State Basketball Semifinals: Detroit Country Day Falls at Breslin

EAST LANSING – Detroit Country Day ultimately falls to Lansing Sexton, 69-59, in the Class B semifinals. Patch was there live blogging for Yellowjacket fans unable to make the trip out to the Breslin Center.

7:46: Crowd goes crazy as Sexton's Denzel Valentine dunks the ball on a fast break with only 15 seconds left and then, off a turnover, throws a behind-the-back pass to Anthony Clemmons. Clemmons puts the layup in and the game is over. Sexton is going to the Class B finals with a 69-59 win over Country Day.

7:44: Sexton turns it over, but Country Day can’t capitalize. Bailey misses a 3-pointer. Kenny Knight fouls out and Bryn Forbes is going to the line for two more free throws. He hits both of them with 47 seconds left to make it 65-56.

7:43: Lee Bailey hits a 3-pointer to cut it to 63-56 with 1:10 to go. Country Day calls a full timeout.

7:42: Austin Price misses a long 3-point attempt and Sexton grabs the ball. Anthony Clemmons fouled immediately. He makes both free throws, 63-53, 1:12 remaining.

7:41: Country Day fouls Bryn Forbes, he makes one free throw, 61-53. Amir Williams with the rebound.

7:40: Veteran move by Lee Bailey, guard has no shot, but forces a 3-pointer with Sexton defender making contact. He draws a foul and gets three free throws. Bailey hits all three to make the score 60-53 with only 1:33 left in the game.

7:37: Sexton runs the clock and finally Country Day is forced to foul with 1:49 left in the game. Denzel Valentine goes to make the foul shout; misses the first and makes the second.

7:36: Kenny Knight tries to go inside to Amir Williams, but throws the ball away.

7:34: Sexton calls timeout. The Big Reds were struggling to bring ball up the court a couple of times in a row and coach Carlton Valentine looked like he wanted to try and calm his team down.

7:32: Sexton turns it over, Chris Fowler back in game for Country Day with four fouls, 3:22 left. Country Day trails 59-50.

7:30: Amir Williams blocks a shot then gets a big defensive rebound; Austin Price tries another 3-point attempt. He misses, but picks up an offensive rebound. Adam Zavadil also misses a 3-pointer. Score is 59-50 with 3:23 left to go.

7:27: Big basket for Country Day. Austin Price scores 3-pointer in corner to cut the Sexton lead down to 59-50 with 4:15 to go in the game.

7:25: Sexton running a lot of clock down on offense. Doing a lot of dribbling at the top of the key waiting for Country Day defenders to challenge them. Time is an enemy now for the Yellowjackets. Chris Fowler picks up his fourth foul on a drive by Denzel Valentine. Valentine hits both free throws and the Big Reds is now up 59-47 with only 5:25 left in the game.

7:22: Bryn Forbes picks up where he left off in the third; his basket inside gives Big Reds first double-digit lead 57-46.

7:20: Amir Williams has a hard shooting foul on Anthony Clemmons. Clemmons makes one free throw to give Sexton a nine-point lead, 55-46.

Fourth Quarter 7:15: Easy explanation for the game’s turnaround. Sexton shot 85 percent from the field in the third quarter. It hit 12 of 13 shots from the field and was six of seven from the free throw line.

7:12: Third quarter comes to a close with Sexton up 54-46. Country Day looks shocked. The momentum has swung the Big Reds' way with some hot shooting. They also have done a good job running the floor and scored five or six easy layups in the third.

7:10: Bryn Forbes is taking over, adding another 3-pointer. The junior has scored 19 of Sexton’s 32 points in the quarter. His third-quarter total is close to what the Big Reds scored in the first half (22).

7:01: Both teams finding a rhythm on offense. Sexton almost has as many points in opening two minutes of third (eight) as it did in the entire second quarter (nine). Country Day is shooting the ball better and keeping up. Yellowjackets lead 37-32.

7:00: Denzel Valentine takes the ball and slams it with a one-handed dunk to cut Country Day’s lead to 33-28.

6:59: Chris Fowler hits a 3-pointer. The score is 31-24 Country Day.

Third quarter 6:57: Sexton starts out with the ball. Amir Williams picks up his first foul of the game, fouling Forbes in the act of shooting 10 seconds into the third. Forbes hits both free throws.

Halftime 6:50: Amir Williams is on pace for a triple-double. The senior center has eight points, seven rebounds and four blocks in the first half. Country Day’s leading scorer is Lee Bailey with nine points. All five of Sexton’s starters scored in the first half. Bryn Forbes is still leading the way with five points. Both teams are a little sloppy with the ball in the first half, Yellowjackets had 11 turnovers and Big Reds had 10.

6:45: Country Day adds one more basket to end the half up 28-22.

6:45: Amir Williams shows his length — he blocks three consecutive Sexton shots. On offense, Jodan Price hits a 3-pointer and Carter Elliott scores inside for a 5-0 run for Country Day. It's the largest lead for Country Day so far, 26-22.

6:43: Chris Fowler picks up his second foul. He’s called for an offensive foul driving to the line. Country Day coach immediately sits up him down with less than two minutes in the second to avoid picking up a third.

6:41: Sexton’s Tyrin Wade hits a jumper and puts Sexton back in the lead 20-19.

6:40: Both teams now have seven fouls.

6:39: Lee Bailey hits a 3-pointer — the first of the game for the Yellowjackets. He gets followed on next Yellowjackets possession and hits both free throws to make the score 19-18.

6:38: Bryn Forbes leads the fastbreak and dishes to Anthony Clemmons, he shows the soft touch off the glass with a layup to give Sexton 18-14 lead.

6:36: Lots of fouls so far. Country Days has seven and Sexton has five halfway through the quarter. Whistles are slowing down the pace of the game.

6:34: Amir Williams scores inside to give Country Day a 14-13 lead, but Sexton comes right back up the court and scores. Anthony Clemmons scores his first points of the game to put Sexton up 15-14.

6:32: Chris Fowler puts Country Day within one point — the score is 13-12 — with a nice move on Tyrin Wade. He uses a crossover to get past Wade and then puts the layup in with his right hand, shielding himself from the defender.

Second Quarter 6:30: Williams opens up the second quarter strong in the middle with three blocks right off the bat. Country Day scores first to make it 13-10.
Country Day only shot 28.6 percent from the field in the first. Teams combined for nine turnovers in the quarter. Williams leading all scorers with six points; Bryn Forbes leading Sexton with five.

6:27: Neither team in much of a rhythm on offense, the Big Reds doing well in transition off defensive rebounds.

6:24: Sexton has the ball with 21.4 seconds and calls a timeout to set up play for the last possession of quarter. Anthony Clemmons tries to go inside but the shot is blocked by Carter Elliot. Clemmons heaves up a last-second shot with defender in his face but is way off. First quarter ends with Country Day down 13-8.

6:23: Last 90 seconds not pretty for either team, each team with a turnover. Country Day fouls Donyea Logan to put him on the line with 44.9 seconds left in quarter. He hits both to extend Sexton’s lead to 13-6.

 6:21: Denzel Valentine with a quick first step and takes it for a layup from the corner to make it 11-6. Valentine was the leading scorer for Sexton last year against Country Day in the finals with 14 points; he was the only player with double digits in the game for the Big Reds.

6:21: Sexton has four fouls in the first quarter — Amir Williams has been to the line four times and made two of his free throws. Jalen Hayes already has two fouls and Sexton coach Carlton Valentine is letting him play. At 6-foot-7, the sophomore is the Big Reds tallest player.

6:19: Another Country Day turnover — Adam Zavadil loses it at the top of the key and Hayes is all alone for dunk. Yellowjackets follow it up with a quick miss and Forbes hits the first 3-pointer of the game to give the Big Reds a 9-5 lead.  

6:17: Zavadil finds Amir Williams on the fastbreak. A dunk by Williams for the Yellowjackets gives them the first lead, 5-4.

6:16: Sophomore Jalen Hayes takes it inside against Williams and puts up a nice little hook shot to make it 4-2.

6:14: Country Day’s first turnover is a carry on Lee Bailey. Williams with a block on Turin Wade. He’s roaming in the lane on defense and is going to change a lot of Sexton shots if they challenge him. Chris Fowler gets a layup in transition of the block to tie it up 2-2.

6:12: Sexton gets opening tipoff, but turns it over inside. Country Day is patient and swings it around but Zavadil misses 3-point attempt. Bryn Forbes scores first points of game for Big Reds, makes it 2-0.

5:50: Both teams are on now on the court shooting their pre-game warmups. Today’s game is a rematch of last year’s Class B final, where Country Day picked up its seventh school title with a 71-47 win over Sexton. Ray McCallum gave the Big Reds all sorts of problems, the senior guard scored 32 points in his final high school game. Country Day star Amir Williams was a junior last year and had 12 points and 11 rebounds in the game. Yellowjackets coach Kurt Keener will rely on the 6-foot-10 center even more this year.