Warren De La Salle Follows 'Big Mike' to 1st Final Since 1982
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
March 25, 2022
EAST LANSING – The guy his teammates know affectionately as “Big Mike,” came up huge for Warren De La Salle Collegiate in Friday’s first Division 1 Semifinal.
Michael Sulaka, a 6-foot-8 junior, scored a game-high 20 points, with eight rebounds and four blocked shots to power the Pilots past Grand Rapids Northview 59-45 and into their first boys basketball championship game in 40 years.
“I wasn’t getting boxed out, so I was able to grab the rebounds, read the dude in front of me and put it back up,” explained Sulaka, who managed to post big numbers despite playing just 21 minutes due to foul trouble.
The Pilots (19-7) were the more aggressive team and dominated the interior, holding a commanding 35-20 rebounding edge and even more impressive 20-1 edge in second-chance points. Tamario Adley, an athletic 6-3 senior, grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
De La Salle, which won the Division 2 title in football this fall, will vie for its first boys basketball championship at 12:15 p.m. Saturday against Grand Blanc.
“We will enjoy this win for another half hour or 40 minutes and then get ready for one more,” said second-year De La Salle coach Gjon Djokaj, whose team reached the Finals after completing the regular season 13-7 and fourth place in the Detroit Catholic League Central. “I have the utmost confidence in these kids.
“I was telling people this summer that you can go 13-7 and finish fourth in our league and still have a chance to go to the Breslin. Well, guess what? We finished 13-7 and fourth in our league and now we’re in the state championship game.”
Djokaj is hoping his team starts Saturday like it did Friday, spotting Northview a 5-0 lead before ripping off a 16-2 run to take control.
The Pilots set the tone with defense, as their constant 2-2-1 full-court pressure and aggressive zone defense rattled the Wildcats. Northview started cold, making just 2-of-9 shots in the first quarter and finishing at 34 percent for the game, with Sulaka altering many shots from his middle spot of the Pilots’ 2-3 zone defense.
“I’m 6-8 and I put my hands up, and it’s hard for dudes to shoot over me,” Sulaka explained, matter-of-factly.
While Sulaka was dominating the action inside, the Pilots’ point guard duo of junior Nino Smith and senior Caleb Reese controlled the pace of the game. Smith scored 16 points, while Reese had just four, but contributed a game-high six assists.
“The strength of our team is our guard play,” said Djokaj, who returned four starters off last year’s team which lost in the Semifinals. “Our guards were making the right choices early and, in many cases, Big Mike was the beneficiary of that.”
Northview (25-2) fought back from its early 16-7 deficit in the second quarter behind the play of 6-6 senior Jalen Charity, a Grand Valley State commit. Charity scored seven points in the second quarter as the Wildcats trimmed the lead to just six points by halftime, 30-24.
However, Charity picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter and was forced to the bench. He scored just two points in the second half, finishing with nine and a team-high six rebounds.
The lead was still six points entering the fourth quarter, 43-37, as 6-4 senior Kyler Vanderjagt tried to spark a rally. Vanderjagt, a Belmont (Tenn.) recruit and the runner-up in the state’s Mr. Basketball voting, finished with a team-high 19 points, but the Wildcats were unable to cut into De La Salle’s lead.
“We didn’t get some of those rebounds we really needed,” said third-year Northview coach David Chana. “That’s basketball. Some nights it just doesn’t work out for you. All in all, it’s been a great ride. We’ll be back.”
Tyran Thomas added nine points for the Wildcats, including three dunks.
Northview, the champion of the Ottawa-Kent Conference White, reached the Semifinals for the first time since 1990 and seemed to have its entire community packed into the Breslin.
De La Salle, meanwhile, gets the chance to win its first boys basketball title. The Pilots lost to Okemos in the Class B Final in 1982.
PHOTOS (Top) Warren De La Salle Collegiate’s Nino Smith (0) works to get up the baseline as Northview’s Cam Martin (24) defends. (Middle) The Pilots cheer on their teammates during the first Friday Semifinal. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Coldwater's McGuire Focused on Final Goal
February 21, 2019
By Wes Morgan
Special for Second Half
Four year ago, Gage McGuire sat down with his mother, Carrie, and made a list of high school basketball goals. That piece of paper is still hanging on his bedroom wall, and nearly all the items have been checked.
“Looking back on it, I can’t thank her enough,” said the 6-foot-6 Coldwater senior forward. “Once you set a goal, you know you can chase it.”
Except for hitting a bit of turbulence earlier this month that resulted in a three-game skid, the Cardinals (14-5) have been flying high. The cast includes starters Dylan Targgart, a 6-2 junior center who has won an individual Division 2 Finals championship in the shot put as well as a team state title. Damon Beckhusen, a junior guard who helps set the tone for everything the Cardinals do on the court, was an all-Interstate 8 Athletic Conference football selection. And underclassmen Ethan Crabtree (freshman guard) and Spencer Rodesiler (sophomore guard) have played more like veterans.
But it’s undeniably McGuire’s team, and his list of accomplishments is quite impressive. The small forward set an all-time scoring record for the Cardinals back in December when he hit 1,180 points — a tally that will be significantly higher once the season ends. McGuire was an Associated Press Class A all-state honorable mention last year, and his sophomore season, as well as the Interstate 8 Most Valuable Player last winter.
Averaging around 20 points, 12 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 blocks and steals per game, the future Emporia State University player has one last thing to check off that list.
“One of my goals was to become the all-time leading scorer,” McGuire said. “When I got it, it was pretty exciting. But I’d much rather have a state championship than an individual record.”
Noticeable improvement on defense and rebounding the ball this year has made McGuire one of the more complete players in the state.
“He has gotten a lot better,” first-year Coldwater coach Aaron Bucklin said. “He has really bought into the kind of system we want to play. That’s something he has added to his game, and his rebounding numbers are up a ton from the previous year.
“He is able to do so much. If we are being pressed, he can be the guy to bring the ball up the court as well. We just kind of try to exploit any mismatch. Defensively, he does a pretty good job on the ball and can guard all five positions as well. He causes problems for guards with his length and centers with his athletic ability.”
McGuire’s actions off the court, including a work ethic in the classroom and a willingness to speak up in the locker room have equally influenced the program.
“I think it’s just his sense of leadership and his ability to add that part to the game and the mental toughness he can bring to this game,” Bucklin said. “I think in years past he has kind of gone with the flow and done very good things on the basketball court. But his senior year he has really stepped up and become a leader. He gets everybody else involved, whether it’s offseason workout stuff or getting into the gym extra times. He’s that guy. He wants to be in the gym 24/7. That’s been big for us.”
Emporia State, a Division II school in Kansas that competes in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, believes McGuire can do the same there. But McGuire is focused on closing out his prep career strong.
After losing three straight, McGuire and fellow captains called a players-only meeting to get things sorted out as the regular season winds down and the Cardinals prepare for their Division 1 District Semifinal game Feb. 27 against either Battle Creek Lakeview or Battle Creek Central.
“We called everybody out — just kind of a man-to-man conversation to see what we’re doing wrong,” McGuire explained. “The past couple games we had averaged like 20 turnovers per game. You’re not going to win the game with 20 turnovers. We have a special team, and we needed to figure it out to make the deep run in the playoffs that we know we’re capable of.
“Everybody took it like a man, and I think it worked out really well. I asked everyone if they truly believed we could win state. Everyone said yes.”
Wes Morgan has reported for the Kalamazoo Gazette, ESPN and ESPNChicago.com, 247Sports and Blue & Gold Illustrated over the last 12 years and is the publisher of JoeInsider.com. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Coldwater’s Gage McGuire (standing, fourth from left) and his teammates celebrate his becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer this winter. (Middle) McGuire goes for a block against Jackson Lumen Christi. (Photos courtesy of the Coldwater boys basketball program.)