Great Lakes Hoops

Ray Ray Lewis, junior guard, Flint Northern.

As many of you have heard, the Flint Community Schools Board of Education voted to close several schools including Flint Northern High School at the end of the school year. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as FCS has sustained too many buildings operating at far less than capacity.

All that being said, as the District starts the process of re-drawing high school boundaries, will they gerrymander around the homes of Ra’mon Lewis, Amariontez Thomas and Kaylin Johnson? Those three are really talented and if they were added to an already loaded roster at Southwestern Academy, we’d have a team in Flint that could compete with the likes of class A powers Saginaw High and Detroit Pershing.

Southwestern has already been pegged as a team to watch over the next few seasons, as the Knights’ top players are all returning (Neshua Wise, Miles Bridges, Jaire Grayer and Malik Young). Is this a team that could bring a state title to the city limits for the first time since Flint Northern in 1995? With the right coach, certainly. Is Keith Gray the right coach? We’ll find out.

In more than three decades, only two Flint-area players had earned the prestigious Michigan Mr. Basketball Award, given annually to the state’s top senior.

All that changed on Monday, as Flint Beecher’s Monte Morris joined Kelvin Torbert and former NBA all-star Glen Rice in the fraternity.

From Freep:

After seeing some of the former Mr. Basketball winners, Morris, a senior at Flint Beecher, has come to this conclusion: “They don’t hand them out to just anybody.”

No, they don’t, and this year, the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan, in conjunction with the Free Press, is handing out the 33rd Mr. Basketball award to Morris.

Morris, who signed with Iowa State, captured the most prestigious award a high school athlete in Michigan can receive in one of the closest three-man races in the history of the award, named for the former Free Press sports writer who covered high school athletics for more than 40 years.

He accumulated 2,130 points while Harper Woods Chandler Park’s Derrick Walton Jr. was second, with 2,086. James Young of Rochester was third (2,030). Detroit Pershing’s Kahlil Felder was fourth (1,252) and Dowagiac’s Dontel Highsmith was fifth (1,161).

Seeing Morris win this award is great for basketball in this state. He’s not the most naturally talented player in that group, nor is he the most prolific scorer. He is the best all-around basketball player in that group and he plays the game the right way.

He sees and understands the game like a grown man, and is among the most popular players I’ve ever seen with fans from opposing teams, opposing coaches and officials. He’s a hard guy not to like, and clearly it was hard for many voters to pass him over.

The Mott Community College Bears (29-3) have earned the top seed in the NJCAA national tournament in Danville, Illinois March 19-23.

TOURNAMENT SEEDS

TOURNAMENT PODS

West’s Cullen Turczyn scored a game-high 27 points against Grand Blanc.

DAVISON, Michigan — The only ‘L’ on the right side of the column for Grand Blanc (22-1) this season came courtesy of Lapeer.

The Lapeer West boys’ varsity basketball team will continue its improbable run in the MHSAA state playoffs after the Panthers blew out undefeated and third-ranked Grand Blanc on Monday, 65-43.

The Panthers started off a little slow, but it didn’t take long for senior guard Cullen Turczyn, the Flint Metro League’s all-time career scoring leader, to get heated up. Turcyzn scored 10 of the team’s first 12 points. West led by one after the first quarter before it was senior forward Zeshawn Jones-Parker’s turn to get involved in the scoring. Jones-Parker was a beast from that point on, scoring 19 points in three quarters despite foul trouble near the end of third quarter.

West (19-5) led by 13 after two quarters, by 21 after three and cruised to victory.

The Panthers await the winner of the Midland High and Saginaw game. Saginaw is currently ranked seventh in the state in class.

Turczyn finished with a game-high 27 point. Junior Mark Cox played great defense, as always, and chipped in nine points.

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