MHSAA basketball: Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart goes inside to be Inter-city Baptist

EAST LANSING — Although St. Patrick’s Day was still three days away, Irish eyes were smiling on Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart in Thursday’s Division 4 semifinal at Breslin Center.

Opening the third quarter on a 12-0 run after leading 22-16 at halftime, the Irish cruised to a 51-33 victory over Allen Park Inter-City Baptist.

Known as a 3-point shooting team, Sacred Heart (26-2) made only 4 of 17 shots beyond the arc, but reached its first state final since 2006 by going inside the paint and draining mid-range shots.

Sophomore guard Noah Zeien led Sacred Heart with 18 points and five assists, while senior forward Aidan Halliday contributed 11 points, while junior guard Grady Piertt chipped in with nine.

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But it was Sacred Heart’s defense more than the offense that pushed them into Saturday’s state final.

“It was great defense, our offense wasn’t too good in the first half,” Zeien said. “We were shooting a lot of 3s and we were bricking them. In that second half we kind of picked it up on offense and our defense did that same. And I think that’s what won us the game.”

The Chargers (23-5), seeking their first state championship since 1985 (Class D) when current coach Mark Kraatz was a player, dug a hole too deep to climb out of after missing its first six shots to start the third quarter.

Senior forward Andrew Frank paced the Chargers with 13 points and 11 rebounds as Inter-City struggled from the field hitting only 11 of 42 shots (25.6%), including 3 of 15 from 3-point range.

But it was Sacred Heart’s defense more than the offense that pushed them into Saturday’s state final.

“They dictated the game defensively and we haven’t struggled to score this year,” said Kraatz, in his 35th season as head coach. “Kudos to them and we played some tough teams through the tournament all the way up. I believe we had the hardest five-game stretch in the tournament, but they were able to control us and force us to take shots that we haven’t done all year.”

After it was tied at 12-all with 5:58 left in the second quarter following a basket by Frank, Sacred Heart went on a 9-2 run to end the half leading 22-16.

THE OTHER FINALIST: Wyoming Tri-Unity Christian beats St. Ignace, 60-53, heading to 4th straight state final

Zeien and Halliday each had seven for the Irish, while Frank led the Chargers with seven for the first two quarters.

Sacred Heart got out to an 8-2 lead following the opening tip before Inter-City closed the gap to 10-8 after one quarter.

“We play unbelievable defense and that’s what got us this far,” Sacred Heart coach Justin Sherlock said. “No matter who we play, we tell our guys you’ve just got to guard your man, block out and rebound. That might be the best team defense I’ve seen by us this season and that’s great because we’ve got one more game to go. I think we can keep getting better and on Saturday we’d like to emulate that, for sure.”

Sacred Heart will now face Wyoming Tri-unity Christian (23-5), which will be gunning for its sixth state title.

Sacred Heart’s last two state titles came in 1975 (Class D) and 1967 (Class C).

Tri-unity defeated Sacred Heart, 71-41, back in December.

“Coach (Mark) Keeler, he’s a high school legend coaching in Michigan,” Sherlock said of the Tri-unity coach. “He might be here every year, I don’t know. Maybe not a good scheduling choice picking them on the road the second game of the year. But we learned a lot about ourselves. We wanted to challenge ourselves.

"We scheduled Cadillac at the end of the year that’s a ranked Division 1 team maybe just to find out more weaknesses that we have to work on. And I thought it was a learning opportunity. We’ve learned a lot about the game and we are different now. That was 24 games ago. We’ve gotten better, we’ve jelled more as a team. I have no doubt my guys won’t be afraid in that state championship. “

Meanwhile, Kraatz said Sacred Heart’s defense was stellar.

“That was not a representation of how we played, but I think that’s also a fair representation of how the opposing team played and I think they get a lot of credit for the success they had and the disappointment we had,” the Inter-City coach said. “They played well and they were just gritty and tough. I knew it would be a challenge because of that.

Kraatz, who is 560-289 overall, was making his first appearance in a state semifinal in 39 years, but this time as a coach and not a player.

“Many of our really good teams were losses to teams that won state titles,” said Kraatz, who was referring to the juggernaut Detroit area small school programs like Detroit Rogers, Detroit City, Detroit East Catholic and Southfield Christian. “We had some tough opponents that were a little bit better than us. It was fun to be here. I was happy for these guys.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA basketball: Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart advances in Division 3