East Lansing Rallies to Play 1 More Day
March 16, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – East Lansing found itself playing in the Semifinals again Friday for the first time since 2010.
But the Trojans also found themselves in an unfamiliar situation with potentially only 16 minutes left in their season.
East Lansing entered halftime trailing Wayne Memorial by three points – the first time it hadn’t led at the end of the first half this season.
“That really gave us a shocker and gave us a reality check that we needed to come out and play hard,” Trojans senior Aazhenii Nye said. “This wasn’t how our season was going to end. We worked so hard to get here. And that’s what we did – we just picked each other up and knocked down some big shots.”
And advanced, thanks to a big third-quarter push, with a 60-52 win over the Zebras.
East Lansing (26-0) will play Saginaw Heritage at 12:15 p.m. Saturday at Van Noord Arena hoping to lock down its first Class A title since that 2010 run.
That team featured a Miss Basketball Award winner in Klarissa Bell, who went on to play at Michigan State. The Trojans entered this weekend fresh off the celebration for senior guard Jaida Hampton, this year’s winner.
But they also faced the challenge of taking on another finalist in Wayne senior guard Camree’ Clegg, who over the last three seasons had led a team that didn’t win a game before her arrival as a sophomore to its first Regional title and Semifinals this winter.
Clegg had 16 points, six rebounds and five assists Friday, while Hampton had seven points and nine rebounds. But the matchup was never as much about them individually as it was about East Lansing’s scrappy defense against a Zebras offense that had put up 73 on Detroit Country Day at the start of the season and 81 against a Plymouth team that finished second to Wayne in their league.
During the deciding third quarter, East Lansing made 9 of is 13 shots from the floor – including its first three – and held the Zebras to 3 of 13. The Trojans went on a 23-11 run and got up by as many as 12 before Clegg hit three free throws to close the period.
“I thought those kids played as hard as just about any team we’ve played against,” Wayne coach Jarvis Mitchell said. “Every film that we’ve watched; we’ve seen them live, we’ve seen them on tape. They’re always competing.”
“Going into the third quarter, sometimes we let off a little bit,” Hampton said. “But the last few games we’ve come out really strong because the beginning of the third quarter is the most important. That’s where you see how you’re going to play the rest of the game. … I’m really happy we did make our first few shots, because that gave us a boost of energy to push through and let it keep going through the third and fourth quarter.”
East Lansing pushed the lead to 14 a minute into the fourth quarter before Wayne fought back to get it to the final margin.
Junior guard Sammiyah Hoskin added 11 points and nine rebounds for the Zebras (22-5), who graduate only Clegg off this history-making team.
“Wayne, four years ago 0-20, and now we have the whole community coming out to see us,” Clegg said. “Especially driving two and a half hours (to Calvin), it’s a great feeling. We just wanted to keep it going.”
Senior Amelia McNutt led East Lansing with 20 points and four steals, while Nye added 11 points and six rebounds and junior sister Aaliyah Nye had 16 points and 10 rebounds.
East Lansing had peaked in the Quarterfinals three times since its 2010 title, most recently in 2016 when these seniors were sophomores.
“We’ve been together for four years and it started off pretty rough in terms of how we worked together, with our chemistry,” East Lansing coach Rob Smith said as he sat for the press conference with Hampton, McNutt and Aazhenii Nye. “And in the last four years, these ladies have grown up big-time. They’re three of the most amazing seniors I’ve ever coached. … Right from the get go, we’ve been speaking about this moment all season long.”
PHOTOS: (Top) East Lansing’s Sanaya Gregory pushes the ball upcourt as Wayne’s Jeanae Terry defends. (Middle) Wayne’s Camree’ Clegg works to get space against the Trojans.
Class A Preview: Stars Sure to Shine
March 14, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Class A – made up of the largest high schools in Michigan – also has the most star power to offer this weekend at Calvin College’s Van Noord Arena in Grand Rapids.
This season’s Miss Basketball plus two more finalists, not to mention some of the likely contenders in 2019, all will take the floor during Friday’s Semifinals and Saturday’s championship game.
And much is at stake, of course. Three of these teams have won MHSAA titles, but none since at least 2010. The fourth will compete during the final weekend of the season for the first time.
Class A Semifinals – Friday
Grosse Pointe North (20-5) vs. Saginaw Heritage (25-1), noon
East Lansing (25-0) vs. Wayne Memorial (22-4), 2 p.m.
Class A Final – Saturday, 12:15 p.m.
Tickets cost $10 per pair of Semifinals and $10 per two-game Finals session (Class D and Class A). All Semifinals will be streamed live on MHSAA.tv and viewable on a pay-per-view basis. All four Finals will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Detroit and streamed live on FoxSportsDetroit.com and the FOX Sports Go! app. Free radio broadcasts of all weekend games will be available on MHSAANetwork.com.
Below is a glance at all four semifinalists. Click on the name of the school to see that team’s full schedule and results from this season. (Statistics are through teams' Regional Finals.)
EAST LANSING
Record/rank: 25-0, No. 2
League finish: First in Capital Area Activities Conference Blue
Coach: Rob Smith, 16th season (record N/A)
Championship history: Class A champion 2010, runner-up 2008.
Best wins: 63-45 over No. 8 Muskegon in Quarterfinal, 54-40 over No. 6 Coldwater in Regional Semifinal, 50-38 (District Final) and 52-51 over No. 4 DeWitt, 63-43 over Class B honorable mention Williamston.
Players to watch: Jaida Hampton, 5-11 sr. F (15 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 57 3-pointers); Aaliyah Nye, 5-11 soph. F (13 ppg, 4.6 rpg).
Outlook: After getting stopped in Quarterfinals three times this decade, East Lansing broke through to make its first Semifinal since the championship season of 2010. The Trojans have won four of five postseason games by at least 12 points. Hampton is the recently honored Miss Basketball Award winner, and she’s got plenty of help not only from Aaliyah Nye, but also senior guards Aazhenii Nye (11.7 ppg) and Amelia McNutt (9.5 ppg), among others. All four of those players also had connected on at least 24 3-pointers entering this week.
GROSSE POINTE NORTH
Record/rank: 20-5, unranked
League finish: Tied for first in Macomb Area Conference Red.
Coach: Gary Bennett, 35th season (576-221)
Championship history: Class A champion 2008.
Best wins: 47-44 over Detroit Martin Luther King in Quarterfinal, 53-51 (Regional Semifinal) and 66-63 over No. 9 Macomb Dakota, 44-32 over St. Clair Shores Lakeview in District Semifinal.
Players to watch: Julia Ayrault, 6-2 jr. G/F (19 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 4.4 spg); Christina Braker, 5-9 soph. F (6.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg).
Outlook: North will be returning to the Semifinals for the first time since the title-winning season of 2008, when it defeated East Lansing in the championship game. Ayrault is considered a contender for next season’s Miss Basketball Award and helped her team navigate what annually is one of the state’s strongest leagues. Lakeview (20-2) was another league champion North had to get past along the way. This could be a preview of next season as well; the Norsemen have only one senior.
SAGINAW HERITAGE
Record/rank: 25-1, No. 3
League finish: First in Saginaw Valley League.
Coach: Vonnie DeLong, fifth season (105-14)
Championship history: Class A champion 2002, runner-up 2001.
Best wins: 63-40 (Regional Final) and 60-44 over No. 7 Flint Carman-Ainsworth, 59-49 over Class B No. 1 Detroit Country Day, 51-35 over Class B No. 5 Freeland.
Players to watch: Moira Joiner, 5-9 jr. G (14.6 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 4.2 apg); Shine Strickland-Gills, 6-1 jr. F (12.3 ppg, 9.1 rpg).
Outlook: Heritage has won 20 or more games the last four seasons and made the Semifinals again to go with its 2015 appearance. The Hawks’ only loss was by a basket in overtime to reigning Class C champ Detroit Edison, and no other opponent got closer than 10 with wins as well over Clarkston (20-5), Hartland (20-6), Midland Dow (17-6) and Bay City Western (17-4). Joiner is another highly-regarded junior who could be in the Miss Basketball conversation in 2019. Four players average at least seven points per game, with senior guard Jessica Bicknell also in double digits at 10.8.
WAYNE MEMORIAL
Record/rank: 22-4, No. 10
League finish: First in Kensington Lakes Activities Association Black.
Coach: Jarvis Mitchell, fourth season (55-34)
Championship history: Has never played in an MHSAA Final.
Best wins: 54-44 (Quarterfinal) and 45-40 over Hartland, 50-46 over Howell, 73-70 over Class B No. 2 Detroit Country Day.
Players to watch: Camree’ Clegg, 5-5 sr. G (23.7 ppg, 6.4 apg); Jeanae Terry, 5-10 jr. G (Statistics not submitted).
Outlook: Wayne went 0-20 in Mitchell’s first season, then won a league title his second, league and District championships his third and added the Regional title for the first time in program history this winter. Clegg was a Miss Basketball Award finalist and has led the Zebras to double-digit wins in every postseason game. The losses came twice to Detroit Edison – including by just two points the second time –Williamston early when it was full strength and considered a Class B favorite and Ohio semifinalist Toledo Rogers (25-3).
PHOTO: Saginaw Heritage's Moira Joiner (4) works to get past a Flint Carman-Ainsworth defender during last week's Regional Final victory. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)