Saginaw routs EL

Saginaw routs EL, moves into state final

Draymond Green too much for East Lansing frontline

By Andrew Bolton

14 March 2008

greatlakeshoop.com

East Lansing--Going into today’s Class A semifinal game between Saginaw High and East Lansing, we knew for a fact that Trojans were going to be advancing to the title game no matter what. All that was left to be decided was which group of Trojans it would be.

The game started out really slowly for both teams until Saginaw went to its bread and butter: the press. That took the High, who was down 4-2 early, on a 31-7 run to make the lead 20 points early in the second quarter. Saginaw was never threatened seriously again. The Trojans of Saginaw High are moving on after winning in convincing fashion by a final score of 69-49.

As stated earlier, this game started out very slowly. Neither team could get anything to drop, and the game was scoreless for two minutes. Finally Draymond Green got us started with a lay-up down low. East Lansing scored the next four points, but then Saginaw caught fire on both ends, and there was nothing East Lansing could do. After playing full-court man-to-man with no real trapping for the first two minutes, Saginaw switched to their vaunted press and East Lansing was caught off-guard. The High forced 13 turnovers in that first half.

In the second quarter, it appeared that East Lansing was going to make a game of it. Charlie Woods, who had been virtually non-existent to that point, suddenly found his stroke, hitting three 3-pointers in a row to cut the High’s lead to 12. In that stretch, Woods had two blocks in a row on Draymond Green, sending the second attempt out of bounds with authority. East Lansing was well on its way to reclaiming the momentum until Will Marlow hit a triple with four seconds left in the half to push the lead back to 15 going into the break.

East Lansing would not recover from that, as Saginaw’s superior talent and depth made the second half a formality.

Game and Player Notes

–Stat of the Game: Field Goal percentage: Saginaw–51% East Lansing: 37%

–The clock strikes midnight on East Lansing’s Cinderella run through the state tournament. It was nearly a foregone conclusion that it would end here, against a clearly superior team, but they played really hard in defeat. They just didn’t have the horses to keep up. The one interesting thing that I noted was the lack of involvement of Charlie Woods on the offensive end in the first half. Saginaw was not making a concerted effort to keep the ball from him, but East Lansing’s guards seemed to ignore him when he was open. True, he was struggling from the field, but he was their best player all year and he needed to be way more involved than he was. East Lansing's coach, Doug Fleming, said as much in the post-game press conference. Granted, he wasn’t helping his cause, floating around the 3-point line rather than moving to the ball, but the guards should have made it a priority to get him the ball every time down. As it was, the High was able to pull away without making any adjustments to their typically suffocating halfcourt defense, which allowed them to remain in their comfort zone for the entire game.

–Woods still played well in tallying 16 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks in his final high school game. This kid is a great prospect. He is taller than Draymond Green, and his length is astounding. His high release on his jumpshot will avail him well in college also. Tommy Cawood added 14 points and four rebounds, but these two were the only players for East Lansing in double figures.

–Saginaw looks primed for a repeat tomorrow afternoon. The press was up to its usual standard as the High tallied 16 steals. The only chink in the armor (at least today) is their outside shooting. They are streaky from deep, as evidenced by today’s 5-21 shooting from behind the long line (channeling my inner George Blaha). Despite that the still managed to shoot over 50% from the field, thanks to fastbreak layups and dunks and other easy shots inside. Draymond Green led the charge, putting up 30 points on 12-18 shooting. Most of those buckets came in the paint, but some came from the outside. A couple were dunks of the jaw-dropping variety, especially the one he caught on an alley-oop from Daniel West. D. Green also added 16 rebounds, four assists, and two steals to go with those 30 points. Cortney Washington added 13 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Daniel West was held in check, managing only six points. He did have eight assists to make up for his lack of offense.

–The High now awaits the winner of the other Class A semifinal, which will either be Pershing or Romulus.