Consortium Closes In on Fantastic Finish
March 20, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – The memory of coach Al Anderson is not far from Detroit Consortium as it attempts to win its first MHSAA boys basketball championship this weekend.
The Cougars just missed making it to Breslin Center in 2013, falling to eventual Class C champion Flint Beecher by two in their Quarterfinal. But Consortium is now one more win from finishing the quest it began when Anderson died unexpectedly last February.
Three players scored 18 or more points as the Cougars downed Negaunee 69-54 in Thursday’s Semifinal to advance to Saturday’s 4:30 p.m. championship game against Pewamo-Westphalia.
Consortium, ranked No. 2 at the end of the regular season, has now beaten the rest of the top three this week, having downed top-ranked Mount Clemens on Tuesday before eliminating the No. 3 Miners.
“We knew we had to win for (Anderson last year). We came back playing harder, with more intensity, just playing as a team,” Consortium senior Ronald Booth said. “We were heart-broken last year not getting it done. But we’re here this year, and we plan on finishing it.”
“We’ve been fighting for this state championship for the last four years,” senior Malik Dawson added, “and we’re going to win it.”
Although Consortium (24-2) is playing in its first MHSAA Final on Saturday, the Semifinal was its second in four seasons and followed its third Quarterfinal over the last four years.
Former Deaborn Edsel Ford standout Tobias Tuomi took over the Consortium program this winter and inherited not only arguably the state’s best player – 6-foot-8 sophomore wing Joshua Jackson – but a group of scorers around him that have made the Cougars even tougher to stop.
Jackson had 18 points, seven rebounds, four assists and five steals Thursday. But sophomore guard Luster Johnson added 20 points and senior Rudy Smith scored a game-high 22 points with five rebounds, three assists and three steals.
“We needed to really keep the other guys down. You look at Rudy Smith, Luster Johnson, that killed us,” Negaunee coach Michael O’Donnell said. “We needed to keep everybody else (but Jackson) under 10. When they got up to 20 plus, that was a big hurt for us.”
Consortium led only 12-11 after the first quarter. But the Cougars turned that lead into nine points halfway through the second quarter and 14 by halftime.
They shot 54 percent from the floor for the game, with an incredible 65 percent success rate during the second half.
It matched with what Consortium has done all season. Booth, Smith and Johnson also average at least 10 points per game, and eight players have had high games of at least that many points.
“We’ve had six or seven guys all year, pretty consistently,” Tuomi said of his team’s scoring balance. “Josh will be up there as one of our leading scorers, but we’ve got seven or eight really talented guys, and all of them have had a game where they’ve been the leading or second-leading scorers. It’s something you expect.”
Negaunee (24-2) has been a picture of consistency as well over the last four seasons, making the Quarterfinals at the end of all of them and the Semifinals the last two.
Senior guard Tyler Jandron was a constant on those teams and finished his four-year varsity career with 12 points. Senior Eric Lori, another top scorer on the last couple Miners teams, had 11 points. Sophomore forward Jay Lori led with 14 points and seven rebounds.
“We started something. Just getting here, making it twice, is unbelievable,” Jandron said. “But it’s tough losing this. I want to push myself to the limit, and tonight we came up short.
“We talked to our underclassmen about what these seniors did for us, and we’re going to miss them,” O’Donnell added. “At the same time, we wanted to take the time to thank them and make sure they understand we appreciate what they did for us.”
Click for the full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTO: (Top) Detroit Consortium’s Joshua Jackson (11) dunks as Negaunee’s Robert Loy gives chase Thursday. (Middle) Negaunee's Tyler Jandron looks for an opening while defended by Consortium's Rudy Smith.
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Joshua Jackson blocks the shot, Detroit Consortium goes on the fast break and Kenneth Turner lobs to Jackson for the dunk to finish the play late in the first half. (2) Jay Lori of Negaunee takes a pass from Zane Radloff and powers to the basket for two to pull the Miners to within a point at the end of the first quarter.
2012 Boys Basketball Finals in Review
April 5, 2012
Did we just watch one of the greatest MHSAA boys basketball champions of all-time?
That’s a question being asked around the state coming off this season’s Boys Basketball Finals at Michigan State’s Breslin Center.
The team that brought up in those comparisons is Lansing Sexton, which won its second-straight Class B championship in convincing fashion. But that run was only one stroke of historical significance to emerge from this season’s Finals.
Saginaw added to one of the state’s strongest traditions with another championship in Class A. Flint Beecher posted the best finish of its successful run by finishing undefeated and champion in Class C. And Southfield Christian set the bar high with its first title run, finishing with one of the sharpest shooting displays in MHSAA history.
We wrap up the winter with a look back at those four tournaments, and a look ahead at teams we could see back at Breslin in 2013.
Four quarters
Saginaw wins No. 6: Class A conveniently played out to end with No. 1 Saginaw vs. No. 2 Romulus – until unranked Rockford crashed with a 62-61 win over the Eagles in a Semifinal. But the Rams, making their second MHSAA Final appearance, nearly earned their second championship. Rockford made 10 3-pointers and was tied with the Trojans as late as 4:36 to play before Saginaw finished on a 14-2 run. (Read the full report.)
Seeing Red again: Lansing Sexton concluded one of the most impressive runs in MHSAA history with a 67-32 win over No. 7 Stevensville-Lakeshore in the Class B Final. The Big Reds finished 27-1, winning all of their games by at least eight points despite playing a schedule loaded with many of the best from Class A. It was Sexton’s third-straight appearance in the B championship game, and second-straight title; the Big Reds also won back-to-back titles, in Class A, in 1959-60. (Read the full report.)
Best of Buc-Town: That’s another argument being made after Beecher became the 12th team in MHSAA history to win 28 games – one more than the best of the school’s other three championship squads. Beecher claimed Class C this season by beating reigning champion Schoolcraft by 20 in the Semifinal and Traverse City St. Francis 74-60 in the championship game. (Read the full report.)
Can’t-miss champs: Southfield Christian tied an MHSAA record with 12 3-pointers in the Class D Final, on 46 percent accuracy, in downing Climax-Scotts 76-44 after escaping Muskegon Catholic Central 78-74 in the Semifinal. Senior Chris Dewberry made 10 of 13 shots from the floor in the championship game, including 6 of 8 from 3-point range. (Read the full report.)
Numbers game
54,823: Total attendance of the eight Semifinals and four championship games, combined, at the 2012 Boys Basketball Finals. The total was roughly 5,600 more than attended in 2011.
74: Wins over the last three seasons by Lansing Sexton, tied for sixth-most in MHSAA history for a boys basketball team over that span of time.
19: Number of games, to one win, that Southfield Christian lost two seasons ago. The Eagles improved to 11-10 last season before going 24-2 and winning the Class D championship last month.
3: Runner-up finishes by Flint Beecher before beating St. Francis to win its first MHSAA championship since 1987. Those just-misses came in 2008, 2003 and in Class B in 2000.
11: Points scored by Saginaw, in a row, to close out the Class A championship game. The Trojans rode that final 11-0 run to a 54-42 win over Rockford.
Quotable
“They have a big influence in my life. Coach Thomas with all the help he has done for me this season; I could call him any time and get advice. And the same thing with Coach Dawkins. We’re brothers. It’s all about love and having that relationship. He texts me at night and lets me know how things are going, and I text him and ask him for advice about things. I was really appreciative of their support.” – Saginaw first-year coach Julian Taylor, on former championship-winning Saginaw coaches Marshall Thomas and Lou Dawkins, who sat behind the Trojans’ bench at Breslin during the Final
“Denzel is every father’s dream. Both my sons, Drew and Denzel. I’ve been very lucky to be able to coach both my sons and for them to enjoy the thing that I love most, basketball. Denzel’s been incredible. He’s done everything we’ve asked of him. His freshman year he had two knee surgeries. The doctor had to put his knee back together. He didn’t know if he was even going to play again, and he fought through some difficult struggles with his knee. We talked about adversity and different things. When he was being recruited by Michigan State, coach (Tom) Izzo said, ‘I’m not going offer you, because you can’t shoot it. You can do everything else.’ So Denzel, when he got done, he went to the gym and shot 500 shots. … That’s the kind of guy Denzel is. He’s going to do extra. I’m really proud of him. I love him. He’s my son, and for the people who doubted him and watched him play, I feel bad for them, because they just missed a fine, fine high school basketball player.” – Sexton coach Carlton Valentine on his son, senior Denzel Valentine.
“It was worth it. We’ve been putting in work all year, the offseason, way before the season; we didn’t just wait for the season to prepare for it. So it was worth a lot. We put a lot into this. And we appreciate this, and not just us, the whole community, the whole coaching staff. We made a lot of sacrifices to get here and finish the job. It’s just a blessing.” – Beecher senior Cortez Robinson, on coming back to win a title after losing in the Semifinals the last two seasons.
“We don’t take anybody for granted. We learned earlier in the year looking at film and seeing guys and going, ‘Oh, this is going to be a cake walk,’ and we come out and guys get up 30 on us and we’re looking like, ‘All right, now we’ve got to find a way.’ We played our hardest, and we just felt like if we played our hardest, we know we put in more work than them. That’s the confidence we have in our work that we put in, so we came out and let that show.” – Southfield Christian senior guard Lindsey Hunter III
See you next year …
Rockford: The Rams certainly were a surprise of the tournament, but won’t be if they make it back in 2013. Seven juniors should return to lead the way, including top guard Chad Carlson and key contributors Chase Fairchild and Kyle Short. (Honorable mention to Macomb L’Anse Creuse North, which made its first Semifinal appearance ever and should return all but two players, including its top two scorers.)
Muskegon Heights: The Tigers look good to return – it’s just a matter of if it will be in Class C or if the school will opt up into Class B, the class it played in this season. Muskegon Heights’ top three players were a junior and two sophomores, and 6-foot-4 forward Mike Davis showed star potential in the Semifinal while carrying more of the load because of an injury to 6-5 leading scorer Juwon Martin.
Beecher: The Buccaneers will graduate seven players off this season’s team, but return two-time reigning Associated Press Class C Player of the Year Monte Morris. With some help, he could carry Beecher back to Breslin for a fourth-straight season.
Climax-Scotts: Three starters during this run were juniors, including 6-7 all-stater Malachi Satterlee. He and the other returnees gained valuable experience during this runner-up finish, as did coach Steve Critchlow, who went 25-1 in his first season running the program.
Link up
To watch all 12 games and press conferences after each, click on MHSAA.tv.
PHOTOS courtesy of Terry McNamara Photography.