Clutch free throws and miracle finish has sparked another River Rouge boys basketball run

On April 10, the Free Press Film Festival will open with the Detroit premiere of “Rouge” in the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

As the synopsis says: “It is the story of four students playing basketball at a school with one of America’s richest hoops legacies — and located in one of its most economically and environmentally challenged zip codes.”

This, of course, is about River Rouge, the program the legendary Lofton Greene built into a powerhouse.

Ke’shawn Fisher is a senior on the current Rouge team that will meet North Farmington in Tuesday’s Division 1 quarterfinal game at Calihan Hall (7 p.m.) and he is hoping there is a need for a sequel.

If there is a sequel, it should begin with March 2's district final game against unbeaten Dearborn, which was leading by two points with 4.8 seconds and shooting two free throws.

After the second miss, Fisher grabbed the rebound and made his way down the court.

“I kind of bumped into a guy and he kind of backed up off me and I created some space and shot the 3,” Fisher recalled. “The guy who missed the free throws was coming from behind me and he smacked my guide hand and the ref called the foul.”

The buzzer had sounded with the ball, which didn't go in, in the air, so Fisher walked to the free throw line alone with a chance to decide the game, one way or another.

“There were a couple of my coaches,” second-year Rouge coach Joe Carr said, “as soon as he got fouled, said that’s game time, he’s not going to miss these.”

Fisher was calm at the line and was happy to be shooting at the basket with the forgiving rim.

IN THE POOL: Troy Liu turns deep pain into extra motivation for Division 2 state championship swim meet

An 80% free throw shooter, he didn’t need any lucky bounces, though.

“After the first went in, I walked to half and came back,” Fisher said. “The second free throw was all net, too. When I walked to half the second time, I kind of smiled because I knew the game was over.”

The third swish gave Rouge a 59-58 victory; that sparked the Panthers to a 66-60 regional semifinal win over defending state champ Detroit Cass Tech.

“That definitely gave us the confidence to beat Cass Tech,” Fisher said. “Our mindset coming into the Cass Tech game was they run a zone full-court so all we had to do was stop them from scoring and they wouldn’t have time to set up their zone.”

This has turned into a special season for Carr, who was out of coaching for over two years after he was involved in two automobile accidents (which were not his fault).

Lawyers and insurance agencies appeared to be dragging their feet with a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo that kept him tied up with insurance claims.

“It kept me out of work and away from the game for a couple of years,” he said. “I fought the injury as hard as I could to still do personal training sessions here and there. You know how it is, we love the game and that was part of my healing, being around the game as much as possible.”

A relentless competitor, the 5-foot-6 Carr was an All-Stater at Detroit Renaissance and played at Central Michigan.

Heart over height was Carr’s mantra, and last season the Panthers were 15-7. This season, Rouge (16-10) had a pair of three-game losing streaks.

“Last year we had a helluva regular season and then we bombed the first game of the district,” Carr said. “This year we had a tough regular season and now we’re having a magnificent playoff.”

Part of the problem this season was that Carr was more demanding in Year 2, making it harder for the players to earn playing time.

“Last year, with me being a first-year coach, I was kind of getting to know these kids,” he said. “They felt entitled to having a starting spot, or entitled to knowing they were going to play a certain number of minutes each game.

“We switched that up this year to make sure everybody understood they were going to earn it this year.”

That didn’t go over well with parents and it led to a series of meetings with the athletic director, the principal and the superintendent, which seems to be the norm in this district.

MHSAA HOCKEY FINALS: Detroit Catholic Central wins record 18th state title, 2-0 over Brighton

The 6-6 Fisher emerged from the chaos and has had a terrific season, averaging 26 points a game.

“The improvement that he’s made in two years, a lot of players don’t make in four years. He’s the equivalent of a kid who crams to get an ‘A’ on the final. It’s a testament to his attention to detail, him allowing us to be sticklers.”

Fisher transferred from Taylor to Rouge after his freshman year and sat out his entire sophomore season.

That may have had something to do with Fisher becoming the state’s best player you’ve never heard about.

He is just now earning the attention of Division I coaches.

“I consider myself a hidden gem,” Fisher said. “My 10th grade year I sat so nobody really knew about me. My 11th grade year was really my first year playing and I only averaged 17 points.”

Fisher has heard about the documentary, and he thinks his free throws against Dearborn could play a part in a sequel.

“I was happy because those types of stories, people dream of doing that as a kid — hitting a buzzer-beater or hitting game-winning free throws with no time left on the clock,” he said. “That’s very hard to do, some NBA players can’t do that.”

Carr has also heard about the documentary and believes this season has the making of something special.

“I’ve seen a few snippets on that,” he said. “That’s what we’re praying for. I would definitely love to be part of history here.”

There is an added reason Carr believes he is the right guy for the Rouge job.

“I bleed maroon no matter what,” he said. “I was in a Renaissance uniform and I was maroon. I was in a Central Michigan uniform, I was maroon. I would love to continue that legacy by being a champion here in a River Rouge maroon uniform as well.”

March comebacks

For a while Thursday night, it appeared the regional final game against Warren De La Salle was going to be strike three for North Farmington.

The two previous seasons, the Raiders were knocked out of the tournament in the regional finall; when De La Salle took a 12-point halftime lead, it looked like loss No. 3 was only 16 minutes away.

North Farmington had also trailed in the regional semifinal before rallying.

“My biggest takeaway from these two close games is defensive communication,” North Farmington’s Tyler Spratt said. “We went through this before in Ohio. So it was not new to be down 10 or 12. We came back in the same way. We had to pick up the pressure in the third quarter. We picked it up a lot in our trap.”

De La Salle began the second half with eight consecutive turnovers before missing a shot on possession No. 9. That permitted North to score the first 14 points of the quarter to take the lead.

North Farmington’s defensive aggressiveness made each possession a nightmare for the Pilots.

“We pride ourselves on not being out-toughed and it starts with our strength and conditioning coach, Billy Slobin,” North coach Todd Negoshian said. “We kind of got out-toughed in the first half. That was really all we talked about at halftime: If we’re going to lose, we’re not going to get out-toughed.”

Dylan Smith, at 6-9, keyed the comeback with the first two baskets of the third quarter when he scored eight of his 15 points.

“My team told me to keep being aggressive,” Smith said. "They had faith in me. We played hard. We really picked it up on the defensive end. We started getting stops and easy layups and it turned around everything.”

De La Salle (16-8), which tied for fifth in the rugged Central Division of the Catholic League, got 22 points from Phoenix Glassnor, but also committed an uncharacteristic 15 turnovers.

ON THE ICE: MHSAA hockey: Cranbrook outlasts East Grand Rapids, 3-2, in triple OT for Div. 3 crown

“It’s a game of mistakes,” De La Salle coach Gjon Djokaj said. “Our boys turned it over, I thought a couple of them, travel calls, were questionable, but at the end of the day they did a great job. They turned up the heat, we turned over the ball.”

One of the keys to the second-half turnaround was North Farmington switching defenses and throwing a monkey wrench into De La Salle’s offense.

“We just wanted to change it up, keep them guessing, don’t let them get comfortable,” Negoshian said. “Gjon does such a great job of having them prepared, we wanted to make them think every possession and do different things.”

Smith said the toughness factor also came into play. In the first half, he said the Raiders were trying to avoid contact instead of initiating the contact at the basket, which he said they did in the second half.

Negoshian was able to rally his troops without a fire-and-brimstone halftime speech.

“He just said some words, got us fired up and we all picked it up,” Smith said. “He said: ‘We want to practice tomorrow. We don’t want to be done yet.’”

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him @mickmccabe1. Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: River Rouge boys basketball run sparked by 3 clutch free throws