By Blake Froling
The Saginaw and Carman-Ainsworth boys cruised in their District Quarterfinal matchups on Monday night in Flushing. The Trojans took down Flushing 70-55 and the Cavaliers beat Heritage 68-54.
Despite being on Flushing’s home court, Saginaw came out of the gates with one of the most dominant performances of the season. The Trojans hit four threes and caused at least 10 turnovers en route to a 25-8 lead in the first eight minutes. Senior guard Sir’Real Smith scored 12 in the first quarter.
Things didn’t get much easier for Flushing in the second quarter thanks largely to Smith and Lavell Brodnex. There was a sequence in the middle of the second quarter where Brodnex forced a turnover on three-straight Flushing possessions and turned each one into Saginaw points. The lead ballooned to 39-13 after a Smith corner three.
Saginaw took a 43-21 advantage into halftime, with Smith scoring 19 of those points and almost single-handedly outscoring Flushing.
The Raiders played much more inspired basketball in the second half, but the deficit was too large to overcome. Flushing outscored Saginaw 34-27 after halftime with junior Spencer Willman scoring all 14 of his points in the final two quarters. The Saginaw lead never got much closer than 15 points after the first quarter.
With the win, Saginaw (11-9) will face Swartz Creek (12-8) on Wednesday at 7 PM at Flushing.
Saginaw Trojans Final Stats
Sir’Real Smith: 30 points
Freddie McIntosh: 17 points
Lavell Brodnex: 10 points
Leeland Summers: 9 points
Daquavion Burton: 2 points
James Babers: 2 points
Flushing Raiders Final Stats
Landen Moore-Pierce: 17 points
Spencer Willman: 14 points
Matthew Birchmeier: 7 points
Reed Schilling: 5 points
Makhi McCombs: 3 points
Devyn Henson: 3 points
De’Montay Scott: 2 points
Drew Trevino: 2 points
Devin Watts: 2 points
Highlights
Full Game
Game two was an SVL North vs. South rematch from earlier in the regular season, where Carman-Ainsworth beat Heritage 66-63 in Saginaw. The Cavaliers had much more success in the second meeting.
Junior guard Jayden Nunn was the catalyst for Carman-Ainsworth’s offense in the first quarter as he scored 11 of his game-high 21 points right away. The more crushing blow for Heritage came when star junior Parker Day picked up his third foul in the final minute of the first quarter. He had already scored 10 points but had to miss the entire second quarter.
While Day was on the bench, Carman-Ainsworth outscored Heritage 19-13 and took a 36-27 lead into halftime.
Both teams played evenly in the third quarter. The Cavaliers had a response for every near-run the Hawks were going to make. Heritage cut the lead to eight with just over five minutes remaining in the game when Day fouled out. The mini run was extinguished as soon as he left the game and Carman-Ainsworth went on to win 68-54 after an in-game dunk contest broke out in the final minutes.
Carman-Ainsworth (16-5) will play Arthur Hill on Wednesday night at 5:30 at Flushing High School.
Carman-Ainsworth Cavaliers Final Stats
Jayden Nunn: 21 points
Isaiah Jones: 15 points
Rasheed Brown: 9 points
Mekhi Ellison: 9 points
Darrell Scroggins: 7 points
Jason Green: 3 points
Terrence Muex: 2 points
Patrick Hollis: 2 points
Heritage Hawks Final Stats
Parker Day: 19 points
Cade Beall: 10 points
Evan Booker: 9 points
Christian Dobis: 8 points
DaRon Sherman: 5 points
Tyree Alexander: 2 points
Aaron Johnson: 1 point
