Western Takes Next Step to Make History
March 27, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Brailen Neely and his Detroit Western International teammates have heard plenty about Detroit Redford’s glories past.
Their coach, Derrick McDowell, coached Redford from 1993-94 through 2005 and took two teams to Class A runner-up finishes.
“When they win, I won’t mention Redford anymore,” said McDowell, of his Western team. “It will be all Western stories.”
This Cowboys’ season has been filled with historic accomplishments. But one more win will be the biggest of all – and definitely put this team in the same breath as the greats McDowell coached in the past.
Western will play Saturday for its first MHSAA title, thanks to a 55-46 Semifinal win over Detroit U-D Jesuit on Friday at the Breslin Center.
“That’s a tremendous honor coming from Coach Mac,” Neely said of his coach's comment. “He always tells us how tough Redford (was), what they accomplished. To accomplish this under Coach Mac is tremendous.”
Western (25-0), winner of its first Detroit Public School League title since 1922, then its first Quarterfinal since 1974, will face Saginaw Arthur Hill to decide the Class A title at noon Saturday.
The Cowboys had beaten U-D Jesuit, the Detroit Catholic League A-B champion, 58-49 in the annual Operation Friendship game to close the regular season three weeks ago.
And McDowell and his team knew all the more that the key would be at least slowing down Jesuit junior Cassius Winston.
Winston had 27 points in the teams’ first matchup. This time, Neely and company worked to keep the 6-foot-1 shooting guard out of lane – and then, after Winston hit 7 of 9 free-throw attempts during the first half, off the line as well.
Winston did finish with 21 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, but made only 4 of 12 shots from the floor.
Western led from start to finish, and by as many as 10 during the second quarter. The margin did fall to three points twice during the fourth – the final time when Winston drilled a 3-pointer that pulled the Cubs (22-4) to within 43-40 with 3:55 to play.
Neely led Western with 16 points, and senior guard Josh McFolley added 11 and five rebounds.
“We have been winning ugly, defensively, grinding it out at the defensive end,” Jesuit coach Pat Donnelly said. “We ended up shooting just under 29 percent from the field for the game, well below our average. Coming in we were averaging 46 percent from the field, but we struggled inside the arc, outside the arc and at the free-throw line.
"I thought we did a pretty good job defensively, and even through we struggled to score, we still had our opportunity.”
Only one starter returned this season after Jesuit made the Semifinals in 2014 for the first time in program history. But the Cubs anticipate eight of their top nine returning for 2015-16.
“They always had a lead, but I always felt we had a chance to win the game,” Winston said. “It was a great experience. … But that’s two years in a row we’ve made it this far and lost, and I don’t plan on going through this again.”
Click for the full box score and video from the postgame press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Western International players celebrate Friday during the final moments of their first MHSAA Semifinal win. (Middle) U-D Jesuit’s Cassius Winston (5) ascends toward the hoop.
Dugener Delivering as North Muskegon Enters February Undefeated Again
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
February 6, 2025
Adam Dugener has certainly emerged as “the dude” for the North Muskegon boys basketball team.
Chants of “Doog” were raining down from the rafters of North Muskegon’s intimate old gym last week when Dugener drained a school-record nine 3-pointers in a key 65-52 win over West Michigan Conference Rivers rival Mason County Central.
“Shooting is my thing, and sometimes I can get hot,” said Dugener, downplaying his 38-point night in the Norsemen’s win.
“When I’m hot, I feel like I’m going to make everything and that I should keep on shooting.”
That game wasn’t even his biggest scoring night of the season – that being a 39-point performance in a lopsided win over a good Hart team Dec. 20.
Dugener is averaging 23 points per game for the Norsemen, who are 15-0 and ranked No. 9 in the latest Michigan Sports Writers Division 3 poll heading into a pair of big games this weekend at Muskegon Western Michigan Christian on Friday and home Saturday against Grand Rapids Covenant Christian.
“Adam is a legit scorer who demands attention from the defense,” said Chuck Rypstra, who is in his 11th year as NM’s head coach. “He’s in the gym all the time, working at it and trying to get better. Then we have a lot of other pieces around him.”
Dugener is not always on fire, which was the case Wednesday night at Manistee when his shot was slightly off and he managed just 11 points.
The host Mariners made a run at the unbeaten Norse, closing to within eight points midway through the fourth quarter. Dugener, just a junior on a senior-laden team, got his teammates together for a few calming words and keyed a late run to put the game away.
Dugener, who also averages five rebounds, four assists and four steals per game, had a pair of rebounds, a steal and two big assists during that stretch – his most notable play a nifty long outlet pass to Braylen Burrell for a breakaway layup.
“When I’m not having a good shooting night, I try to contribute in other ways,” said Dugener, who is the son of Matt and Susan Dugener. “I’m always looking to get better at distributing and getting the ball to my teammates in the right place.”
TJ Byard, a 6-foot-1 senior who recently committed to play football at Lawrence Tech as a receiver, is a versatile weapon who averages seven points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals per game. Byard scored a game-high 16 points, with three 3-pointers, in Wednesday’s win at Manistee.
Burrell is the team’s other main 3-point shooting threat, along with Landon Grimm off the bench. Burrell has 36 3-points this season, right behind Dugener’s 39 triples.
Dugener is the only one of the five starters – also including Byard, Burrell, center Chuck Meyers and forward Jaden Villalpando – who wasn’t part of NM’s football team that advanced to the Division 7 Semifinals before losing to eventual champion Millington.
“I think our best is still yet to come, because some of those football guys are still rounding into form,” said Rypstra. “We have a lot of guys that play multiple sports, which is great, because they know how to compete and they know how to win. Now they are getting the basketball reps in.”
That supporting cast is critical if the Norse want to win a fifth-straight District championship and get past their Regional roadblock in March.
North Muskegon, which finished 22-0 during last year’s regular season, has won four consecutive Districts but has not had much success in the Regional round – winning just one Regional game over the past four years, in 2021. Both of the past two years, the Norse lost three-point heartbreakers to Pewamo-Westphalia in the Regional opener.
North Muskegon has established itself as a top-tier defensive team, using their trademark 2-3 zone defense to suffocate and frustrate teams along the way.
Rypstra believes that defensive focus, which relies on taking away fast break and other easy scoring opportunities, will keep his team in every game. The key to taking the next step could be avoiding prolonged dry spells on the offensive end – which is where Dugener comes in.
He’s a self-described gym rat who said he fell in love with the game while playing in his driveway with his two older brothers, Nate and Jared.
“My two older brothers pushed me in those games out in the driveway and they would never let me have anything easy, even though I was smaller than them,” explained Dugener, who hopes to play college basketball and major in something in the science field.
“That really prepared me for tough defenses and pressure situations. I want to be ready for those pressure shots.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) North Muskegon’s Adam Dugener splits a pair of Manistee defenders to get to the basket. (Middle) Dugener (2) considers his options as he reaches midcourt. (Photos courtesy of Susan Dugener.)