Facing Rare Deficit, Grand Blanc Finds Way to Finish
By
Jason Schmitt
Special for MHSAA.com
April 8, 2021
EAST LANSING — Sixteen games into the season, on the state’s biggest stage, and Grand Blanc head coach Mike Thomas is still learning things about his basketball team.
The Bobcats had surrendered the lead to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern after building a 12-point cushion just minutes earlier. They hadn’t come back from a second-half deficit this season. The games they had trailed in, they lost. So it was all new to Thomas.
“I didn’t know that,” said Thomas, speaking to whether his players had it in them to bounce back after facing adversity. “This is the first time we’ve been down, other than in our losses. Truthfully I didn’t know.”
Well now he does. Grand Blanc battled back and found a way to get it done against the Huskies, pulling out a 68-58 victory in a Division 1 Semifinal on Thursday at the Breslin Center. The Bobcats led the entire first half and stretched the lead to 42-30 after senior RJ Taylor found junior Ty Rodgers inside for a dunk with 6:59 to play.
But what seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the Huskies proved to be a wake-up call.
Northern would score the game’s next 15 points. Senior Ethan Erickson got things going with a short jump shot in the paint. Less than a minute later, senior Gavin Fisher hit a 3-pointer, and followed it up with a layup on the break and another 3-pointer to cut the lead to two points. Grand Blanc would turn the ball over on its next two possessions, with Northern senior Trinidad Chambliss scoring on a layup and senior Cole Rynbrandt hitting a 3-pointer to give his team its first lead, 45-42.
“We had a great run in the third quarter to take the lead,” Northern head coach Joe Soules said. “We were in control of that game. And we’re sitting there going, ‘We’re going to be just fine.’ We’ve talked about it all year, ‘Be in the moment.’ The guys battled back just the way they were supposed to.”
But the Huskies couldn’t maintain that momentum. Grand Blanc stopped the bleeding with a pair of Rodgers free throws, and proceeded to close the quarter with a 9-5 run to take a one-point lead into the fourth quarter. The Bobcats then scored the first seven points of the fourth to pull away from the Huskies. Sophomore Timonte Boyd opened the run with a layup — off a pass from Taylor — and sophomore Amont’e Allen-Johnson extended the lead to six with his 3-pointer. Rodgers capped it off by collecting a defensive rebound and sprinting down the court and finishing with a layup to make it a 58-50 game.
“It’s just heart,” Rodgers said of his team’s comeback. “Every day in practice, we work on situations, like us only being up by two with such and such many seconds left. We have a lot of heart, and our guys trust in me and RJ as leaders and we push each other. When someone’s not making their shots, we lift each other up.”
Rodgers finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while dishing out six assists. He set the tone early, with a hard drive to the basket for the game’s first score. Grand Blanc jumped out to a commanding 10-0 lead in the first 2:15 of the game.
“We don’t have anyone who quite matches up with (Rodgers), Soules said. “Not many teams in the state do. He’s a wonderful player, a great athlete. He got to the rim and exploded a couple of times. We just couldn’t contain that. Cole (Rynbrandt) and Ethan Morello did a phenomenal job of staying in front of him. He gets to the rim, almost at will, against high school competition with his frame.”
Taylor finished with 16 points and seven assists, and Boyd added 15 points for Grand Blanc (14-2).
“Our guys fought and clawed, they overcame some adversity today,” Thomas said. “But they hung in there and stayed together. We talked about if things don’t go well, ‘You guys better get together and push each other up because you’re going to need it.’ They didn’t fold when they could have. They clawed back into the game and put things together to accomplish their goals.”
The Bobcats will take on Ann Arbor Huron (20-0) in Saturday’s Division 1 Final, set to tip off at 12:30 p.m.
Erickson led Northern with 19 points, while Fisher and Chambliss added 16 and 13, respectively. The Huskies finished the season 17-2.
“This was the greatest four-year stretch in Forest Hills Northern history,” Soules said. “We won three straight conference championships, multiple Districts and it’s only the second time we’ve ever been to the Breslin. It’s been so fun watching these young men mature, especially over the last 18 months. These seniors have been tremendous ambassadors, not only for Forest Hills Northern but for the game of basketball.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Blanc's Ty Rodgers (23) goes in for a dunk during Thursday's Division 1 Semifinal. (Middle) Forest Hills Northern's Trinidad Chambliss gets to the rim. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Southfield Christian Takes Back D Title
March 24, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – After three seasons away, Southfield Christian returned to the Class D championship game Saturday.
And for the fourth time in seven seasons, the Eagles added their school to the list of MHSAA title winners as well, with a 64-54 clincher over Buckley at the Breslin Center.
The title was the program’s first since winning three straight from 2012-14, and after falling by a point in last season’s Semifinals to eventual champion Powers North Central.
“It just means a lot for us as a team,” said Eagles senior Bryce Washington, whose older brothers Blake and Brock both were part of past champions. “It puts us on the map. The last few years, people were like, ‘Whatever happened to Southfield Christian?’ We were still in the gym, still working, still a great team. It’s just great to be back here.”
Southfield Christian (23-4) showed all weekend it could get rolling in a hurry. Starting at the 5:57 mark of the first quarter Saturday, over the next 2:41 the Eagles went from a point down to 10 up. Junior Harlond Beverly scored 10 points, had a steal, two rebounds and a blocked shot. He made six of his first seven shots from the floor total in scoring his team’s first 11 points and 11 of the Eagles’ first 14.
“I didn’t even notice it was the first 11 points. I was just trying to play basketball and do what I do,” Beverly said. “The rim, it feels as big as the ocean. It was feeling good.”
Beverly finished with 23 points, seven rebounds, eight steals, six blocks and four assists.
“He brought a lot of energy, a lot of effort, and he can make great plays in transition and get us an easy one,” Southfield Christian coach Josh Baker said. “We struggled the rest of the game. His start, that was the game.”
The Eagles did have to fend off a second-half comeback attempt by Buckley, which returned to Breslin this weekend with the entire starting five that made it to last season’s championship game before falling 78-69 to North Central.
Southfield Christian pushed its lead to 22 on another Beverly basket with 4:27 to play in the second quarter, but the Bears came back with a 19-3 run over the next six minutes to cut the deficit to 38-32 two minutes into the third.
The Eagles pushed the lead back to 12 during the opening minute of the fourth quarter, and the Bears couldn’t get it back into single digits.
“We just never give up,” Buckley senior Denver Cade said. “We were in the same position last year, but it was a bigger margin. I just kept trying to pound that into (my teammates). I wasn’t having the best game myself, and I’ll probably regret that the rest of my life … but I tried to be a leader and put that motivation into them.”
Cade finished with eight points and nine rebounds. Senior guard Joey Weber led with 26 points, eight rebounds and three steals, and senior forward Austin Harris added 15 points and seven rebounds. All three were four-year varsity players and 1,000-point career scorers. “I’m missing them already,” Buckley coach Blair Moss said.
“We’re a little disappointed; the kids played their hearts out,” Moss added. “That’s a quality team out there. There’s not much to say. The kids worked their butts off, and they’ve been doing it for the last 10 years to get here. … We don’t see teams like that up north; let’s face it. They play in a Detroit league, they play up, and that’s why we try to play up to match that.”
Buckley (21-6) shared the Northwest Conference title this season with Frankfort and Maple City Glen Lake; the latter reached Saturday’s Class C championship game.
Southfield Christian won the Michigan Independent Athletic Conference Blue and also played a nonleague schedule loaded with Class A and B opponents, including Class B semifinalist River Rouge, plus Class C finalist Detroit Edison.
“Part of the deal with our program and our mentality as a coaching staff is how do we get our guys better with every opportunity,” Baker said. “We want to play the best competition whenever we can.”
Junior guard Caleb Hunter added 13 points including four 3-pointers for Southfield Christian. Washington had 12 points and nine rebounds, and sophomore guard Da’Jion Humphrey had 11 points and seven rebounds.
Buckley finished 74-25 over the last four seasons, including 47-7 over the last two.
“Last year we said we have another crack at it, and now we don’t, of course,” Harris said. “But I wouldn’t want to trade these guys for anything. They worked hard and they helped me work hard and build my character up.
“A lot of people dream of losing their last high school game at the Breslin, and I got to share in that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Southfield Christian’s Harlond Beverly works to get past Buckley’s Brock Beeman during the Class D championship game. (Middle) The Bears’ Joey Weber goes up for a shot at the Breslin Center.