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.)
New Reality has Roseville Dreaming Big
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
January 30, 2019
ROSEVILLE – Something happened last February that produced a dramatic effect on the Roseville boys basketball team.
It’s difficult for Roseville coach Hassan Nizam to put into words – but he’s certain that his team’s trip to Ann Arbor to play Pioneer and, more importantly, their visit to the Crisler Center to watch a University of Michigan practice had a positive impact on last year’s team and the program as a whole.
“(The U-M staff) gave us a tour,” Nizam said. “It was eye-opening. There was something about it. I can’t even explain it. We’ve lost twice since. Maybe it turned them into dreamers.”
Roseville won seven straight after losing that game to Pioneer before a 44-39 defeat to Macomb Dakota in a Class A Regional Semifinal ended the Panthers’ season.
They’ve stormed back this winter and sit 13-1 entering the final month of the regular season, with their only loss coming at Dakota, 55-52, in the fifth game. Roseville avenged that loss with a 63-56 victory at home Jan. 15 and is ranked No. 3 in Division 1 in the latest Associated Press poll.
The Panthers are 8-1 in the Macomb Area Conference Red and have clinched a share of the title. They can win it outright with a victory at Sterling Heights Stevenson on Monday.
After that and over the next two months, Roseville is shaping up as a possibility to not only make school history, but carry its entire area into an elite scenario for the first time.
Teams from Macomb County have rarely been relevant come tournament time. Not only has a Macomb County team never won a Class A (now Division 1) title, the county has never been represented in a Class A Final in boys basketball. Warren DeLaSalle made the Class B Final in 1982 and has come close to breaking that county barrier, reaching Class A Semifinals in 1986, 2007 and last season. Dakota also lost in the Class A Semifinals in 2016.
Enter Roseville. The program has had limited success in the MHSAA Tournament – last season the Panthers finished 16-7 and won just the fourth District title in program history. They’ve never won a Regional.
Talent has come through in the past, but didn’t always guarantee a postseason run. Sir’Dominic Pointer (known as Dominick Pointer while attending Roseville) played two seasons at Roseville before transferring to a prep school in North Carolina, then played collegiately at St. John’s and was selected as the 53rd pick in the 2015 NBA Draft by Cleveland. He is currently playing professionally in Israel. Still, Roseville was not able to get past the District round in either of his seasons.
But on the positive side, this team is coming off that District title and has plenty of experience to go with ability. Four starters are back including seniors Darien Banks, Lazell Judge and John Ukomadu. The other returning start is junior point guard Martell Turner who, if he isn’t the team’s best, is likely the team’s most important player. The fifth starter is senior Deshaun Wright.
At 24, Nizam is one of the state’s youngest head coaches and his upbeat coaching style has had a rippling effect. This attitude impressed those who were responsible for hiring him, notably school principal Pat Adams.
“Our search for a new coach was centered on someone who loved kids and was passionate about the game,” Adams said. “In Coach Niz, we struck gold on both accounts. A big part of changing the culture in a building is to have the kids believe in themselves, feel pride in who they represent, and respect the leaders who spend time with them. We believe Coach Niz has demonstrated that he's a very important part of that formula and will continue to be as the program evolves.”
A 2012 graduate of Dearborn Fordson, Nizam spent three seasons as the junior varsity and varsity assistant at Fordson before becoming an assistant at U-M Dearborn for the 2016-17 season. Nizam said one of his first objectives when he was hired at Roseville in May of 2017 was to build consistency.
“I was just an assistant coach looking for an opportunity,” he said. “As far as the program here, I knew they had had some success. The transition was pretty smooth, and the kids bought in. (Sir’)Dominic stops by every now and then, and the kids appreciate that. The guys have to understand that individual success comes from team success.”
Last season was one of the most successful in school history. As a member of the MAC White, Roseville competed in the MAC Red/White division playoffs and defeated Clinton Township Chippewa Valley for the title. Two weeks later, Roseville won the District title by defeating St. Clair Shores Lake Shore 80-77.
Roseville opted to move up to the MAC Red this season, and one result is a more competitive schedule. In addition to the increase in competition the Red affords, the Panthers defeated DeLaSalle to open the winter, then defeated Division 2 contender New Haven at New Haven and slipped past Cincinnati Withrow (Ohio), 42-39, at the Motor City Roundball Classic.
“We kind of have the approach that we want to get better each game,” Nizam said. “We’ve got a chance to win the MAC Red, the MAC title, a District title and a Regional. It’s that day-to-day thing we like to emphasize.”
What makes this team better than last season’s is Roseville’s play on the defensive end. The players are communicating better, switching assignments when teams run a motion offense and playing help defense.
In Roseville’s 65-60 victory over New Haven, the Panthers held Romeo Weems – New Haven’s best player and a likely candidate for the Mr. Basketball Award – to 20 points. As a team, Roseville has allowed 45 points per game. And just one team, New Haven, has scored in the 60s.
“That New Haven game was big for us,” Nizam said. “They hadn’t lost a game at home in like six years. We weren’t going to let Weems beat us. Our kids believed in each other that game. After that, their confidence went way up. It showed we can be a problem for any team.”
Offensively, Roseville likes to score in transition, but its half-court sets have improved since last season as well. Banks is an accurate 3-point shooter and leads the team in scoring at 21 points per game. Turner is the table-setter who averages seven assists. Ukomadu is a 6-foot-7 post player who jumps well, and Judge is a 6-1 lefty who plays the wing.
Wright is a 6-3 power forward who possesses a good mid-range jump shot. And he’s one example of why the program has shown promise and is on the rise. Wright never played high school basketball before this season. He played basketball in middle school before concentrating on football his first three years of high school.
Wright saw the success the team had last season and, in the end, it was Nizam’s coaching style that won him over.
“I caught a few games at the end of last year,” Wright said. “I liked (Nizam’s) enthusiasm. He wants to win as much as we do. He wants it just as bad as we do. My mom (Ruth Wright) told me, to be a two-sport athlete coming out of high school would help me in college. I would love to play either one in college.”
Wright has yet to decide on which school he will attend next fall, and he is expected to take a visit to Urbana University in Ohio before making his decision.
In the meantime, Wright’s focus is on his teammates and continuing what they together have started.
“Once we step on the floor, we’re connected,” he said. “Our goal is to get better every game.
“Sharpen the ax. And we are getting better every day. I know by the way we compete against each other in practice.”
Tom Markowski is a correspondent for the State Champs! Sports Network and previously directed its web coverage. He also covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Roseville’s John Ukomadu throws down a dunk during a scrimmage. (Middle) Panthers players huddle with coach Hassan Nizam. (Photos by Brian Sevald Photo.)