EAST LANSING — The focus all season for KJ Torbert and the East Lansing boys basketball team has centered around finding their way back on top in Division 1.
And they put themselves in position to do that.
But in the end the Trojans came up short of their ultimate mission.
East Lansing’s bid for a second consecutive state title was denied as its suffered a 54-50 loss to Rockford in the Division 1 state final Saturday, March 14, at Michigan State’s Breslin Center.
The Trojans (27-2) missed the potential tying shot with 9 seconds remaining and Rockford (25-3) got a late basket by Jace Opoku while capturing the title.
“I told the guys in the locker room what a heck of a run we had the last few years,” East Lansing coach Ray Mitchell said. “I told them they’re winners. In life and in sports you have winners and losers. Today, Rockford was the better team. It came down to a few defensive missed assignments. That’s a part of the deal.
“I felt like we had our shot, we had our chances and in a game like this you’ve got to make sure you’re clicking on both ends of the court. I think our offense was pretty decent. I know for a fact we had too many missed defensive assignments. Those back-door plays kind of killed us and hurt us and that’s just part of it. You win some, you lose some. Today just wasn’t our day.”
Torbert, the state’s Mr. Basketball winner and a Bowling Green signee, had a game-high 28 points. Junior Kingston Thomas added 10 points for the Trojans, who were trying to be the first team to repeat as champion in the state’s largest division since Clarkston won back-to-back Class A titles in 2017 and 2018.
Josh Bascom had 14 points and Opoku finished with 13 points to lead Rockford, which avenged an 80-71 overtime loss to East Lansing from Jan. 10.
“It’s just a lesson,” Thomas said. “Basketball is very up and down. We had a lot of lapses on defense that let them be able to take this game from us. But coming back into this, me becoming a senior now, I’m going to work my hardest to bring us back here again.”
The state title was the first since 2003 for Rockford, which was the state runner-up in 2012.
“We kind of have been knocking on the door of trying to make a run here in the last couple of years and fell short for one reason or another,” said Rockford coach Kyle Clough, who is a 2003 Corunna graduate. “This year these guys were really determined.”
Eli Wolfe hit the go-ahead basket with 56 seconds remaining to give Rockford the lead after Torbert tied the game at 50 with a 3-pointer. East Lansing, which missed six of its final seven shots from the field, only managed one shot attempt the rest of the way and that came with 9 seconds remaining. Rockford forced East Lansing to go to someone other than Torbert for the tying shot after it took the lead in the final minute.
“I said somebody else is going to have to make a play,” Mitchell said. “Obviously they were doubling KJ. We tried to draw up a scheme to get the ball for an open shot and actually got an open shot. We just didn’t knock it down.”
While East Lansing fell short of its top goal, Torbert believes the Trojans’ program is in a good place and expects them to be in the mix in Division 1 next season.
“East Lansing basketball is still going to be on the map even next year when they come out,” Torbert said. “They’re still going to find a way to get back here to the Bres. I’ve got a real good feeling about next year team.”
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway and Bluesky @briancalloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: East Lansing boys basketball denied in bid for repeat in D1 state final
Reporting by Brian Calloway, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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