By Staff
EAST LANSING – The Michigan High School Athletic Association crowned four new boys basketball champions at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Saturday.
Saginaw, Detroit Country Day, Bath and Cedarville won their respective state championships.
Class A
Saginaw was too much for Detroit Redford in the Class A final.
Saginaw jumped out to a 19-11 lead, which it built, to 36-26 by halftime.
Saginaw (25-1) didn't lead up in the second half as it outscored Redford, 43-31 in the second half.
Draymond Green scored 27 points for Saginaw, which also got 15 points from Josh Southern and 13 points from Bobby Lewis.
Green dished out seven assists and grabbed eight rebounds. Southern snared 15 boards.
Corperryale Harris led Redford (21-7) with a game-high 31 points and 10 rebounds. No other Redford player reached double figures.
Class B
Detroit Country Day, who was playing in its first Final Four in 10 years, defeated East Grand Rapids, 66-61 in the Class B finals.
Country Day (22-6), which knocked off Lakeshore in the semifinals on Friday night, trailed 17-14 after one period of play.
Country Day outscored East Grand Rapids 20-19 in the third quarter to cut the lead to 36-34 at the intermission.
Country Day held a 32-25 scoring advantage in the second half to pull away to the victory.
Darnell Brown led Country Day with 22 points and eight rebounds. The Yellow Jackets also got 14 points from Darryl Nobles and 13 points from Clayton Beard.
Kelvin Grady led East Grand Rapids (25-3) with 20 points. Demarcus Grady and Justin Anyijon both finished with 19 points. Anyijong also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Class C
Bath completed an impressive tournament run with a 65-60 victory over perennial powerhouse Saginaw Nouvel in the Class C finals.
Nouvel led 15-13 and 31-29 after two periods of play.
Bath closed the gap to 47-46 heading into the final eight minutes.
Bath (24-4) outscored Saginaw Nouvel (23-5) 19-13 in the final quarter to pull out the victory.
Mark Schneider scored a game-high 20 points to lead Bath. Brett Monroe added 19 points, while Eli Redman added 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Tim Ryan led Nouvel with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Mitch Mulcahy and John McColgan finished with 14 and 10 points respectively.
Class D
In the closest of the four finals, Cedarville edged Wyoming Tri-unity Christian in the Class D championship game, 77-74.
Dowagiac's Randy Melvin was one of the officials for the Class D final.
Cedarville completed a perfect season by outscoring Tri-unity Christian 45-32 in the first half and then holding on through the final two quarters.
Cedarville (26-0) led just 19-16 after the first eight minutes, but outscored Tri-unity Christian 26-16 in the second quarter to open up the 13-point halftime advantage.
Wyoming (18-10) outscored Cedarville 17-11 in the third quarter and 25-21 in the final stanza, but just came up short.
Cedarville was 11-of-14 in the second half to preserve the victory.
C.J. Paquin led Cedarville with 27 points. Jason Duncan added 14 points, while Matt Hansen and Jordan Duncan added 12 and 10 points respectively.
Dan Possehl led Tri-unity Christian with a game-high 32 points and 15 rebounds. Matt Boersen chipped in with 12 points. Dan Scafe added 11.