2019 MHSAA State Finals | Boys Basketball | STATE CHAMPS! Michigan

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champion Sports Network. My name is Lauren planet if you are from Michigan. High school hoop fans we hope you love this show and it's a little different than the way we've done some of our digital editions of the Championship this is going to be sort of a highlight bars timeout podcast mashup, so what you'll get are the highlights from every men's

basketball

state

championship game and in between you'll get analysis from the state

champs

, TJ Kelly owners Scott Bernstein and myself.

It's been a crazy season, it's been a wild postseason and it was a great finale with everything on offer so let's cut to the chase and we'll start in Division four if you look back at the start of the season Southfield Christian could have been the defending champ , but two of their best players had transferred and then the team left. to a 2 and 5 star head coach Josh Baker had his Eagles stretch their wings winning 20 of their next 21 they found out but Frankfort came into this contest with 21 wins of their own they had an amazing run as Cinderella through of the postseason overtime victories in the districts and the quarterfinal buzzer to win the regional title and a one-point win over the semifinal favorite and tri-unit Wyoming Christian Panthers in their first state final and that alone it was cause for celebration what's even more amazing is frankfort lost the starting five a year before it had a first year head coach and dan loney but here was this high level big man jack resnick and the kiss of the crystal now south field Christian is a deep contribution coming from a variety of guys Noah smash averaged 11 points a game this season he's crafty bucket the Eagles did a phenomenal job working the ball in transition case in point Deshawn Humphrey doing his magical Johnson Malcolm impression King beneficiary Southfield Christian with a ten-point lead Frankfort was 14th in the Northwest Conference to reach a championship game in the last three senior years there will be new stops and bold bursts from the top art well done but the Panthers down 24 12 after opening so many guns for South Field Christian Wrecker wreaking havoc contributed ten points to the cause Panthers were way behind but never took possession look junior Luke Hammond nice but Frankfort trailing for 17 los Eagles shot 61 percent in the first half and have a talented squad coming back next year, then junior Humphrey to Iraq counted and 20-point contact game SC led to a 22-point halftime lead just couldn't stop the Eagles could only hope to contain them senior John Sanders drive gets contested ground good way to end his high school career young biggest lead for south field christian grew to 29 frankfort had a guy in the third responsible for all their scores in this new senior poll 9 is 17 in the third quarter from downtown now some of frankfort's youngsters got some playing time and any The bucket energized the Panther faithful but this it was Eagle time.

Humphrey with the speed of rebounding to a Sanders cut. He finished with 19. Both teams didn't shoot very well in the second half, but SC just wasn't going to be denied. Ramon Scruggs buries all eight of a team. morning triple South field Christian back-to-back state champions Frankfort Falls 63 to 39 Eagles fifth state title in the last eight years TJ Kelly here with state champions along with second state champion Deshawn Humphries of Southfield Christian his second championship just talked about playing a bigger role in this for this team than he added, you know when you're a freshman or a sophomore what does this mean for you to have a little bit of weight on your shoulders and be able to carry the Eagles I?

I mean it means the world to me I mean every challenge I take I take my head I take my head and we lost a couple players but you just showcase like what I can do what we can all do as a team and just create are my teammates team man they look forward to get me going and have my back if I make a mistake they tell me to keep going keep going and they always give me the rhythm so that's a blessing man that's a blessing that Coach Baker talked about. uh, you know, just having the cohesion of the previous guys that graduated from Southfield Christian, you know they're going to play college and when they come back, what kind of aura do they bring with them? you say. they need to win championships what they tell you over the summer is a safe expectation to keep up the winning tradition and this is a family they are brothers so they know we work hard and they tell us to keep working hard to be a leader like Bryce we It leads to follow, it leads to the return of Brock, so it's a family, a brotherhood and they expect them to wait.

I have high expectations and yes, I also look forward to Asia for us obviously make sure our expectations are to come back to win another championship. you know you lose some key guys john sanders stood out this year what are you doing as a senior next year to make sure you know as captain to really bring everybody on board and say this is what we do in 12 mile ? oh just keep leading tell everybody the experience I have and continue to be the leader and push everybody every day in practice and be the example like I can't be slacking off and I'm in practice I have to tell everybody when slack and they keep you going and uh just keep up the tradition man we're gonna keep you going why don't you talk about what beyond what you've done in the last eight years for the South Field Cushion and win those five championships, yeah, it's been amazing, it's been fun, you know, the most important thing is the number of people on the show and we've got my god Tim Clark, you know, making videos for us from school and you've got Chris Webber making sure I can get everything on the computer and people recording all over the state and four or five coaches putting in hours and hours every week and the parents putting in hundreds of hours and the kids putting in all kinds of extra time a lot of help to make our program be great for our coach to like people who don't understand how big he is and how many people he helps seems like it's almost like a part time volunteer job you know it's to be a high school coach you know I'm at whatever level you're at, but then when you extend it to the end of March every year and everyone says you know the eight shows aren't going to be in the first week of March, you know we're going to go ahead and you know why. im going to southfields christian obviously a testament to you what are some of the things that make people really say you know what its something i want to be a part of yes thats a great question i think the most important thing is they believe in our program to have like-minded people say, "Hey, we want our young people to be Christian educated, to follow Christ, to have that character, so I think that's the most rewarding thing, all of our guys at Romulus and at SES are like great great people have great work ethic and great jobs and great careers and great families and you know they're just the character and discipline of sports is what gets passed down so you have coaches who believe in that and believe in it and then they hook up with guys and then you can't, you can't leave because we have our eighth graders and you can't leave because you have to see Dejan and you have to see Noah and then we're going to have to see V through from that those are the things that get coaches to accept sounds like a great job you know they are very convincing congratulations on another championship see you in 2020 I started refereeing when a friend told me I should try at first I just did

basketball

and was hooked in no time I had baseball Softball Soccer and Volleyball I really enjoy giving back to the game Working with kids and working with my local association to recruit and train new officials I want to tell someone that umpiring is a huge help to kids and staying connected with the game they always need new officers Help wanted just listen it's hard for young people to get financing and

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nation welcome within the comfortable confines of the hang time studios podcast I'm here with Scott Bernstein and TJ Kelly, we've been doing it all season, so if you want to hear some great hoop analysis, here's what we do and we're here to bolster and improve our digital edition of the state championships by breaking down each of the games and giving you a little bit more insight and as far as what happened and in Division four you know here we had two teams coming in we feel like we've been saying all along Southfield Christian was some kind of giant a dynasty yeah yeah , and Frankfort was a team that went in and, boy, did he have a magical playoff run, and he just made it and found a way to beat Wyoming trying to be Christian, which of course.

Last week we all said okay it was meant to be a try you know yeah exactly but this one from the start belongs to the Eagles and you know they really showed their depth on that one too yeah kudos to Coach Loney. The team had a total of 15 minutes of college experience this year and they flipped the script and made it all the way to the state line awesome yeah that's good they went through a tough conference you know they're playing Glen Lake you know they've tested me and also do you know we are familiar with frankfort or do you know if you ever go to the semis because it looks like they've been there i think low knees a coach low knees younger brother or family member went all went to benzi central but his whole family went to Frankfort but a bad taste of them in a central Benzi huh I don't know diversity Dan played in West Michigan in the mid 2000's I think he did a very good job with this team that win in the semifinal where they had a big lead and then they lost the big lead and then they had to come back I think they had a hard time yeah and south of Christian instead he was fresh he had taken another beating in the semis. just some kind of rampage through the state tournament yeah another example of how that non-conference schedule they always play under the Josh Baker regime where they play every Class A and B school really sets them up for that state tournament Small schools, yes, and you know they're headed for their fifth state title in eight years, yes, and it doesn't look like this locomotive is slowing down anytime soon.

They bring back most of their lineup. They bring back the heart and soul of that team in Dasia at Bubba Humphrey. who is a division 1 recruit you know one of the most recent in a line of college recruits coming out of a small school program you know is going to division one yes last year his team captain State championship gamer Bryce Washington is playing at Penn right now and I'm excited to be doing well yeah yeah so it's great to see a small school like South eel Christian a program like that that consistently puts out college talent, winning titles state championships consistently and I think the only thing you can compare this to or at least where it's trending towards is the Eastern Catholic reign under Dave Soles where they won eight state championships in about 25 years so this is five and eight I guess that they have a chance to get three more in the next decade depending on you know if Coach Baker stays I think we have to get them out of that League even though I've been saying they should leave MIAC yeah at the same time I want say, to which Lee are they going?

Do they just play the smallest and just play the CD or do they play the Central well I say that well I would think those Lord I mean if they could play,you know, Loyola and you talking about the divine child, yes, yes, but you know still at the same time, I think they would have a better competition and nothing against the children or anything like that, yes, a little game that was 17 years ago that it was the second third year of Baker's reign, there he came and 11 and 12 seasons they've only lost one league game, it was by one point to inner city Baptist and it looks like they don't just win their games, they win their games for 20 30 40 points, it's just that it's not serving anyone's best interest for them to be in that league on the right and I've looked into this game, you know, just seeing what they did with the summit in the semis, He passed by and I've seen, I think we've seen Southfield Christian at times. you know maybe he'll get a little nonchalant and stuff like that we're all going to witness the team there looking at the rosters and stuff like that or we're going to kill them on paper blah blah whatever he only had seven turnovers yes great that NBA teams are happy to have seven turnovers so I think that was key and that they stuck to their game plan they said look here is what we are going to do they were extremely extremely efficient a lot of balance and a lot balance.

I mean it was great to see so many guys. I love at the end of the games. Know. I mean, obviously, there's a lull for one team, but the excitement for the other, but when you get to see the guys that I know they don't necessarily all play all the time or get a little bit of playing time, but they can step on them in the court on the big stage at the President Center at the state

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and that's a memory obviously this is high school bass and their defense was outstanding I think they had 17 turnovers yeah and we heard at conferences press after the semi

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and the finals, these teams that you usually meet today do not see this type of physicality. this kind of athletics, this kind of full-court swarm pressure on a game-game basis during your regular season, so you can watch it on tape and you can watch it and you can analyze it and you can sit there in the on the movie theater and try to let X know but when you're watching it you know real fire is like that oh yeah it's hard to react and it's hard to fight it when you're just not used to it man imagine Harlan. he was on that team and this team and we've talked about it a little bit but let's go over real quick this alpha christian team lost two big transfers left by Caleb Hunter to play your GM and try to win a title in the Division one ranks, It was his starting point guard last year, Harlan Beverly, who was a mr.

The basketball contender could easily be second in that voting to Romeo Weems went to high school in Florida, so they know they reinvented themselves along the way. They started season one three and then it was two and five five and then they faltered. 19 of their last 20 that they only lost in the last two and a half months of the season were to River Rouge who played in the Division two state championship game yeah no but what really impressed me when ' I'm talking about Bubba Humphrey, a kid who was second or third or fourth last year, he had to step up, not just take on the burden of scoring, but take on the burden of leadership and he really embraced it, yeah, I'm a kid who has really come into his own both as a playmaker and as a you know the final straw, the emotional spark plug for that team and look at a stat line in that state championship game that he had 20 points six rebounds six assists as TJ said a couple of minutes was just the definition of efficiency he was kind of a microcosm of the whole team okay okay and again if you want to listen more info and analysis we have an audio podcast so we're doing what we're talking about not just the championship game so we recap the season so if you want to go there you can watch it on your favorite platform but right now we were all excited to see what was going to happen. it happened in the Division One game and I think we can honestly say that we were a bit surprised.

It lived up to expectations, but it certainly lived up to expectations. I lived up to all expectations. Check out these highlights Say what you want to say The game lived up to expectations It was an instant classic The end result We got our money's worth in the Division One state championship The stories were intriguing You Jesuit Our team number one virtually all season long a team of cubs looking to cement their legacy as Cassius Winston and the game did in 2016 Forbes and Lanny Lincoln an incredible postseason streak of champions on the rampage first state championship game appearance the student America's number one freshman Imani Bates hoping to also take up the mantle of number one player in the state and it would be a player who didn't even live in the mitt at this time of year who would shoot for the ages in the biggest stage in the state earlier we were looking for pitch markers how about this 6 foot eight baits going for the dirt but senior Daniel Friday sent grease to the seats omg lincoln with 22 wins this season ? led 15 to 14 after one of the brown college recruits Friday had a game averaging 17 a game against 10 and is in and believes Bates averages 30 points in games just behind the crossover for Lincoln down 20 to 17 but coach Pat Donnelly had his Cubs prepared from the outside.

Jordan Montgomery 30 Ball senior corner pocket coach Davis and his rail splitters felt like they belonged on every team they played on. No intimidation. Two minutes ago in the middle of the transition. the floater program the cubs has been so dominant winners of seven straight catholic league crowns no school has won more than four in a row close half in a 7 run nothing Julian Dozier had six assists east to Junior JD Morgan Giudice came in a half lead time 32 to 23 the splitters cut the deficit to start the second half the memphis transfer to be close to his mother the senior Fischer shoots and fills him wild with a six pack after Lincoln took the lead 39 38 you'll be back in the driver's seat and how about this nitrous oxide boost 5 Friday, the next possession Friday again won't be denied and a team goes up 19 points and you know it was only a matter of time until the 15-year-old showed everyone he's going for being a great four year old cab left on the lincoln track by four in that exciting fourth quarter both exchanging hoops caleb hunter finds montgomery knocking down his third 3 pointer of the afternoon 4 minutes remaining in the game lincoln down 62-54 bates with the frying plate who drops another one from downtown to get into content Railsplitters down just a bucket Bates wants the ball and doesn't miss the high game 23 we weren't at 60 you addy regained the lead Railsplitters unfazed Bates with the jump long no but fry the throwback Late 15 point and we were tied at 62 14 seconds left now in a tie game Lincoln is going to take the final shot and that is the man fade with the call Defense Forces the dunk to fry shot too strong Fisher in perfect place buzzer game about that man from Memphis win division one state championship walk-off style 64 262 complete five newly crowned division one champion his Jalen Fisher senior guard from Ypsilanti Lincoln talked about hitting that big buzzer to win the championship in the first man it's just that it's crazy because at first it was supposed to go to the money but they combined them twice at one point so Mari Mari fired the shot.

I thought he was going to go in, but he leaned in. I shot him and they went in and all I saw was black and I was happy that my team and I won a state championship. What was it like playing with a freshman? You're playing in front of crowds with a couple hundred people. Suddenly, you're playing. You meet thousands of fans. You know three or four thousand people in the eastern Michigan gym. Then you go to Callahan Hall. there are eight nine thousand and ten thousand other people here today i'm on the big stage it's the big stage what it was like to play those stages all year long it felt great lincoln never had that before we had a home game i think i was up against the catholics was that he got the kids to where they were sitting on a baseline they couldn't even move it's a great environment in the atmosphere of the plan I love it here with Imani Bates superstar freshman congratulations on winning the first basketball championship by ypsilanti lincoln there has been a whirlwind of you are this you are you are this when you decided you were going to be what you are today you know i just stay in the gym i work hard every day in the gym and you know i just push myself and i get the results that I want a great supporting cast when you join the team in you oh you know you said let's do the Breslin we're there some snickers or something like that from seniors juniors because obviously you have the confidence but this is a platform these guys have never been on and you had success, how did you extend that to the rest of your teammates every day in practice?

I will compete with them. Hello Mark, sir. every day because you know I had to bring that competitive edge that I have, you know, and I helped us a lot, a lot, everything else is fine, could you deliver 15? Obviously, a world of basketball ahead. What are you? doing to work on your game you know to really go to the next level you can do push ups and stuff like that but let's talk about you you know what you're really working on right now I just go like you know I train with this guy. Gem named Hanlon and PJ performance ladies got my friend and my basketball trailer right so you know my dad we exercise every day at my school like weight lifting ok one last question , Coach Davis talked about this being a surreal kind of feeling when in this championship that he alluded to, he wanted to win three more here at Michigan State, what would he bring to the table in 2020-21 and then his senior year in 2022? better than you know today and just keep learning and getting better every day we talked before you know a month ago a couple weeks ago about when was the first time you just went Wow than seeing a big mighty the first time I I went crazy it was in third grade when he made 22 straight three pointers that was the first time I said Wow and you know it developed a lot from there but he's always been a kid who loved the gym and put in the time, so I'm not surprised that he can do what he's doing, it's putting in a lot of time and of course being a sixth assistant is definitely not an advantage.

You've coached some other really filthy guys in eastern Michigan Trey Jackson before you know when you did when he was a sophomore at Lincoln I know a lot of people know you're holding those guys accountable and you do it by holding everyone accountable it's a network for everyone to play with this group here was it more of themselves taking responsibility this is a combination of you really had to go in and say hey we have to wait this is what we have to do y'all slacking off did you have to do that? Well, yeah, we always have to do that, I think, and you know, Richard Williams, you know.

I talked to our coaching staff and they're reading and in Finley and EJ, they know all those guys, we complement each other, but we also challenge each other, so they know that it forces us to challenge our kids to get better, so I know that I give is a lot to my coaching staff and we are all on the same page as far as challenging our kids getting better every day that was one of our goals they said they didn't set me a goal to get better every day to win the districts in championship victory state they set them up for themselves before we even played 10 games the money talked about winning three more are you making any changes to the schedule or anything you plan to be here for the next until the end of march for the next three years until 2022, how about this?

I'm going to travel with him if we're going to be here for the next three years. Hey I'm going to ride with him okay so there you have it if Salani Lincoln Division one state champions for this year there was a lot of talk about epsilon Lincoln entering and for good reason obviously going into the sea like wow this It's going to be fun and this kid is going to be no one is going to predict a state title yeah I don't I mean we even talked about it at the post game press conference you know people were talking about the Ann Arbor skyline You know Ann Arbor, your honor, where people dunk Elaine, people talk about teams in Washington County, yes, not a word about Lincoln County.

I'm talking 15 miles really yeah and a lot of those five teams at the start of the season okay they might be better than an hour here just because they're young whether or not they're better than those other teams that swept swept be tipsy threes items you know they andnot only that if you look through their path it could have been the hardest during the whole stage and they also had to play King you know they had so they had to play everybody different style from all over the state you know they had the physical toughness with the PSL three beaters to win yeah including and that was the perfect rebound you know a tornado a Memphis mauler yeah I came home Saturday night and I was like yeah you know and I was like wow it was an instant classic yeah why and then i started watching you know the finale but yeah it was yeah but it was cool to see you meet Jesse Davis all the Railsplitters that's what I think they want to draw the championship or something maybe 15 or 20 years ago within that region but other than that they don't want anything right and they talk about a fan base that supports their kids but they brought a couple of thousands to Callahan. did the same thing with the Breslin Center now in the season they have a white all season and wow what um it's a head saw hats off to the lincoln really maybe you know it would be one of those things let's see who can cheer the loudest and be the best sports and our teams will win championships could have a lot more refs than or seven and i think division one champion rapper is representative of the way the season went it was so wide open it didn't You couldn't really pinpoint who was the ultimate favorite, I mean I guess you could have said you from D were and then they finally made it to the state finals and Lincoln knocked him out, but obviously there's been a lot of hype about Imani bass and all. it's well deserved and it's all justified because this guy is a phenomenon we haven't seen in the state of Michigan since Chris Webber and Magic Johnson.

I don't think Josh Jackson was the number one freshman in the country like Bates was true and I won't go to state, but I got you. This was another level. would want from a superstar player has a 14 15 year old did everything like TJ said the only one probably the only three level scorer in the state so many different angles and there are a lot of really good scores and when i tweeted that was how i like it maybe i might Maybe I'm just being a little critical. I've just seen words being thrown around that are a little looser than they should be. -Anyone who has leadership qualities.

I made a recap video that you can see on the common social media platforms of the state champion network. This was far from just the amani bait show yeah mari fry yeah. Hodge Chapmann. this Rondo beef and they were doing a lot to help their team and they really complemented each other very well and to their credit they know these are seniors these are guys that some of these guys have been college guys for four years yeah and I don't They did I can't resist an inch of Imani Bates coming in here and grabbing all the headlines, they supported it, increased it and just know, come in where they fit in and where they fit in now is a state champion and everyone is adjusting. because it sounds good and I and I agree with you 100% I would even throw Cameron Cameron Johnson I tell you this what he does I will say I will say like the glue guy His pass in the semifinals Worried The stoppage for the ball At the same time he flipped it He was going to the jail and Fisher and his Jalen Fisher throw him overboard and Emani Bates throws the alley-oop yeah to me that was like the epitome of what you want your team to be if you work hard you do this you're going to hit the ground , you do that extra pass, then you look at all the results and you look at everyone, wow, yeah, and I think it was great for everyone to see and yeah, well, as far as his money goes, Bates knows he was he. he was all class yeah you know that too and it was cool to see that he wants to come back and 1 3 he did and he didn't really say it to someone who has that kind of hype and that kind of scrutiny that he didn't.

I said a thing at the press conference and I'm not saying this is a good thing yeah he like he spread it yeah Todd you talk Omarion you talk Jalen you talk Coach you talk you know he answered the question which has already been done to them. he wasn't hogging the spotlight in any way, shape or form, he was spreading the love. I want to spread some love to those who too Julian Dozier Daniel Friday yeah Friday I mean he was playing a man possessed he was doing everything he could to lose that game yeah yeah punching Lincoln won it yeah it was a lucky rebound for Lincoln, he got the potential game-winning shot, he hit the back rim and it bounced, yeah, it bounced: Jalen Fisher in the corner and in one motion he picked it up and shot what he's got in his face, yeah, you know, the cold-blooded punches are nothing but net gains, state titles were magic, i don't know if you're a jesuit, what you really could have done, other than say, maybe you know someone, should i have a body? him but he didn't flinch but there's no doubt it was a disappointing year for a team I loved it was really great we got some great perspective and again somebody has to win somebody has to lose but it seemed like Did you know. do you know here and absolutely the time was coming right?

It was there? he was going to go down and on Friday he had a couple of sequences in that game or just took over for 2-3 minutes and then Dozier hit a turntable through traffic to tie the game to set up the game-winning play for Lincoln that it was such a tough shot and it shows you know the gut strength that Julian Dozer has you know five nine point guard and yeah he's so tough he's tough as nails and he's so smart so smart you know you can say this with many kids but I'll say it with him yeah it's Dueling dozer he was six he would be a Big Ten recruit sadly he's five nine and he's going to have to play you know probably a small school that doesn't hurt to be vertically challenged yeah we see a lot of small schools Division one in the NCAA yeah they come enough right now that I can see you lead in one of those squats right? right I mean we've got some big scores scoring in the Murray State game yeah well let's dig in as far as where we are in Division one you can hear that on the audio version of the hangtime podcast so make sure you verifying that right now we're moving on of course to what everyone was talking about at the end of the tournament which was the end of the Division three game let's put that aside and say this was also a great game between an upstart in Iron Mountain and the team we had predicted for the most part was going to be able to take care of pagan wama Westphalia business.

Let's look at those highlights. It's always epic when two undefeated teams come together to decide who will be this year's Division State Champion. three battles between our third-ranked team, Pewamo Westphalia, who just beat Erie Mason, the first trip to the title bid in five years by a 22-year coaching loophole, and his guys, the fourth ranked, Iron Mountain, led by veteran leader Harvey Johnson and his Mountaineers beat defending state champion Detroit Edison in the semifinals and, like the Pirates, both teams looking to lift state hardware for the first time in program history, is important to remember there must be five teams to make it to the Breslin Center for the second year in a row for the Pirates playing in this building the older Nathan Worth Pirates to a 74 pay wama lead once again moving the ball well in early action Andre Smith the Aaron leads 11 to 7 this was the first time since 1939 that Iron Mountain had reached the state championship and at the time they were the only AUP group closed out the fourth with a run of eight nothing Tony Farah - Jatin Mackenzie victim then victory Mountaineers led 15 to 11 after the first in the second sophomore sensation fosters wonders lifting the iron friendly mountain rolling six now the Pirates actually only returned two 18-and-six state semifinal squad starters from a year, Andre Smith, one of them, that's accurate, but the Mountaineers would close with strong-middle junior guard Marcus Johnson, already the school's all-time leading scorer. the steal and the layup Iron Mountain led 26-21 in the locker room both teams brought out the drivers to start the second half played from distance taunt Smith making one of his five 3-pointers on a 21-point afternoon Iron Mountain responds wonders by setting up Johnson knocking down a par 5 triple had 17 points in the closing stages of the game of the third p.w back from the outside Smith kicks Erin but shoots and fills it out from beyond the arc had 15 pirates down 42:35 we had a battle in the last fourth Johnson loses all three wonders to backtracking and contact Iron Mountain leading by six the final leg of this contest is what will now be talked about for decades 20 seconds left PW behind 52 to 49 Colin Trierweiler the drive pirates down one Iron Mountain gets the ball pirates pressing Johnson breaks seas Toni Berra slicing to the rack the referee calls traveling the crowd can't believe it pw ball 5 seconds left Trierweiler with the rock iron mountain with two non-shooting fouls to give foul called referees called intentional that It's automatic free kicks unbelievably less than a second tree left while you're on the line under tremendous pressure the major drains his first they were tied at 52 all six points came in the last 30 seconds the second shot great as the other side of the pillow pays wama westphalia hold on to win division 3 53 to 52 final pirates first

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basketball state championship standing here with colin real player you're standing at the foul line two shots to win you get the ball back hey man it's got to be great feeling one time you talk about it oh it's amazing feeling it's really a dream you like there's a little boy you're sitting there like he wanted to be in that winning shot he came to the game and you know it's a little different from hitting a pole vault shot the wind at the foul line a little bit fresher momentum i think but its something i practiced the law is a little boy i always go out and walk away and let him shoot a man and with my injury For the three weeks i never I practiced, the coach had to stand to the side, just motionless.

I had a guy to rebound for me and I'll feel 20 and 30 free throws in a row. He also talked about the success that some of you know. Say this, some of the older

boys

. I'm not saying a complete mix, you know, Lee and those guys are in their late twenties, early 20s, yeah, you know, but you know as you watch what it's going to mean in this group. more beers, what does this really mean to you at Bramall? The Australian community is truly amazing. I do not know what else to say. It really is just amazing.

I looked up the claims in an explicit Adam Wesley. team that I loved watching I didn't miss a game they played that year and being one of those guys that kids look up to me not literally look up to me as a player okay so Pyo Westphalia state champions we got to talk about it for Of course this was and for those of you who don't get a chance to know what happens immediately after, these are a couple of guys who were at that post game conference and you know, I'm sure the moves are raging, emotions were running boom What do you mean first?

I want to credit Bucky Johnson, the Iron Mountain head coach, for keeping his cool as much as he could. be magnanimous Stay for the medal ceremony. Going to the press conference because I will be frank, yes, if it was me, if this was my team, I would not have been so magnanimous. do the medal ceremony without us, we'll let the free walk speak for us because in my opinion this was a state championship that was unfortunately stolen from Iron Mountain and I think it was I think it was a disservice to everyone because I think sadly for Pew Want we should all be talking about PW State Absolute and what comments will feel worse and what country wanted because this kid didn't have a point in the whole game.

I just scored his six points in the final. 30 seconds as well as full laps the focus of the post game conference or post game discussion should have been which gang Buster amazing tremendous job Trierweiler did but instead we're all talking about two very controversial calls that You know, in my opinion, it shouldn't have happened and we've never seen anything like this before. I mean not one but two. That's just so you know you can say whatever you want. Calls like that to end a state ticket I look I looked at the time The time on the clock and it was like two zero seven now it will mean three different things Johnson Johnson direct championship and then what will an Iron Mountain mean and what it will mean in Westphalia ya you know, and yes, it's unfortunate.

I think we all have what we want in competition. What I love to go and look at. I love watching close games. I never have a favorite to win. kids play rough, you know, keeping it simple and stuff like that. I never had a horse in the South Philly race that was closed, so you know we don't have to worry about that anymore, yeah, but yeah, it was sadly what you. I'm talking aboutyes it was you know we were talking about fostering wonders in coach johnson you know what market and his son marcus johnson you know about the winners it was nice he had his son out there with him yes but it helps yes and that was yes i mean i had to being devastated ten hours 12 the whole trip back, yeah, you know, that dinner that Steve Mariucci bought, you know, I just blew it, it was something that I did like, there's a lot of tears that went down before the double-zero call -seven, he had the travel call that pretty much clinched the game, yeah, the layup that was overturned and seemed to have clinched the game and it was the umpire who was furthest from the play that made that call with no stranger, yeah, and then really I don't understand, you know it's a three man team, the only one intentionally fouls double-zero-seven on the ground and then I saw other officials call him into a conference I was hoping they'd say, okay, hit the brakes here, Yeah, do we really want to end a state championship game in a flagrant five? you know you got a real you real you uh your other official on something like that thats not the way you want to win a state title thats not the way you want to end what should be you meet the granddaddy of them all on the last day of the regular season, everyone's at Breslin Center, you know, it's not a situation where we want to talk about officials, yeah, I know, and taking it off the kids' hands and you know whether or not it was technically the right call.

I know to me, an intentional foul should only be called out when the kid is trying to hurt, explain to people, maybe yes, so there were four fouls or so, Iron Mountain had to go on to make you understand yes, but it's someone who says they have, you know what, four seconds left on the clock. Billy has to throw the ball. Iron Mountain fouls, which are 99% generally committed, look at it badly if you breathe badly on them, you know if you push them back, whatever you know, immediate fouls are called just because you don't want it to be flagrant. missing just because if you're not going to call this then I have to yeah and the thing is he won't yeah he came out and grabbed his arm let's just say this I mean this ain't liquor and fun TRUE?

I come up in a streak to the right or whatever and grab your right arm and balls with my left hand, who's to say you can't go there? Foster Wonders is right in front of him yeah so he has to do a switch one way or the other and he'll most likely go back to his dominant hand yeah and he's so crazy that way they'll most likely follow him another two times and the clock runs out you run out because they are - falls - yes exactly the other one and when you say give you can just take it out the other thing and someone mentioned it to me a couple of days ago and it was actually one of my neighbors and was showing him the replay of steve fenimore you know put it on twitter on the ride call and this guy doesn't have a run on the sound of his horse for the last time he watched basketball in high school he says how long was it on the clock that was like four or five seconds and you know what he said why didn't you just dribble it?

Know? And they're talking and it's one of those things. I am sure there is no need for more pressure. It has to happen but at the end of the day that wasn't a trip or it shouldn't have been called a trip and then the other is intentional foul is one of those things like you know wow I just figured what you do. with your kids man they spilled some peanut butter after that you know it's one of those things like how far you go on last call I mean the ref knew what he was doing I mean sure this wasn't like getting caught up in the heat of the moment you knew the state championship was on the line, yes you knew the call you're about to make will decide the state championship or the state championship game.

I just don't see why you want to say they're gone but the thing is to do a back-to-back yeah yo it's like one of those things ok wow maybe we shouldn't have done that hey guys , let's get together, let's make sure we're all on the same page as we are right now. we can't we have to make sure we're good you can't call that trip i understand if you want to make your trip call but that's your travel pass yeah ok smile for the camera yeah i know but we have to make sure we get this one let's reiterate also that this is nothing against poama no no everything they should have absolutely everything they could have done yes you know the state championship was like someone offered them a game you mean champion yes and they took it yes and you should pitch some free throws your most critical talk that got tough against coach paul or trierweiler or andres madras aaron pierce pierce who all three were just amazing under pressure just a tremendous and phenomenal performance yeah so i understand it's almost like if we were knocking out Pewamo well they deserve a lot of credit yeah and me and I wish this discussion right now today and after the game and after Saturday it was all just love for Pewamo we did. i have to put an almost metaphorical or ceremonial asterisk yeah you know you mentioned Foster Wonders the sophomore sensation had a great game the team went over 20 yeah I mean both teams were undefeated going early to twenty eight per percent, yeah, so we definitely want to give credit to them, but yeah, we want to give credit to pirates.

You know he's been their coach Paul for 22 years and they lost the Josh Jackson games in 2014 so they definitely deserved it and yeah. it's that it's stained but you know at the end of the day i always felt you know 20 years from now ten years from now yes you know five years from now everything you know if you're pom oh yes the presidency of state yes it still says you won the state, yeah, you still have the ring, you still have the trophy, yeah, and if you're Iron Mountain, you've got some young talent, you've got everybody coming back, I mean, your top two players, let's do it next year. and wow what a party will be right the other thing i was i was you know when you talk about we obviously saw what happened people there other people are like oh well what about the five second call against Johnny Jones when Alchemist lost an Arthur Hill sinking when the referee is stanzian when there's a good five foot or you know and then you also look over that you know with our school it was a Schoolcraft when they when they abt and then they had to lose you know and those are those are some unfortunate situations and I think this and my mr.

Mchabe over the Free Press noted that one of these three umpires was on the court in 2008 in a final four game where there was a three that should have ended the game that was a blimp. i know what i think was a great fast school they had hit a three and they ruled it a two and the three would have sent it to overtime and clearly im a three and i was in lansing catholic i think lansing cap number one lansing catholic and powers and It seemed like he had one foot in, but it happened or pointed out that one of these officials was out, which I think is valid that if you work in a state final you can't work in another for three years, which takes away the notion that we are giving to our best referees yes best games yes that's interesting that's interesting so we'll see what happens but we still have one more game to go yes and that was in the Division Two Cup tonight We had an amazing finish at the River Rouge Chandler Park game the night before, we were expecting another Division Two madness, it was that and then something from the championship final on Saturday at the Breslin Center Division Two after coming up short on two consecutive trips . to the state semifinals River Rouge overcame a rut Friday night with an overtime victory over Harper Woods Chandler Park River Rouge 14 state titles in its illustrious history, but it's been a minute their last celebration twenty years ago, the mantra comes to the championship for the Hudsonville Christian unit we are going three for three to be clear this was their first trip to the state championship game since 1973 but the fall football team and the football team were already state champions in 2018

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now it was the hoopsters turn now coach rides Stone River Rouge two straight state titles in 1989 in 1990 college coach for several years returned just before the start of the season after Mark White left and all has gone well senior Braylon Tony the Steel then ends Hookshot Panthers early lead record forty-eight-four over past two seasons Panthers force twenty-three turnovers legend Jeter - Nigel Colvin hit the 3-pointer to send the game to ot in the semifinals the senior finished in double figures in this with 15 the Crusaders are the definition of a team that goes unnoticed throughout the season, much less the tournament in which they previously defeated number one Benton Harbor their best player GJ Evancho Burring receives a pill inside Bank off the window unit continues working around the horn award ball mr country hits from three points crusaders trailing 17 of 14 after the first quarter over christian unit in the early stages of the second walthaus sack with the crusaders rock closer panthers responds micah parish sees gator in the post is dangerous under the basket back in fourth 2nd quarter Noah wary of unit Baseline drive left us tied at half-time 28 Crusaders on a 21-game winning streak tends to run to start second half Coverage off the bench finds Ryan Takens connects one of his two from behind the long line The senior at 10, the Crusaders outrebounded Rouge by a margin of 31 to 60 where he scored a team-high 11 of 17, in the third, without hesitation, he went to the fourth unit. 13 points Panthers beat Nain Rouge speeding down the comeback road four minutes left in the game Few give the kick back and one of Lake Superior State's signatories leads Rouge to 552 or 47 but covering wasn't having the contest laying here 13 Crusaders Lee group back tonight end of game now Rouge trailing 58 to 55 ten seconds remaining in game- tie three just won't go down and later after a missed free throw Coleman throws desperation and that's all he wrote three for three for a Hudson mill unity Christian defeated River Rouge 58 255 the first men's basketball state championship back with the state champs here with Noah Whizzer II looked like a wizard out there man and the point guard position and you did a great job I mean, obviously you know Rouge has a lot of pressure a lot of great athletes who can be very mobile what was the key to just moving the ball and making sure your guys were in the situation to score yeah I think we moved we got a lot of points in transition and he opened up at the 3-point line Ryan hit a lot of 3-pointers that we put well in the paint and I mean we had a lot of turnovers, but the rebounds we had were balanced by that, so that was important to look forward to. .

What did Ben do? We talked about this post game push it with everyone else you know you're winning on a championship football team and then you can take that to the basketball side I mean you write excellently what's next in the spring more championships I hope you know, let's see what we can do. You played any other sport in the spring. I play baseball. Look for the Hudsonville unit. Christian Kalamazoo. Yes, the plan was that championship. you've won championships before you've been able to feel what it brings to the boys' side for the hudsonville unit christian oh it means a lot it really means we had talked i know as we go through the tournament we talked about how important and how fun it would be to win a state championship after football and I thought our fans have waited a long time you know okay there's plenty of time to get back because Benton Harbor beat us in 1963 in the final and how we go back 50 some years later and get a head start on that so it was pretty cool to look ahead in 2020 how is the JV team really coming back guys that you know will play key factors and next season yeah? you have a lot of time to think, we had a good JV Club, although I think we are 15 and 5 this year and, I'll be honest, we're going to miss these seniors, you know what it's like to say goodbye to these guys, it's going to be quite difficult, but we have some good younger students and luckily they also contributed tonight so they gave it a try so it always helps if they give a little taste and congratulations on a great experience for the community and see you soon thank you so its not a surprise that we have the last boys basketball state championship be a total surprise and be a surprise which to me was a surprise so we put this hole yeah sleeper but I mean this hole and again yeah I slept at Unity Christian I'll be the first to admit I actually said it in highlights last Sunday that I think I slept at Unity Christian I thought it was a foregone conclusion Rouge was taking number 15 yeah I mean I thought as they gathered Christian from Grand Rapids Health in the rooms.

I was like good, it wasgreat race, but you know South Christian won the last one. I'll probably find it was like 40 or whatever, but the Christian unit was a team on a mission. and Granite River Rouge were coming off the best of what they'd done the night before, but this was a team that finished the season on a 22-game winning streak, 26 wins, great basketball is played on the West Side, you're headlined by the west side yeah the court wizard overall place Noah Whizzer II 17 points in the semis 17 points in the finals and he was just dripping finesse and in a playoff tournament you time and time again saw teams go up to the plate and beat you know Goliath so to speak and maybe we weren't in that situation in this matchup but hey we had rivers that's right I mean the way they and their schedule this season and the way they had been playing and they had been in the state they had been in in the finals for three years in a row this was a bunch of veterans coming off a huge victory in the Final Four where they came back and forced overtime and ultimately defeated Chandler Park yeah and you know this was this was a river rouge team with a lot of depth and a ton of basketball iq these were kids who were also grinders you know they were the perfect combination of power and finesse yeah and just to me again i thought it was a foregone conclusion that river rouge was going to win this but nobody told Unity and those guys and just hats off they forced a tea three turnovers and stole 15 yeah yeah River Rouge vs.

Unity Christian sure and there's no block that's a crazy number as long as you do it normally you're winning but then again if you come out real if you're out you get rebounded for fifteen as the rules were 31 to 16. in the game that cancels out a lot of those turnovers because speaking of offensive rebounding that many coaches are considered at all there are turnovers that you know very much in love um another point that was brought up in this game was that unit christian beat rouge when you needed it christian lost a god child and bill mccartney was the coach in the 20th century brinkman was nobody the charge was interest in miners right?

Dave Bing was robbed 30 years ago they were still in Fort Wayne no but yeah but you know I congratulate myself on Christian's unity and I think it's one of those things we've talked about before half the team has won state championships in others, whether it's football or whether it's soccer, yes, and we owe that, especially with older adults, they like women, I like winners, winners know how not to be intimidated by a team like River Yes, they are going out. Unity Christian played Rouge knowing football finals or horseshoes me or that happened maybe maybe he didn't say hello to everyone I thought both but yeah go out and chase him yeah and you know the best man wins and we gonna bet money to be the best man yeah yeah that's often CJ van cone then he's been covering yeah yeah he was a beast in post you know he wants to go all the way but I did a great job dealing with Daniel, few who made it to the Lake Superior state. and then future Division one player Legend Jeter who are you oh six six six seven they're both good size and they've been doing a great job against most of their opponents and all of a sudden they kept Nigel Coleman in Bay, yes, he kept taking Nigel out of the game.

Nigel, he had what 11 for 13 points in the first half and then just what two shots or something? Nigel in the last four went 8 for 10 from the field 4 for 6 from three point range they hit the game, tying it at three to send it into overtime, he was on fire and the unit came up with a fire extinguisher in the final, that was the point of fire on the court. I thought so afterward when Jalen Fisher hit the bucket of him, the game winner, which is maybe three feet as far as when I drove home last night and at the end of the day it's one.

I think you know Southfield Christian obviously we won by double digits when you talk about three other championships all with funny inside possessions for one possession obviously something will be written a little different but nice nice nice I'm sure it's tasty , yes, I know that a championship is the cherry. Besides that ice cream right now no I know Tom Tom Markov so you know some richer places pretty well no no he's into it he's enjoying his I'm looking forward to the ice cream challenge

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I know just think about it before you let's start the tournament and talking about Division two and you're talking about Romeo Weems and New Haven and Scooby and and and the River Rouge team the Williams team team and just people are looking beyond unity and unity was like yeah let's go a we're going to get on this victory train and ride it to Breslin Center and then we're going to go back west with a state with a state title trophy and Class B teams, I mean, if you look, we're going to do these Catholic Central that they made it to the finals last year they lost in a buzzer you know Harbor is still on their way to CC you have a point guard going to Grand Valley State yes you actually have a kid who is going to play in the Big Ten yes yes yes I didn't know that none of these Unity Christian parts is a sport like Fred Southeastern zofran like what's going on in Detroit Catholic center field yeah if they had made a run and you know you know again if something could beat them at the last second they know you're gone forever we really don't know anything and they lost a lot talking to their coach they said yeah they had to back off their games because their football season was so deep yeah so what is basketball season ? started and we remember when Muskegon did pretty much the same thing where they didn't get their bank there's a spell form until mid January and then they started slowly same as the Hudsonville unit as far as unit Christian goes. where they came out the gate kind of slow and then it was like shaking this off you know it's alright and everybody's tired of clicking yeah we are champions we are champions you know what's going on in his head you know we are the best west side is the best side yeah again a lot of pressure on the ball team now yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and i think noah is there noah is on the ball team here win another all these metals are hanging on my jacket body made them how Clayton would look and I mean and stuff from this particular show thank you so much for watching again this is something we are doing for all the state championships it gave some extra special sauce here for boys basketball but that's what Will we do the same with women's basketball?

Matt Mallory will give us a glimpse of all the state finals action that took place at Calvin College, but once again we want to thank everyone for tuning in to this particular show. We have a special time to hang out. Audio podcast where you can talk about the season talk about a lot of other stuff wrap up what happened here and wrap up so you can do that and we talked to Dan Young and I also talked to Matt Mallory about the girls so you guys can see that on all the platforms social media otherwise for these guys that's it for this season so I want to say a big thank you for being a sponsor of the Pain Time Michigan podcast and thank you so much we get reports that it has over 40,000 flavor combinations that's right , can i examine one ma'am this real cheese 100% real mozzarella the officer explained this dough is made fresh every day will i have to confiscate this as evidence If you're a mall cop ten-four tiger on the prowl, flavor freaks will do anything for uniquely flavored crust pizza with meal deals to suit every hungry budget.