Boy's basketball Class B final: Detroit Country Day 66, East Grand Rapids 61

EAST LANSING -- Detroit Country Day's seventh state title was anything but like the previous six. The first three Chris Webber led the Yellowjackets and in the next three it was Shane Battier.

There are no superstars on the team this season. And in that way it was more enjoyable, especially for people like coach Kurt Keener.

Darnell Brown scored 22 points and Clayton Beard had eight of his 13 in the fourth quarter to lead Country Day (22-6) to a 66-61 victory over East Grand Rapids Saturday in the Class B final at the Breslin Center.

East Grand Rapids (25-3), which lost in the final last season to Detroit Renaissance, led throughout the second and third quarters but was held to just 10 points in the fourth. Brown, Darryl Nobles (14 points) and Beard each had a steal in the final 2:25 to help turn the game around.

The Yellowjackets are now in an elite group. There are seven other schools that have won seven or more. River Rouge stands alone at the top with 14.

There might have been a bit of karma on their side, too. Assistant coaches Jason Webber and Gerald Conoway played on the 1995 state championship team that defeated Stevensville Lakeshore in the semifinals and East Grand Rapids in the final. The Yellowjackets defeated the same two schools this weekend.

"It's not about seven," Keener said. "It's about one. They believed. This is special. They faced a lot of adversity of their years here. I've experienced this. This is for them.

"We had our ups and downs this season. Sometimes when you have great individual talent you just have to put them in the right position. I'm blessed to have smart kids. The key was to get them to play their roles."

The teams traded baskets through the first five minutes of the fourth as the lead changed six times.

Clayton Beard, who sat out the final 1:44 of the third after picking up his third foul, scored in lane for the first points of the quarter to give Country Day a 52-51 lead and with 6:01 left he scored again for a 54-53 lead.

Kelvin Grady and Brown traded 3-pointers and Grady's pull-up 10-footer gave the Pioneers their last lead, 58-57, with 3:07 left.

After a Dale Brundidge free throw tied the game at 58 with 2:29 left, Beard scored four straight points to give his team 62-58 lead. Brown made four free throws in the final minute to ice the game.

Kelvin Grady led the Pioneers with 20 points, his cousin, Demarcus Grady, and Justin Anyijong each had 19 points. The other three points were scored by Mitch Kimball.

The Pioneers led 36-34 at halftime. The game was tied five times and East Grand Rapids held the largest lead at 34-27.

East Grand Rapids maintained a narrow lead until Darryl Nobles made a 3-pointer from the right corner to tie the game at 46 with 3:14 left. Eight seconds later, the Pioneers regained the lead on Demarcus Grady's driving layup.

Nobles again tied the game, this time with a mid-range jump shot and, again, Demarcus Grady answered with a three-point play for a 51-48 lead with 1:44 remaining.

A steal and subsequent layup by Brundidge brought the Yellowjackets to within 51-50. After a DaShonte Riley block, his fifth, with five seconds left Country Day nearly took its first lead since the first quarter but Brown missed a 3-point attempt from the left corner.

"We were going to be a family this year, not a bunch of individuals," Beard said.

Nobles has been with the program for four years and the watery eyes spoke of the joy this title brought.

"It shows you how a team can come together," he said. "We had a great mentor outside of the team in Joe Dumars (his son, Jordan, is a sophomore and one of the top reserves). And you've seen what he's done. I've been here four years and been on teams that have been knocked out in the first round, lost on a last-second shot and been blown out."

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