Southfield Christian Follows New Leaders
March 14, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – It’s a new Finals, with another trip for Southfield Christian, and Jon Sanders and Da’Jion Humphrey’s turns to take on the spotlight.
The Eagles – last season’s Class D champions – will play for a second straight title Saturday morning after defeating Dollar Bay 55-28 in Thursday’s first Division 4 Semifinal.
Sanders and Humphrey started on last season’s team but played supporting roles. Now they’re the leaders, and have led the way this week. Sanders, a senior, scored 23 points in Tuesday’s Quarterfinal win over Burton Genesee Christian. Humphrey, a junior, had a game-high 16 and nine rebounds in the Semifinal.
“It’s a blessing to be able to step into a big role I wasn’t in last year,” Sanders said. “You always find a role and fit it and do the best you can. This year I’ve been doing the best of my ability with a couple guys we lost (after last season), and my teammates just helping me do it.”
Southfield Christian (20-6) will take on Frankfort in Saturday’s first Final at 10 a.m.
Humphrey opened the scoring Thursday with a 3-pointer just 27 seconds into the game. He had another later in the first quarter to give Southfield Christian a 16-10 lead, and went on a personal 8-0 run over 45 seconds at the end of the second quarter while the Eagles extended their lead to 18 heading into the break.
“We always stress to play hard and play smart and let the game come to you, and I thank my teammates – they found me when I was open,” Humphrey said. “I was just trying to do anything to win and get to the next game. That’s what we always preach – try to get to 1-0. We were just trying to get to 1-0 today.”
Humphrey was averaging 16.4 points per game entering this week, and Sanders was averaging 16.5. Sanders finished this game with 10 points, five rebounds and three steals.
“(Da’Jion) plays really hard. He’s kinda like our Draymond Green, how he rebounds and passes. He can really get it going,” Southfield Christian coach Josh Baker said. “Jon did last game, and Noah (Rheker) went on a huge run the game before. Each of them can bring a spark, and they’ve been doing it all year for us.”
Dollar Bay, making its second straight Semifinals appearance after also falling to Southfield Christian in this round a year ago, brought back only one starter from that team. The Blue Bolts stayed close through most of the first two quarters this time, but struggled mightily shooting the ball making only 22 percent of their attempts from the floor.
They entered this week connecting on 32 percent of their 3-point attempts, and found only 19 percent success from beyond the arc.
“They make you do things you’re uncomfortable doing – they made us play fast, they sped us up, and it’s hard to run any kind of sets, hard to run action,” Dollar Bay coach Jesse Kentala said. “It’s just defensively, they’re relentless. We knew that, and it wasn’t a surprise. But it came down to execution, and we kinda picked the worst time of the season to have a poor shooting night.”
Junior Ashton Janke had nine points, seven rebounds and three assists for Dollar Bay.
The Blue Bolts (21-5) ended this season with 14 wins over their final 16 games.
“Of course they’re a great program. They’re always good, and you know that,” said Dollar Bay senior Brendan LeClaire, that lone returning starter from last season, of Southfield Christian. “Every time we come here, the two times I’ve been here, you always think you have a chance. You always have to think you have a chance. We knew they have great players, but you try to find their weaknesses and try to exploit that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Southfield Christian’s Jon Sanders hits the floor trying to gather a loose ball as Dollar Bay’s Ashton Janke goes for the same. (Middle) Noah Rheker hoists a 3-pointer – he made two of three attempts from beyond the arc.
North Central Finishes 3-Peat Perfectly
March 25, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – For the last three seasons and 83 straight games, Powers North Central’s boys basketball team has been perfect.
And for the first eight minutes Saturday, as these Jets played together for the last time, they couldn't have been much better.
Buckley never recovered completely from one of the most impressive opening barrages in recent Finals history. But the Bears did make North Central work to add this latest win, a 78-69 victory to claim a third straight Class D championship.
In their last game together, Jets senior starters Jason Whitens, Dawson Bilski, Bobby Kleiman, Marcus Krachinski and Seth Polfus all contributed as the team made its first 15 shots. Bilski tied the MHSAA championship game record for points in a quarter with 18 in the first as North Central as a team fell just shy of making the list for most points in a quarter, putting up 38 total – enough of a run to help them survive a nearly-as-epic comeback by the Bears, who also were undefeated heading into the day.
“Over the past couple of years, kids like me and Seth and Marcus, we never had the starting spots coming up. We had to wait a little while. We had to play our role,” Kleiman said. “But having two players like Jason and Dawson, that makes us just as good a players as them. They help us every day. They’re the ones who make us better. When things get tight, we look to them.”
“(But) we’re a team. And that’s where a lot of teams lack, is the team part. They have individuals, but us, we’re family. We love each other. And this whole ride has just been crazy, and we’ll never forget it.”
The Jets finished 28-0, and sit 83-0 over the last three seasons after again extending the nation’s longest active winning streak. Whitens capped his high school career with a 108-1 record over four varsity seasons, giving him not only a state record for wins but also breaking the record by four for most varsity boys basketball games played in MHSAA history. Bilski also started on all three championship teams and joined Whitens earning Class D all-state honors earlier this week. On Jan. 27, with their 66th straight win, they broke the MHSAA record for consecutive wins previously set by Chassell from 1956-58.
Coming off Thursday’s one-point, buzzer-beating Semifinal victory over Southfield Christian, Saturday’s start made it seem like a Jets victory lap was about to begin. At the end of the first quarter, North Central led 38-20 and had made 15 of 17 shots from the floor.
But much to Buckley’s credit, it didn’t show a sign of folding. The Bears were dominated by star juniors and will surprise no one if they make another run in 2018. Despite entering Saturday with a 26-0 record, they weren’t expected by most to win – but never let that sink in, even while staring up at a double-digit deficit less than four minutes into the game.
“I was just thinking man, they’re shooting the lights out. They’ve been here before, they’re all seniors, they want it that bad. We’ve just got to match their intensity,” Buckley junior Denver Cade said. “Sometimes they’re just putting them up there, going in, and you’re holding on. After that’s done, you’re just right back going at them, so we did.”
Buckley won the second and fourth quarters and tied North Central 10-10 in the third, taking advantage in part as Bilski left the game for an extended period after picking up his fourth foul just 1:32 into the second half.
But his absence may have only kept the Jets from increasing the lead – he re-entered with 6:30 to play and the Jets up 13, but from there Buckley launched a 13-3 run over four minutes to pull within 68-65 on Ridge Beeman’s basket with 2:41 to play.
“If we score 38 points in a quarter, typically teams kinda roll over,” North Central coach Adam Mercier said. “That didn’t happen today, and that’s a credit to those Buckley kids. We had to fight tooth and nail with them in the fourth quarter. I was just so proud of our kids, the way they finished this game.
“For these guys, it just comes with the territory. I sat here two or three years ago, trying to explain this group of boys – now they’re men – we just talked about that ‘it’ factor. It starts with these seniors and the seniors we had in the past, and that ‘it’ factor rings through with all of them.”
And as Kleiman said, when things got tight, the Jets turned to their accomplished stars.
Bilski and Whitens combined to score nine points during a 10-4 run to finish the game and a legacy that may not be approached for another half-century.
“You don’t think a team’s going to back down. You always have to keep coming back at them,” said Whitens, who also quarterbacked two straight undefeated football teams. “Respect to them for just keeping coming at us. It makes the game more fun. That’s what it’s all about, opponents going head to head, and they didn’t quit. We just had to keep going at it, and had a lot of fun doing it.”
Saturday's Final was the first featuring two undefeated teams since Shelby downed Stockbridge 71-57 in the 1971 Class C championship game. It was the first Class D Final pitting undefeated teams since Covert beat Ewen-Trout Creek 84-70 in 1966.
Bilski, who will continue his career at Michigan Tech, scored 25 points in just 20 minutes, making 8 of 9 shots from the floor. Whitens – a Mr. Basketball Award finalist this season – had 23 points on 8 of 11 shooting, while Kleiman added 12 points and Krachinski had 11 and seven assists.
Cade also scored 25 points with seven rebounds, and junior center Austin Harris had 22 points and nine rebounds. Junior guard Joey Weber added 15 more points and seven rebounds for the Bears.
All five Buckley starters should return next season.
“We’re going to use that as fuel. When we see them holding up that trophy, we’re not going to pout and cry about it,” Harris said. “We’re going to get really, really mad, get back in the gym, and do it really hard and see if we can win next year. You haven’t seen the last of us.”
PHOTOS: (Top) North Central’s Bobby Kleiman drives to the basket during Saturday’s Class D Final. (Middle) The Jets’ Marcus Krachinski tries to block a shot by Buckley’s Denver Cade.