Grand Blanc vs. Saginaw High – 5 Takeaways
Packed gym. Electric atmosphere. Two talented rosters and records to back it up. During warmups, this buzz surrounding this contest seemed too good to be true for a regular-season finale. Turned out, it was. Once the ball went up, Grand…
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Continue ReadingPacked gym. Electric atmosphere. Two talented rosters and records to back it up. During warmups, this buzz surrounding this contest seemed too good to be true for a regular-season finale.
Turned out, it was.
Once the ball went up, Grand Blanc fell flat and Saginaw High ran wild, hanging an 83-50 victory in front of their home crowd Thursday. The matchup was the second place showdown in Saginaw Valley League Crossover play. The visiting Bobcats entered the night with a 9-1 mark in the SVL’s South Division. The Trojans, ranked 5th among Michigan’s Division 1 teams, came in 7-1 in the North Division, 16-3 overall.
Mac & Real
As expected, Saginaw High standouts Freddie McIntosh (2020) and SirReal Smith (2020) rose to the occasion in front of their hometown crowd. The junior Trojans proved they are one of the deadliest guard combos in the state, using their quick hands and in-your-face defense to drive their teammates while letting their offense come naturally. More on High’s never-quit defensive play to come.
Smith finished the night with a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds while McIntosh netted 15.
Blanked Bobcats
From the first tick of the clock, all eyes shifted to Grand Blanc freshman Ty Rodgers (2022) to see how he’d respond in his return to Saginaw.
Rodgers, the Saginaw native, chose to attend Grand Blanc instead of Saginaw High. Trojan head coach Julian Taylor and his scrappy guards used Thursday nights meeting to let Rodgers know that they haven’t forgot.
Rodgers, ranked one of the top freshman in Michigan, was held scoreless until the seven minute mark in the fourth quarter when he slammed home an alley-oop.
The entire night Rodgers seemingly struggled to find a rhythm, due mostly in part to the heavy, non-stop pressure of Saginaw High’s defense.
Mark Miller (2020) paced the Bobcat offense with his 19-point effort while Kevin Rice (2020) netted 15 points in the loss. Rice drained a three with just under three minutes left in the first quarter that gave Grand Blanc a 9-7 lead, their only lead of the night. The Trojans then responded with a 12-0 run to end the first frame that gave them a 19-9 edge going into the second quarter.
Rodgers finished with four points.
“High”-Pressure Defense
Saginaw High’s guard play gave Grand Blanc fits from start to finish on Thursday night. And it wasn’t just McIntosh and Smith who were turning up the heat.
With six minutes left in the first half and the Trojans up by 15, Coach Taylor saw it as a good opportunity to get his bench some valuable minutes. That’s when McIntosh and Smith had a seat, allowing Chaun Tolbert, Wildren Dawson and fellow starter Tevan Blackmon to keep the Trojan defense pressing forward.
McIntosh and Smith cheered their teammates on from the sidelines for the remainder of the half, watching them continue to give Grand Blanc fits while helping Saginaw High to a 38-22 lead at the break.
Spoiled Homecoming
Grand Blanc head coach Mike Thomas was extremely disappointed in the outcome of their regular-season finale, to put it lightly.
Thomas was a 2001 graduate of Saginaw High who went on to play at Albion College. Last season, in Thomas’ first as the leader of the Bobcats, his squad took down the Trojans, 53-52. That game was hosted by Saginaw.
Thursday’s matchup was scheduled to take place on the Bobcats home court. But due to a scheduling conflict Grand Blanc was forced to decide between giving up home court advantage and playing on Thursday, or playing on Friday and having one less day to prepare for their first-round district showdown with rival Flint Carman-Ainsworth – a team they split with during the regular season.
But this time around, standing on the court where he once dominated, nothing that Thomas and the Bobcats tried seemed to slow Saginaw down.
At two different points in the game, a frustrated Thomas benched all five starters in effort to shake things up – Once with just under three minutes left in the third quarter and again at the five minute mark of the fourth.
“We’ve gotta stop playing scared,” Thomas said to his bench in the first half. “And we’d better get used to this speed, because (Saginaw) ain’t slowing down anytime soon.”
Depth for Days
Holding large lead for most of the game allowed Coach Taylor to get his bench valuable minutes in preparation for their upcoming postseason push. Although you wouldn’t have guessed it was Saginaw’s 8th, 9th and 10th players on the roster who were on the floor that night.
No matter the combination, the Trojans seemed to always be in sync. As noted earlier, Tolbert and Dawson came off the bench and proved their worth in the first half with their defensive intensity and offensive quickness. But having the biggest night of all bench players was Saginaw’s James Baber.
Baber hung a career-high 16 points on the visiting Bobcats, highlighted by a rim-rattling dunk in the fourth quarter that sent the Trojan faithful into a frenzy.