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The game between Orchard Lake St. Mary's and Detroit Jesuit had to be postponed in the 4th Q due to slick floors and will resume this morning.  At the time the game was stopped, McKenney had 34p.

Finished the game this morning and OLSM won 67-64 in OT.  McKenney finished with 37p.

Edited by Class of '66 Old Fart
Score Update

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#3 Brother Rice beat #7 Orchard Lake St Mary's 66-48

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — The hotly-contested Catholic League Central Division race got a little bit murkier Tuesday, as No. 2-ranked Birmingham Brother Rice turned in a strong outing to hand No. 9 Orchard Lake St. Mary’s its first league loss of the season, 66-48.

An inordinately effective defensive performance by the Warriors limited the Eaglets to just 12 first-half points, as scoring runs of 14-0 and 15-0 by Brother Rice bookended a single St. Mary’s basket during an 11-minute stretch of the opening half.

“Our defensive effort in the first half was amazing,” Warriors coach Rick Palmer said. “Eight points (allowed) in the first quarter, four points in the second. Our guys were locked in.”

Eight consecutive points by junior Warren Marshall initially got Brother Rice rolling on its way to building a 24-point margin by halftime, which left St. Mary’s searching for answers and adjustments.

“We got the ball to the basket pretty well, but then we were out of control once we got there,” Eaglets coach Todd Covert said of what went wrong early. “We didn’t play off of two feet, we threw up some bad shots and that led to some run-outs. To me, it was our panic in the paint.”

St. Mary’s connected on its first four shots of the second half during a 10-2 run and briefly reduced its deficit to as few as 15 points. But when a bloody nose forced Eaglets star Trey McKenney to miss a few minutes of action toward the end of the third quarter, the progress St. Mary’s had achieved was soon given back.

“Any time you lose him … he scored 37 points (in a game) this year,” Covert said of McKenney. “You see how that kid competes, even when we’re down 17 or 18, he’s still competing and that means a lot to me. He has special heart.”

The 6-foot-5 sophomore McKenney scored 21 points Tuesday in a tougher-than-usual matchup against a trio of Brother Rice front-court players with the size and skill to begin to neutralize him.

“With him, he’s at the top of the scouting report. I thought we did a good job of mixing up how we were guarding him,” Palmer said of McKenney. “We’ve got things other people don’t have. We have three guys who are pretty much his size, pretty much his strength, and pretty much his athleticism, but he still got baskets. We knew we were never going to shut him out, but we wanted to make his shots tough and throw some double teams at him. We had a complicated game plan and our guys executed it.”

Brother Rice senior Xavier Thomas was at his best in the fourth quarter, as he knocked down a 3-pointer, backed down a defender in the paint for a bucket, then corralled an offensive board for a putback on three straight possessions to put the game well out of reach.

“I didn’t love how we necessarily came out after halftime,” Palmer said. “It’s just hard when you play that well in the first half and you’re up with that big of a lead to come and keep the same energy. St. Mary’s is a good team.”

Brother Rice’s victory created a three-way tie atop the Central Division standings with the Warriors, Eaglets, and Detroit U-D Jesuit, which was idle Tuesday, each now sitting at 2-1. Also very much in the mix, Warren De La Salle sits at 2-2 following a win against Novi Detroit Catholic Central (0-3) Tuesday.

“All I know is we’re still tied for first place in the league and we’ll keep battling,” Covert said.

The Eaglets and Warriors will clash again on Feb. 7 at St. Mary’s.

Marshall finished with 13 points, while seniors Curtis Williams and Johnathan Blackwell recorded 11 and 10, respectively, for the Warriors (10-1 overall).

Sophomore Sharod Barnes posted 15 points for the Eaglets (5-3).

 

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Good post-game story on McKenney.  Side note in the story is '24 Christian Humphrey-Rembert was out with an ankle injury for East Kentwood.   In Sept. '21, we reportedly had been in contact with him while he was attending La Lumiere.

https://www.mlive.com/highschoolsports/2023/01/michigan-msu-hoops-recruit-shows-maturity-beyond-years-in-win-over-east-kentwood.html?utm_campaign=highschoolsports_sf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

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Watched McKenney’s game last night against University of Detroit Jesuit. St Mary’s got handled pretty easily and McKenney had a mediocre game. But there was 1 really encouraging thing: That was as physical a high school game as I’ve seen in a long time. Not chippy, the refs just let them play through everything. And McKenney was fine with it. Didn’t look twice at a ref that I recall. Bodes well for a potential B1G recruit. 
Side note: UDJ has a ‘23 PG named Sonny Wilson, who’s committed to Toledo, and that kid’s a nice player. Small, frail,  3 level scorer who just oozes confidence and took the ball to the rim with complete abandon despite looking like he’s  probably 5’11” and 150. Was the best player on the floor last night. 

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Indiana, your thoughts on them?

“It’s more of a pro-style type of system and the coaches have built a very good relationship with me.”

https://stockrisers.com/s/477/five-star-sophomore-trey-mckenney-updates-his-recruitment

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Makes sense given that they’re up there. Just got done watching it. McKenney had a nice game. It’s not easy  for him because the Detroit Catholic League is  tough and his team isn’t very good. Also, it’s as physical a high school League as I’ve watched. He gets all the defensive attention and he’s not the sort of athlete that can just beat pressure cold. What he is is a really tough shot maker. He makes as many contested jumpers as anyone you’ll see. Tonight he made at least a half dozen fully defended looks. Also, has really deep range. 

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Orchard Lake lost the above game to Detroit Catholic Central 68-56 and as Demo said, it was a physical game.  B1G style of play wouldn't be a culture shock to him.

I had McKenney with 26p; 7r; 1a; 1s; 0b; 4t.   11-26 FG; 2-6 on 3s; 2-2 FT.    He made his first 2-pointer then missed his next 5; then made his next 5.  In the 4th Q he was 2-7 on 2s missing his last 4.  He was also 0-2 on 3s in the 4th Q.  He was assessed a warning early in the game for delay of game and then received a technical in the 4th Q for his second delay of game.  He wasn't happy and neither was his coach and it surely seemed like OLSM didn't get a favorable whistle for the rest of the game.  

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Oakland Press -

The end came quickly Friday night for the state’s No. 1-ranked team in Division 1, as Birmingham Brother Rice was ousted in a district final by none other than its Catholic League rival, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s.

After three and a half quarters with little separation, St. Mary’s outscored Brother Rice 13-2 over the final 4:39 to simultaneously stun and excite the split-allegiance capacity crowd at Bloomfield Hills High School. The Eaglets’ 57-50 win vaulted them to next week’s regional semifinals.

“This was everything for us. They were No. 1 in the state pretty much the whole year. Coming in, we had lost to them two times. We’ve been wanting this the whole year,” St. Mary’s junior Daniel Smythe said.

Brother Rice led 48-44 before its offense began to sputter and the Eaglets’ star sophomore Trey McKenney nabbed nine consecutive points for his team, including two fastbreak baskets made possible by teammate Sharod Barnes’ defense.

“Honestly, I attribute that (late surge) to Sharod Barnes,” Smythe said. “He was crazy defensively. He was getting steals, deflections, he gave us two easy transition layups. That was big-time. That was the push to extend the lead with two minutes left or whatever. That sealed it for us.”

A handful of errant free throws and missed 3-pointers by the Warriors contributed to empty possessions late for Brother Rice, leaving the Eaglets to capitalize and extend its postseason run.

“Everybody said they weren’t good enough, or you need these kids or that, but if you challenge somebody at St. Mary’s, they’re going to step up. That’s what I’m most proud of,” Eaglets coach Todd Covert said, alluding to naysayers critical of the team’s .500 record entering play Friday and the court-ordered ineligibility of three of its players.

“I thought we matched their physicality. We talked a lot this week how they’re a real physical team and they crash the boards,” Covert continued. “These kids have a chip on their shoulder right now.”

McKenney led all scorers with 26 points, while Barnes added 12, and Smythe tallied nine points, all of which came on second-quarter 3-pointers that were crucial to erasing the Eaglets’ early deficit.

“He can score quickly,” Covert said of Smythe. “That got us back in the game and gave us some energy. Then it was just two heavyweights going at it. I’ve got a lot of respect for (Warriors coach) Rick (Palmer). I like Rick a lot and consider him a friend off the court. They had a great, great season.”

Brother Rice was paced by senior Curtis Williams’ 13 points, with senior Johnathan Blackwell contributing 10 points and junior Warren Marshall chiming in with nine.

“Obviously, this one hurts really bad,” Palmer said. “(My players) are not ready to hear this right now, but (considering our) 22-2 (record) and what this program was before these five seniors got here to what it is now, they’re not going to hold their heads up tonight, but I want them to. They should be very proud of everything they accomplished here for our program and our community.”

The Warriors concluded the regular season ranked first in the Associated Press poll for Division 1 on the heels of winning the Catholic League’s Central Division and tournament.

St. Mary’s (11-10) will face off against Detroit U-D Jesuit, another of its CHSL foes, in a regional semifinal Monday at Troy High School.

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