Hoops Score Big on MHSAA.TV
March 11, 2014
The MHSAA Basketball Semifinals and Finals will have broadcast coverage on a variety of cable television, internet and radio platforms over the next two weekends.
The Girls Basketball Finals will take place Thursday through Saturday (March 13-15) at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing. The Boys Finals will take place March 20-22.
The championship games will be televised live by FOX Sports Detroit. The Class D and A title games of the Girls Finals will air on FOX Sports Detroit, and the Class C and B games will be shown on FOX Sports Detroit-PLUS. FOX Sports Detroit-PLUS will carry the Finals of the Boys Tournament the following weekend.
Semifinal games will be streamed live on a subscription basis on MHSAA.TV. The Basketball coverage is part of six straight weekends of live MHSAA Championship coverage on MHSAA.TV, and online viewers can catch both weekends of action for one low cost of $14.95. A Day Pass is available for $9.95. All events will be available for free on-demand viewing by Wednesday the week following their initial live airing.
A number of events already are available on-demand, including last weekend's Hockey, Gymnastics and Lower Peninsula Swimming and Diving Finals, and a number of Girls Basketball Regional, Boys Basketball District and Hockey Quarterfinal games listed below. The listings are followed by this week's MHSAA Perspective and MHSAA.TV highlight clips.
Girls Basketball Regionals
- Norway vs. L'Anse
- St. Ignace vs. Ishpeming
- St. Ignace vs. L'Anse
Hockey Quarterfinals
- Farmington vs. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood
- Plymouth vs. Detroit Catholic Central
Boys Basketball Districts
- Vassar vs. Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy
- L'Anse vs. Ironwood
- Onaway vs. Wolverine
- Ellsworth vs. Alba
- East Lansing vs. Okemos
- Haslett vs. DeWitt
- Watervliet vs. Bridgman
- Cedar Springs vs. Rockford
- Montrose vs. Reese
- Calumet vs. Hancock
- Central Lake vs. Boyne Falls
- Lansing Eastern vs. Lansing Everett
- Grand Rapids Northview vs. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern
- Vassar vs. New Lothrop
- Hale vs. AuGres-Sims
- Richland Gull Lake vs. Holt
- Bellaire vs. Ellsworth
- Calumet vs. Ironwood
- Montrose vs. Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy
- Rockford vs. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central
- Gladstone vs. Escanaba
- Atlanta vs. Fairview
- Haslett vs. Okemos
- Grand Ledge vs. Mason
- Holt vs. Mason
- Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central vs. Grand Rapids Northview
- Saginaw Nouvel vs. Hemlock
- New Lothrop vs. Montrose
MHSAA Perspective: This week, John Johnson talks about the value of school sports and how the values they teach surpass anything that happens in other youth sports by other sponsors - Nothing Like It
Division 3 Final: Eaglets Fly Again
November 29, 2011
Five times since its most recent MHSAA football championship, Orchard Lake St. Mary returned to the championship game – and lost.
Saturday night there was no stopping the Eaglets – or their running attack – at the Division 3 Final at Ford Field.
St. Mary rushed for 478 yards – and after near-misses the last two seasons won its first championship since 2000 with a 45-7 win over top-ranked Mount Pleasant.
"I knew what it felt like to lose, so it gave me the fire and other teammates the fire to win,” St. Mary senior running back Spencer McInnis said. “It’s unexplainable. It’s awesome. It’s something I’ve wanted since I was a kid. I always knew I was going to go to St. Mary’s. It’s just a great feeling.”
The Eaglets (12-2) had fallen by eight and three to East Grand Rapids in the last two Finals, and in a five-overtime classic in 2007. They entered the playoffs ranked No. 4 by The Associated Press – but as champions of the Detroit Catholic League Central, which sent three teams to Ford Field this fall.
“It was great to win again,” said St. Mary coach George Porritt, who finished his 23rd season leading the program. “It’s a collective effort from these kids, and it’s been all year long.”
McInnis ran for 213 of the team’s 478 rushing yards, and took three of his 23 carries into the end zone. Junior brother Parker McInnis ran for 96 yards and a score, as did junior fullback Grant Niemiec. Senior James Ross added another running touchdown.
“We were in position to make some tackles, and it wasn’t a scheme thing or guys getting blocked. It’s just that their athletes made our guys miss, or we couldn’t tackle them,” Mount Pleasant coach Jason McIntyre said. “I’ve never seen backs that we couldn’t tackle one on one or two on one. A lot of teams will have one great back, and you can focus and rally there. But they had three and four.”
The Oilers’ usually-strong running game finished with just 122 yards, led by senior quarterback Ryan Elliott’s 40. He also had Mount Pleasant’s lone score. It was the team’s first Finals appearance – and only loss this fall as it finished 13-1.
Junior defensive back Cory Williams led the Oilers with nine tackles. Senior lineman Dylan Zerki led the Eaglets with 11, and Ross had 10.