East Lansing — Standing in the tunnel of Breslin Center after a tough semifinal loss that ended his team’s season, Romulus Summit Academy boys basketball coach Derek Clark was tempted to analyze what could have been.
But by the same token, he rightfully boasted about how he and his players were not going to compromise the integrity of their program in the big picture, and that character was a big reason why his team was ranked No. 1 in the state in Division 2 for most of the season and advanced to a state semifinal before suffering a 57-47 loss to Freeland.
After losing in the Division 2 state championship game last season, Summit Academy was dealt a blow when Chance Houser, one of the team’s best players last year who has signed to play in college for Detroit Mercy, left the program before the school year started to pursue other opportunities instead of coming back for his senior season.
Houser originally intended on transferring to Detroit Mumford, but ended up at a prep school in Arizona.
Upon finding out Houser was leaving, players and coaches on Summit Academy became determined to prove a point, essentially saying, “Good luck to you, we wish you well. But we’re going to move forward.”
There was no going back, even if Houser changed his mind.
“You know, if people don’t want to be a part of my program, I’m going to let them leave,” Clark said. “It wasn’t like, ‘I’m begging you to come back.’”
For the returning seniors such as senior Jordan Fuller, it lit a fire on them to show they didn’t need Houser to still be one of the state’s best.
“We’re a team and one person doesn’t define us,” Fuller said. “It motivated us.”
It took until the semifinal round for Summit Academy to lose a game to a team in Michigan, and of course nobody could have blamed Summit Academy if it lamented what the result what would have been like with Houser in the lineup.
“Had he been here, we probably would have been on the other side of this victory,” Clark said. “But we still had enough to be on the other side of this victory without him.”
As much as the loss in the present hurt and how painful it was for the senior class to go out without a state title, the future of the program figures to be bright with how well this year’s team adapted and set the standard that returning players can follow.
Summit Academy graduates only four seniors off of this year’s roster, so it likely will be heard from again.
“There was a void he could have filled,” Clark said. “But I’m also not going to sacrifice the integrity of the program because somebody is good. We have morals and values and character traits that we want our guys to exhibit. If you don’t exhibit those character traits, there are going to be consequences. If you don’t want to live by our rules, which are rules that are going to help you become a good man that your family can depend on and be an overall great human being, then there’s not much more than I can do for you.”
Concord coach gets assist from Brother Rice coach
Following an overtime win over two-time defending Division 4 champion Wyoming Tri-unity Christian in a semifinal on Thursday, Concord head coach Marcus Gill was lamenting the 16 second-half turnovers his team had trying to hold on to a late lead.
On the bus ride home, Gill chatted on the phone with coaching friend Rick Palmer of Birmingham Brother Rice voicing his concern over his team’s issues, especially knowing a fast and pressing team like Detroit Douglass was waiting in the championship game.
Gill said that’s when Palmer suggested his team do the “cage drill” the next day in practice.
Essentially, the cage drill is when one player receives the ball and is then charged after by a bunch of other players trying to steal the ball.
Concord senior Connor Stevens said he had never heard of the drill before, but all of a sudden he and his other teammates were running it in practice on Friday, often with five players or more charging after the guy with the ball.
“These guys would come up, double us and follow us,” Stevens said. “But we had to be strong and give it to the other guys and the other guys couldn’t move. Just be strong.”
The drill obviously paid dividends, because Concord only turned the ball over 11 times against Douglass in a 60-47 championship game victory.
“It was crazy, but it worked,” Stevens said.
Gill said he thinks Palmer got the drill from legendary Country Day head coach Kurt Keener when Palmer spent time as an assistant at Country Day.
“We usually try to go for 10 (turnovers) and under,” said Gill, who attended high school at Detroit Murray-Wright. “So I think 11 turnovers in that game with that pressure, that’s great and I’m proud of these guys.”
Breslin return for University Prep head coach
The memories started to flood back immediately for Detroit University Prep head coach Brandon Barrett after 30 years.
Back in 1996, Barrett was a member of Southfield-Lathrup’s team that lost in the Class A state championship game to Saginaw.
Barrett hadn’t walked the tunnels or the floor of Breslin Center since, but that changed when his team advanced on Friday to a Division 2 semifinal, where it suffered a loss to Hudsonville Unity Christian.
Upon getting to the arena, one of the first people Barrett said he saw was Lathrup teammate Greg Grays, who was watching his son play for Birmingham Brother Rice in a Division 1 semifinal.
“I was like, ‘Wow, he’s growing up and I’m growing up and we’re here together,’” Barrett said. “Yeah, it brought back some memories. But this loss, it brought back memories also.”
Unlike in that 1996 final when Lathrup let a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter slip away, University Prep was overwhelmed from the beginning by a taller, skilled and balanced Unity Christian team.
But University Prep slowly has been building into a state power in the eight years Barrett has been there with three quarterfinal appearances and this year’s trip to Breslin, so don’t be surprised if Barrett and University Prep get back to East Lansing and have some better memories in the future.
“I just appreciate the fact the fellas fought,” Barrett said. “What an awesome opportunity it was just to get here. University Prep wasn’t on the map and it’s been a tough grind, but we’re here.”
Home flavor for Dollar Bay at Breslin
Despite being roughly 550 miles from Michigan State University, there was a big piece of home in East Lansing for Dollar Bay, which is located in the northwest part of the Upper Peninsula.
The court at Breslin Center was made in Dollar Bay by Horner Flooring Co., a renown manufacturer of basketball courts that is a supplier for the NCAA and professional organizations as well.
“We talked about that before the game,” Dollar Bay head coach Jesse Kentala said following a loss to Detroit Douglass in a semifinal on Thursday.
As is the case with Upper Peninsula teams, it was a quick turnaround for Dollar Bay after winning a quarterfinal matchup Tuesday against Pickford.
Dollar Bay immediately left for downstate after that win, crossing the Mackinac Bridge and arriving to a hotel in Gaylord at 1 a.m. early Wednesday morning.
It was bonding time the players loved, of course.
“Lots of noise from the hotel rooms,” Kentala quipped. “Lots of video games.”
It was a good thing the Dollar Bay team got to the Lower Peninsula when it did, because much of their fanbase and community couldn’t make it down for Thursday’s game because the Mackinac Bridge was closed due to a winter storm.
“They drove forward and couldn’t make it,” Kentala said. “It was heartbreaking in that way.”The solace for Dollar Bay is that more trips to Breslin could be in its future with three freshmen and two eighth-graders on the roster.
Big milestone for Pewamo-Westphalia’s Grady Eklund
Pewamo-Westphalia senior Grady Eklund joined some rare company on two fronts last week. One, Eklund eclipsed 2,000 career points in a quarterfinal win over Schoolcraft, which is a significant milestone in itself.
In doing so, Eklund became the second all-time leading scorer by a player from the Greater Lansing area. The top all-time scorer is a player some might have heard of, Magic Johnson, who starred at Lansing Everett.
It’s some elite company for Eklund, who handed 27 points in a semifinal win over Flint Elite and 26 in the championship victory against Arts & Technology Academy of Pontiac.
Keith Dunlap is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Looking back at weekend of 2026 Michigan high school boys basketball finals
Reporting by Keith Dunlap, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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