Class A: Home Sweet Breslin Again

March 23, 2012

EAST LANSING – No one from this season’s Saginaw team had played in an MHSAA Semifinals before this weekend. That’s saying something, given how the Trojans have made Breslin Center a regular March destination over the last two decades.

After a slow start Friday, they looked at home once more.

Saginaw made just 19 percent of its first-quarter shots, but then 51 percent the rest of the game to cruise into its first Final since 2008 with a 59-46 win over Macomb L’Anse Creuse North.

 “(Breslin) was real big, and we had to get the feel of the court for the first quarter,” Saginaw senior Davario Gaines said. “After we got the feeling of the court, we started playing at our level.”

Saginaw (25-2), ranked No. 1 at the end of the regular season, will take on Rockford in the Class A Final at 4 p.m. Saturday.

The Trojans have been to the Semifinals eight times in the last 17 seasons and have won five MHSAA championships total during their history.

A lot of those teams – with guys like Draymond Green and Anthony Roberson of late – were led by big-time stars. But this Saginaw team is a little bit different.

Only two players have averaged at least 10 points per game this season, and none more than 15. Junior Julian Henderson scored a team-high 11 on Friday, with six teammates adding between six and nine.

“We’ve got a bunch of players that can step up at any time,” Saginaw first-year coach Julian Taylor said. “We’ve got a lot of interchangeable kids that have accepted the team concept. They are playing for each other, playing for team pride. That’s what we’re all about.”

L’Anse Creuse North, meanwhile, was making its first Semifinal appearance Friday and finished 10-11 just a year ago. Junior guard Tyler Conklin scored a game-high 22 points, and junior forward Ramone Griffin added 10 and nine rebounds.

This season came with an especially difficult moment for the Crusaders. District athletic supervisor Dave Jackson, who previously had served as the L’Anse Creuse North principal, died unexpectedly in mid-February. The basketball team became a rallying point amid the mournful times that followed.

“The biggest thing we experienced today with the send-off and community, the staff and our administration; it’s been a rough emotional ride, but we were able to create some diversion with this basketball run,” Crusaders coach Jay Seletsky said. “To bring the community together and see this support that we can have, and with a little diversion (from) emotional things, it’s been awesome. Besides the outcome, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.”

 “We worked hard for it every day in practice,” Conklin said. “We’re all going to keep our heads up, work all offseason and come back next season and try to make it this far.”

Click for box score or to watch the game and press conferences at MHSAA.tv.

PHOTO: Saginaw junior forward Julian Henderson swats a L'Anse Creuse North shot during Friday's Semifinal. (Photo courtesy of Terry McNamara Photography.)

Basketball Finals Tickets On Sale

March 6, 2017

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Tickets for the Michigan High School Athletic Association Girls and Boys Basketball Finals are on sale from the Jenison Field House Ticket Office.

All-session tickets for both events can be ordered online by clicking hereAll-session tickets also can be ordered by calling (517) 355-1610 or by visiting Jenison Field House. Single-session tickets will go on sale March 8.

Girls Semifinals tickets cost $8 per session, with a $3 service charge then applied to each order. Finals tickets cost $10 per session with the $3 service charge then applied (only one service charge is applied if Semifinals and Finals tickets are purchased together). All girls basketball tickets are for general admission. The Girls Basketball Semifinals are March 16-17, with all four Finals on March 18.

 

Boys Semifinals tickets also cost $8 per session plus the $3 service charge and $10 per Finals session plus the service charge. Boys Basketball Semifinals and Finals tickets are reserved in Breslin Center’s lower bowl, with general admission for the upper deck. The Boys Basketball Semifinals are March 23-24, with all four Finals on March 25.

 

For both the Girls and Boys Semifinals, each session includes both games for one class. There are two Finals sessions; the Class D and A championship games are one session, and the second includes the Class C and B championship games.