North Central Repeats Perfect Run in D
March 26, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Jason Whitens held two fingers up as he moved through his teammates to the handshake line after Saturday morning’s Class D Final.
Their reaction to winning a second straight MHSAA championship was of course filled with celebration – but also respect.
The Jets are in the midst of one of the most impressive runs in Michigan high school basketball history. And they had just withstood one of their few tests of the 2015-16 season.
North Central won its 55th straight game Saturday morning, 59-48 over Waterford Our Lady to claim a second straight championship at the Breslin Center – but after breaking away when the Lakers trailed by four with only four minutes to play.
“They were playing harder than us, to be honest. We kinda got lazy, and they came out and wanted to hit us in the mouth,” North Central junior guard Jason Whitens said. “We took their shot, and we’ve taken shots all year. We just had to take it in and battle back. But they moved the ball real well, (Andrew) Kline’s a great player, and it’s just a great team over there.”
And a growing legendary one from the small village, with a school enrollment of 122, located west of Escanaba at the crossroads of U.S 2 and 41 on the southern end of the Upper Peninsula.
The Jets finished 28-0, which with last season's 27-0 record ties them for the most wins, 55, of any team over two seasons.
And not to move on too quickly from the repeat celebration – but there’s suddenly a lot more to look forward to next season as well.
North Central now stands tied with Saginaw Buena Vista’s 1992-94 teams for the fourth longest winning streak in MHSAA boys basketball history. The record is 65 straight set by Chassell’s teams from 1956-59.
Five programs have won three straight championships during the 90 years of the Class D Finals. And the Jets would seem to be favored to become the sixth with Whitens, starters Dawson Bilski and Bobby Kleiman and up to 12 players total expected to return.
But along the way, Our Lady (22-5) was one of the most formidable opponents North Central faced this season – and provided a genuine scare into the fourth quarter.
The Jets opened the second half on a 13-3 run to build an 18-point lead midway through the third quarter. But with seniors Andrew Kline and Devin Senerius mostly taking turns getting to the basket, Our Lady went on a 23-9 run to cut the deficit to 49-45 with 5:24 left.
“We knew they were going to have a lot of confidence coming into the game. They were blowing out everyone; they won by 40 in the semis,” Kline said. “Coach kept telling us they have all the pressure on them. No one was expecting us to come out and win the game. We knew if we just did our thing, played them tough, we had a chance. We had nothing to really be nervous about.”
“That’s the biggest run somebody’s gone on us in a while, so I was interested in seeing how our kids were going to handle it coming out for the fourth quarter,” North Central coach Adam Mercier said.
The Jets did so not relying on Whitens, their leading scorer at 22 points per game, but by spreading the offense. Six players scored down the stretch as North Central finished on a 10-3 run started on a basket by senior Morgan Cox and a 3-pointer by junior Marcus Krachinski.
“Morgan’s basket was huge. We got a steal in there, I think too. And we executed some plays – my kids were probably shocked. I don’t call many plays,” Mercier said. “Their mental focus was great to start that fourth quarter. They understood that this (Our Lady) team was a very good team. I know we were favorites and everything, but anytime you’ve got a state finalist in football, they’re going to be kids that don’t back down from anybody.”
Actually, both teams playing Saturday morning were football finalists – Our Lady was the Division 8 runner-up for 11-player with Clay and Devin Senerius playing starring roles, and North Central won the 8-player championship with Whitens finishing the fall with 45 touchdown passes without an interception.
And they matched athletes well. North Central shot better, and especially from long range making 9 of 18 3-point attempts. But Our Lady had more rebounds (35-27) and only 12 turnovers to the Jets’ eight.
“We knew coming into it that it wasn’t a team we were going to beat probably best of seven. But we thought that we could take advantage of some of their personality,” Our Lady coach Paul Robak said. “They’re a team that scores 80 points a game, and they want to win by 50. They don’t want to win by 10. And we thought we could use that against them possibly if we could get them to play a style that maybe they aren’t as comfortable with. … We did some of the things that I thought were going to be key.”
Kline led Our Lady with 22 points, four assists and three steals. Devin Senerius added 17 points and nine rebounds.
Whitens had 16 points and seven rebounds. Bilski added 15 points, three assists and four steals and senior Troy Ekberg had 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Our Lady ended up as one of three teams to come within 12 points of North Central this winter. The Jets had beaten teams by an average of 34 points entering Saturday, with only Class B Menominee and rival Crystal Falls Forest Park coming closer; Menominee fell by 12 and four, and Forest Park also lost by only four to go with defeats of 14 and 30.
“This year we had a couple blowouts, and they’re still fun,” Bilski said. “But being together having close games, it shows who we are and if we’ll fall apart or not. As you can see, we didn’t fall apart tonight.“
The Boys Basketball Finals are presented by Sparrow Health System.
PHOTOS: (Top) Powers North Central players celebrate their second straight Class D championship. (Middle) The Jets’ Troy Ekberg works to stay in front of Our Lady’s Andrew Kline.
Rockford Adds to Program Legends in Claiming 1st Finals Title Since 2003
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 14, 2026
EAST LANSING – When Kyle Clough took over the Rockford boys basketball program 10 years ago, he called his shot.
Clough had a state championship shirt printed, leaving little doubt about his aim for a program that had not won a Finals title since 2003. He didn’t put a timeframe on it however, with “20??” following the lofty declaration.
Now he can replace those question marks with a two and a six.
Clough’s Rams defeated East Lansing 54-50 on Saturday in the Division 1 Boys Basketball Final at the Breslin Center, putting their program back on top for the first time in more than 20 years.
“I was confident going into that interview, and I thought I needed to be in that place,” Clough said. “All of us remember 2003 and 2012 (when Rockford finished runner-up), and Steve Majerle and Ryan DeKuiper and Michael Redell – those guys are legendary in this state. So, when you get the job in a place like Rockford, you walk in and see the state championships everywhere, there is a pressure. There’s a pressure on these kids.
“We’ve kind of been knocking on the door here of making a run here these last couple years and fell short for one reason or another. This year, these guys were really determined. These guys are some of the greatest kids this school’s ever had. For them to be now in the great part of Rockford basketball history and Rockford athletic history makes me awfully proud.”
Rockford (25-3) now has two titles in program history, as it ended East Lansing’s bid for a championship repeat in a game that came down to the final seconds.
It wasn’t until Jace Opoku-Agyeman broke free for a lay-up with one second to play that it was wrapped up, and the orange half of the capacity crowd at Breslin erupted in celebration.
“At first, I looked at Josh (Bascom) and I was setting up my guy to go to the opposite hoop, then I saw Josh and he called me over to come get the ball,” Opoku-Agyeman said. “I saw the clock with three, four seconds left and I made the lay-up to (go) up two scores so we had the advantage.”
Opoku-Agyeman was one of three Rams in double figures, scoring 13 points. He was joined by the Bascom brothers, Josh (14) and Jake (11), at the tip of an incredibly balanced Rockford scoring effort.
Dylan Gross added eight, and Eli Wolfe had seven, including the go-ahead layup with 56 seconds remaining.
Wolfe, a sophomore guard who holds scholarship offers from multiple schools in the state, including Central Michigan, has spent much of this season dealing with injuries and will have surgery on his hips in the offseason.
“What he did for us this year is absolutely incredible,” Clough said. “Two torn labrums in his hips, he rolled his ankle in the Regional Semifinal against Saginaw, and he just wouldn’t take any time off. Even at times when we asked him to sit out during practice, he knew he had to be in there with his teammates. He’s one of the best guards in the whole state, period. This year he played incredibly limited. It’s an incredible commitment to his team. He could have stopped early, had the surgery and been back for AAU, but he loves these guys. And what he did deserves a lot of attention, because it was absolutely selfless and incredible.”
While Wolfe’s shot put the Rams ahead and Opoku-Agyeman’s sealed the game, it was their team defense in between that won the game.
Rockford would not let Mr. Basketball Award winner KJ Torbert get a look at the basket, running a second defender to him every time he got the ball. East Lansing called a pair of timeouts to try and set something up, but Rockford continued to force the ball out of Torbert’s hands or deny him all together.
Clough credited his coaching staff and a morning walkthrough for preparing his team to deny Torbert his chance.
Nearly 50 seconds passed after Wolfe's go-ahead basket, but eventually the Trojans (27-2) did find an open shot from the baseline. But it didn't fall.
“I said, ‘Somebody else is going to have to make a play,’” East Lansing coach Ray Mitchell said. “Obviously they’re doubling KJ, we tried to draw up a scheme to get the ball for an open shot, and actually we got an open shot, but couldn’t knock it down.”
Torbert did finish with 28 points on the day, adding five rebounds in his final game for East Lansing. He will continue his career at Bowling Green, where he’ll be a conference rival of Rockford’s Jake Bascom, who is headed to Central Michigan.
“What can you say about KJ Torbert?” Clough said. “Maybe one of the best players in this state in quite a while, and he stuck here with us in the state. As a coach in this state, I appreciate a guy so much like that. He’s got such a talent level that it brings that kind of a crowd like that into the Breslin Center.”
Kingston Thomas added 10 points for the Trojans, while Tyree Anthony had seven.
PHOTOS (Top) Rockford players raise their championship trophy after winning the Division 1 championship Saturday at Breslin Center. (Middle) Jake Bascom (24) and Drew Ferwerda (22) wall off East Lansing’s KJ Torbert under the basket. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)