EAST LANSING — Orchard Lake St. Mary’s coach Todd Covert says winning a Division 1 basketball championship is the hardest thing to do in high school sports.
The Eaglets’ opponents must have agreed, because North Farmington didn’t make it easy for St. Mary’s to capture its first championship in 24 years.
In a scrappy game featuring lots of rough, aggressive play — and free throws — the Eaglets prevailed over North Farmington, 63-52, on Saturday at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
“What a battle, what a battle,” Covert said. “It’s an emotional day and it obviously hasn’t sunk in yet, but I’ve been dreaming about this for a long time. It’s a dream come true and I’m happy for our school and our community, and I’m happy for these kids — they have worked so hard for so long, and they deserve everything they get.”
In contrast to the prior day’s semifinal — a runaway 82-42 win over Ann Arbor Huron — the Eaglets seemingly had to fight for every point and then hang on for dear life against the motivated Raiders, who played with a chip on their shoulder after St. Mary’s eliminated them from post-season play the past two seasons.
“Hat’s off to North Farmington; they didn’t stop, they didn’t quit,” Covert said. “They got pretty physical out there, but I don’t think it was any cheap stuff, it was just a physical game — a really, really, really, physical game. We came out with it in the end, and we’re really happy to bring this state championship back to Orchard Lake.”
St. Mary’s (27-1) — which has been the state’s top-ranked team all year — allowed North Farmington to score the first basket, and that was the only time the Eaglets trailed. They limited the Raiders to seven points apiece in the first and third quarters. St. Mary’s led by 20 points, 46-26, with seven minutes remaining in the game.
But still, St. Mary’s didn’t have an easy time closing it out.
“We knew North Farmington was going to come in and play us hard because we beat them last year in the playoffs, so we just tried to stay humble and keep a mindset to where we could win the game,” said Trey McKenney, who had a game-high 32 points and 10 rebounds.
The stat which stood out the most for McKenney was his unblemished 14-for-14 mark at the free-throw line. His last eight of those came in the fourth quarter, after North Farmington turned up the heat defensively with a full-court press, and St. Mary’s saw its lead shrink to nine points with under two minutes to play.
“It was the longest fourth quarter of my life,” Covert said. “It seemed like there were seven guys out there (playing against us). We weathered the storm, and that’s what it’s about. We kept our composure and our sportsmanship, and we got it done in the end.”
Sharod Barnes (with 4 makes out of 4), Daniel Smythe (3 of 4) and Andrew Smith (1 of 2) also got to the line in the fourth quarter, helping the Eaglets make a collective 28 of 30 foul shots (93 percent) throughout the contest.
“We talk all the time about testament and routine with free throws,” Covert said. “If you start worrying about if it’s going in or not, you’re fighting from behind. Those free throws are the work of a lot of early mornings that these kids put in, and the extra time that they put in. They embrace the pressure; that’s all you can do. You can’t run from it; you’re not going to run from it.”
“It was very physical — that press, the traps, just being able to squeeze through the traps and find the open man,” McKenney said, “but it was all worth it, you know — just winning that game, one of the biggest games you’ll ever play in your life.”
The only other St. Mary’s player with a double-digit scoring total was Barnes, who put up 11. He agreed with his teammate and coach’s assessments of the battle.
“We knew they were going to compete,” he said. “We beat them in the playoffs last year, and this is a bigger stage. We just had to pay attention to the details and we had to compete.”
St. Mary’s, which also finished atop the rugged Central Division by three games and won the Catholic League Bishop Division championship over highly regarded Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice last month, had been the state’s top-ranked team all season long.
“When people are saying you’re supposed to win, people are always going to come for you every game,” Barnes said. “It just means everything for us to get here. Everyone is gunning for us since we’re the No. 1 team.
“I’m a little sore right now, but it’s OK — we got a state championship.”
Gabriel Richard knocked out on buzzer-beater
The Catholic League nearly had a second team taking home a state championship, but Riverview Gabriel Richard’s dreams ended two days earlier with a heartbreaking loss in the Division 3 semi-final.
Toward the end of a see-saw fourth quarter, Gabriel Richard went up by two, 41-39, on Luke Westerdale’s lay-up with 14.3 seconds to play. But Old Redford remained in the hunt when Kason Mayes was fouled when attempting a game-tying lay-up with 3.3 seconds left.
Mayes made the first free throw and missed the second, but the loose ball bounced off a Gabriel Richard player under the rim and went beyond the base line, giving Old Redford one last possession. The Ravens in-bounded the ball to the corner, where a heavily guarded Arkell Boyd hit a three-pointer as the buzzer sounded, giving Old Redford a sudden 43-41 victory.
Gabriel Richard — the Catholic League Cardinal Division champions — got 15 points from Charles Kage, 13 from Nick Sobush and eight from Westerdale. The Pioneers ended their campaign with a 23-4 record, and the Ravens advanced to the championship game, where they were defeated by Niles Brandywine, 56-48.
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