East Lansing turns back Eaglets, 51-44, in semifinal contest at Michigan State University's Breslin Center in East Lansing
EAST LANSING — For the entire season, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s has been considered the best boys basketball team in Michigan. But that didn’t guarantee winning a second consecutive state championship. The Eaglets’ dreams were dashed Friday afternoon by a determined East Lansing squad, 51-44.
Playing before a packed house at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center, St. Mary’s rushed out to a 10-0 lead in the first four-and-a-half minutes — its largest lead of the game. However, East Lansing chipped back and caught up by the midpoint of the second quarter. After that, the teams traded blow-for-blow until the Trojans closed out the game with a 15-5 run over the final six minutes.
“It was obviously a back-and-forth game,” St. Mary’s coach Todd Covert said. “It wasn’t our best night, but that has a lot to do with East Lansing. It was just a few bounces here; the ball bounced the wrong way for us, it bounced the right way for them.”
Although St. Mary’s (20-7) was the defending champion, the top-ranked team in the state and had the best individual player — “Mr. Basketball” honoree Trey McKenney — second-ranked East Lansing (27-1) was up for the challenge, also having defeated the Eaglets by one point in a regular-season matchup.
“When you’re strong and athletic and big and you play hard, you’re going to beat most teams, and they’re very talented — as well as we are,” Covert said. “It was just a lay-up here, a bounced ball here; that happens.”
McKenney, a University of Michigan commit and the only the second Mr. Basketball winner from the Catholic League in the award’s 45-year history, led all scorers with 21 points. But he shouldered some of the blame for the season-ending loss.
“I didn’t hit my shots tonight, and that was the outcome of the game,” he said. “We let them get in transition and that’s their game. Once they got in their rhythm, it was hard to get back into ours. We stayed in the game until the end, and it was a close game, but we didn’t win.”
McKenney was 7-of-18 in his field goal attempts and 3-of-9 beyond the three-point line, but that was emblematic of St. Mary’s shooting woes, as the team made just 37.7% of its attempts from the floor. The Eaglets’ 44 points scored was their season low.
“It’s not just this game — it’s been every game this season,” East Lansing coach Ray Mitchell said. “That’s what we do; we’re the best defensive team in the state. We knew we were going to lock down and play defense; our issue was on the offensive end.”
Individually, Jayce Branson was tasked with guarding McKenney all night. Ironically, the two have been summer-league teammates for four years.
“My mindset coming into the game was just to stop Trey McKenney, their leading scorer, and our offense would do the rest. If I was able to stop him, we would win the game,” Branson said. “I’m kind of familiar with his moves, we’re familiar with each other. I watched film on his moves, just studied all that stuff. When it comes to the game, I’m just ready to be in action.”
Mitchell credited his players for being able to shake off the early 10-point deficit, which actually began when an East Lansing player was hit with a technical foul for dunking during pre-game warmups. McKenney hit a free throw to give St. Mary’s 1-0 lead even before the first possession.
“I think that we were a little nervous being in this atmosphere,” Mitchell said. “My guys, they’ve been wanting to play on this stage for a long time. They’ve been in this arena many, many times and it was their dream to get here. Sometimes you’ve got those jitters when you come out. I kept telling them to settle down, just relax, breathe. Just do what we do — we play defense.”
Three of East Lansing’s starters — Kelvin Torbert, Cameron Hutson and Kingston Thomas — each had fathers who played collegiate basketball at Michigan State. Torbert led the team with 19 points while Thomas had 12.
In addition to McKenney’s 21 points, seniors Sharod Barnes scored 11 while Jayden Savoury added eight.
Despite the somewhat surprising outcome, Covert preferred to look at the big picture.
“Losing this game, it obviously hurts, but what we accomplished this year — winning the Catholic League, getting back here for the third straight year, playing (Florida’s) IMG Academy here in Rochester, we really made a statement for high school basketball in Michigan. It’s as good as anywhere,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of schools here, a lot of great players here that we don’t get the credit for, so hopefully that was one small piece of what we were able to accomplish this year without winning a state championship. That’s important to us, that’s important to Trey and Sharod who stayed here for four years and were committed to the school and to the program. That’s what high school basketball’s about.”
