13 and got a big win, 46-41, over second-place Crystal Falls Forest Park on Friday.
PHOTO: Macomb Dakota edged Ypsilanti Community 69-65 on Saturday at Delta College. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).