Ferndale Caps Winter Season with 1st Boys Hoops Title Since 1966

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

March 25, 2023

EAST LANSING – One team was going to end a long championship drought in Saturday’s boys basketball Division 2 Final.

Ferndale’s was especially lengthy, and spanned more than five decades.

And now it is no longer.

The Eagles won their first Finals championship in 57 years with a 44-38 victory over Grand Rapids South Christian at Breslin Center.

Ferndale had last won a state title in 1966.

“The drought is over,” Eagles coach Juan Rickman said. “That’s big time, and the biggest part about making it down here was seeing how charged up the community was and the school was so charged up. It’s the greatest feeling to see how vested our community was in our success.”

Christopher Williams (13) tries to power past South Christian’s Sam Weiss (23) to the rim.Ferndale senior Christopher Williams led the way with 16 points and four rebounds.

“It feels great,” Williams said. “Especially since the past four years we’ve been to the same place and lost twice in a row to the same team, and now it feels like weight is lifted off my shoulders.

“We started off the season 1-5, and going till now we knew if we stayed together through adversity then we could do it. And it made it more impactful that it was our coach’s first state title, and that’s what we wanted to do.”

Added senior point guard Cameron Reed, who had a game-high seven assists: “It’s incredibly special. I wasn't born back then, my teammates weren’t born and my coaches weren’t born. It definitely rejuvenated the whole city and community.”

Ferndale led 8-4 at the end of the first quarter, and both teams shot poorly in the first half. The Eagles connected on a paltry 24 percent from the field, and South Christian on 35 percent of its attempts. Nate Brinks drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Sailors a 16-14 halftime lead. 

Junior guard Jake Vermaas opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer to make it 19-14, but Ferndale made a charge.

The Eagles sliced the deficit to one (25-24) on a 3-pointer by Trenton Ruth, and Cameron Reed tied it at 28-28 with an acrobatic layup.

“Our team was mentally strong, and I’m so proud of them for their accomplishment,” Rickman said. “Just so committed to the process and just being resilient.”

Cameron Reed (0) leads a break for the Eagles.An 8-2 spurt by Ferndale over the first three minutes of the fourth quarter made it 36-30.

“That was extremely important, and we always want to win the first four minutes,” Rickman said. “And we tried to open up the fourth quarter with what we call a kill; we want to get five straight stops and score on two or three of those possessions so we can build a lead. We did that fairly well against a good team.”

South Christian was attempting to win football and basketball Finals championships during the same school year, and was looking for its first basketball title since 2005.

“It was a really hard-fought game and I thought we played at our speed, but it got away from us a little bit,” first-year Sailors coach Taylor Johnson said.

“But it doesn’t take away from what we accomplished this year. We’ve been through it all, including three season-ending injuries, and to still make it to the state finals is an incredible feat.”

Senior Jacob DeHaan and Vermaas led the Sailors with 14 points apiece, while senior Sam Medendorp added seven points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots.

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) Ferndale raises the Division 2 championship trophy Saturday night at Breslin Center. (Middle) Christopher Williams (13) tries to power past South Christian’s Sam Weiss (23) to the rim. (Below) Cameron Reed (0) leads a break for the Eagles.

Grand Blanc Earns Opportunity for Another Grand Breslin Finish

By Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com

March 25, 2022

EAST LANSING – Grand Blanc started off this season 1-3, which made the prospect of repeating as Division 1 champion seem potentially short of reality.

And no one would have blamed the Bobcats if they had a down year.

But veteran coach Mike Thomas rallied his young team – which starts all underclassmen and with just one senior in the regular rotation – and made a couple of subtle adjustments, and the group proceeded to rattle off 20 wins over its next 22 games, including a convincing 61-40 victory over Belleville on Friday in the second Division 1 Semifinal at the Breslin Center.

“Early on, we were trying to figure out ourselves,” said Thomas, in his fifth year as Grand Blanc’s coach. “How are we going to win? How are we going to score?”

Thomas said the big change occurred when 6-foot-3 junior Tae Boyd started playing inside, giving the Bobcats a legitimate interior threat to complement the dynamic junior point guard duo of RJ Taylor and Amont’e Allen-Johnson. 

That trio was all in double figures Friday, putting Grand Blanc (21-5) in position to win a second-straight title at 12:15 p.m. Saturday against Warren De La Salle Collegiate (19-7).

The Bobcats, whose only Finals appearance before last year was a Class B runner-up finish 60 years ago (in 1952), defeated Ann Arbor Huron 45-36 in last year’s championship game. Boyd said the experience of playing two games at the Breslin last year made a huge difference Friday.

“Playing here last year gave us a boost of confidence that we can come here and make history and go back-to-back,” said Boyd, who scored 13 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

Grand Blanc/Belleville basketballThe Bobcats seized control early, taking a 17-6 lead after the first quarter and extending it to 30-15 by halftime, thanks to a buzzer-beater by reserve Bryce O’Mara.

Thomas said the key to the win was defense, which bore out in the final statistics. Grand Blanc shot 46 percent from the floor for the game, compared to 31 percent for Belleville. The Bobcats also forced 15 turnovers, which led to a 15-4 edge in points off turnovers.

He gave credit for setting the defensive tone to the guard duo of Taylor (salt) and Allen-Johnson (pepper).

“I call them salt and pepper because they will shake you up,” said Thomas, whose team won the Saginaw Valley League title. “I think they are the two best point guards in the state. They know exactly what we want to do and exactly how to run it. They are our leaders.”

Allen-Johnson finished with a game-high 15 points, along with six rebounds and three steals. Taylor, who scored 10 points with five rebounds and a team-high four assists, said playing regular-season games in big gyms and hostile environments prepared the team for Friday.

“We played in Detroit gyms, we played in tough Flint gyms, we played in a tournament in Grand Rapids,” said Taylor, a 6-0 sharpshooter and returning first-team all-stater. “An environment like this feels normal for us.” 

Belleville, which was seeking its first championship game appearance since losing in the Class A Final in 1998, was never able to get within 15 points in the second half.

“It could have been legs, it could be nerves – it was our first time playing here,” said ninth-year Belleville coach Adam Trumpour, who guided his team to the Kensington Lakes Activities Association East title. “It just wasn’t our night at all on the offensive end.”

The Tigers had no players reach double figures in scoring.

Bryce Radtka, a 6-8 senior, scored nine points with eight rebounds for the Tigers, while senior guard Da’Jon Johnson also scored nine points with four assists.

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) Grand Blanc's Robert Williams (0) makes his move into the lane as Belleville's Bryce Radtka defends. (Middle) Grand Blanc's Donnie Huddleston (35) gets a hand up on a jumpshot. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)