Boys Basketball: Huron’s undefeated season ends in loss to Grand Blanc in D-1 State Finals
This time the offense didn’t show up in the second half.
The Huron boys’ basketball team used a successful formula of tough and relentless defense all season – while waiting for the offense to get rolling. In Saturday’s finals, the defense was its typical awesome self but the offense never arrived in time to deliver a state title.
Grand Blanc, trailing 30-29 after three quarters, outscored Huron 16-6 in the final quarter for a 45-36 victory in the MHSAA Division 1 State Finals at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
It was Huron’s only loss of the season. The River Rats were impressive all season, winning all 20 games along with league, District and Regional titles heading into Saturday’s final.
Grand Blanc finished the year at 15-2 overall.
The game was tied 12-12 after one quarter and 24-24 at halftime. Huron outscored Grand Blanc 6-5 in a low-scoring third quarter.
Devin Womack led the River Rats with 18 points on 8 of 17 shooting from the floor. He was the only Huron player to reach double figures. Kingsley Perkins had six points and Julian Lewis scored five points.
RJ Taylor (15 points) and Timonte Boyd (12 points) led Grand Blanc.
Huron shot 31.9 percent from the floor (15 of 47) while Grand Blanc shot 27.9 percent (12 of 43). Grand Blanc made five triples compared to the River Rats (3 of 21 from beyond the arc – 14.3 percent). Huron also was just 3 of 13 from the free-throw line while Grand Blanc made 16 of 26. The River Rats had 14 turnovers to just six for Grand Blanc.
Grand Blanc reached the finals with easy wins over Flushing (64-39) and Marquette (85-58) in Regionals. They defeated Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (58-53) in the quarterfinals and knocked out Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern 68-58 in the semifinals on Thursday.
After winning District 18 at Lincoln, the River Rats had easy wins over Dexter (56-33) and Livonia Stevenson (64-39) to win Regional 5 at Northville.
Huron went undefeated to win the SEC Red Division title.
Matthew Bartow covered the game for WLAA – look for his stories coming soon.
