Detroit — Birmingham Brother Rice head coach Rick Palmer knew the challenge a smaller and quicker Detroit Cass Tech team provided going into a Division 1 regional semifinal on Tuesday, but at the same time he also felt it was a great matchup for his team.
“The way they trap and scramble out of the zone, it makes it really hard to rebound,” Palmer said. “We knew we had to make some shots, but if we missed some shots, those are passes.”
It played out exactly like that for Brother Rice, as its superior size and rebounding easily trumped Cass Tech’s speed and quickness in an 87-56 rout played in front of an overflow crowd at Detroit Renaissance, which had to turn more fans away at the gate because the gym was at capacity.
Brother Rice (20-5) advanced to meet Warren Fitzgerald in a regional semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday at Detroit Renaissance.
In particular, the senior tandem of Trevor Smith and Ivan Stojanovski were really punishing on the boards for Brother Rice.
Stojanovski had 13 rebounds while Smith had 12 rebounds, 10 in the first half.
Stojanovski also had a productive game offensively, finishing with 18 points.
“We dominated on the glass and we got some paint touches,” Stojanovski said. “We had.a huge size advantage that we played.”
Coming off a lopsided win over rival Detroit Martin Luther King in a district final, Cass Tech head coach Steve Hall hoped to make it a more guard-dominated game, but it didn’t work out that way.
“We wanted to instill our will in the backcourt because we knew they had an edge in the front court,” Hall said. “We didn’t rebound and that’s not a good formula. They do that very well.”
It’s not like Brother Rice was devoid of playmakers on the perimeter, either.
Senior and Mr. Basketball finalist Greg Grays scored 19 points to lead the way for Brother Rice, which turned the game into a rout with a dominant third quarter.
After trailing by double digits in the first half, Cass Tech (18-7) rallied to make it a 30-27 game at halftime, and then tied the game with 7:06 left in the third quarter on a 3-pointer by junior Stevie Hall.
From there, it was all Brother Rice.
Over the next 3:27, Brother Rice went on a 14-0 run to take a 44-30 lead with 3:37 remaining in the third.
Brother Rice grew that lead to 56-35 with 1:09 to go in the third and continued to pour it on in the fourth, taking a 74-42 lead with 4:41 remaining in the game.
“We’ve had some success the past couple of years against teams that press and trap like that,” Palmer said. “We really have a lot of playmakers who can move the ball.”
The best quarter for Cass Tech was the second quarter, when it outscored Brother Rice 14-9 in the second to climb back in the game after trailing by as many as 10 points in the first quarter.
Keith Dunlap is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Birmingham Brother Rice advances to regional final against Warren Fitzgerald
Reporting by Keith Dunlap, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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