DUNK FEST! High-flying Wayne soars into Final 4 after crushing King
Austin Tori slams the ball through the hoop Tuesday against King.
More entertaining than an AND1 mixtape, Wayne Memorial’s basketball team isn’t taking a bus to this weekend’s MHSAA Final Four at Michigan State’s Breslin Center — the Zebras are flying!
After throwing down dunk after jaw-dropping dunk — and mixing in a few nylon-shredding three-point bombs along the way — Wayne humbled a very good Detroit King team, 70-44, Tuesday night inside the University of Detroit Mercy’s Calihan Hall in an MHSAA quarterfinal.
Next on the flight itinerary for the Zebras: Flint Carman-Ainsworth in a semifinal game set for Friday at 2 p.m. in East Lansing.
East Lansing and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s will meet in Friday’s noon semifinal.
Jalahn gets it going
The Zebras never trailed after senior Jalahn McClellan swished a deep-corner trey on their first possession. McClellan’s long bucket ignited a game-starting 9-0 run for the winners.
The Crusaders, who finished with a sterling 21-7 record, have suffered few — if any — annihilating losses like the one they experienced Tuesday throughout their school’s rich hoops history.
King didn’t play poorly; it’s just that the Zebras have been playing at a stratospheric level since their shocking loss to Novi in the KLAA championship game last month.
Junior star Carlos Medlock Jr. led Wayne’s electric attack with 21 points.
The 5-foot-11 high-riser’s most scintillating play unfolded with 1.1 seconds left in the first half when he somehow swished a step-back three-point shot while getting hammered by a Crusader defender.
The Herd is the word
Medlock Jr also delivered a pair of and-one drives — and he joined his teammates in defensively locking down the dangerous Crusaders, who found themselves uncharacteristically trying to battle back from double-digit deficits.
Wayne’s opponents generally have to focus on containing Medlock, junior guard Jaylohn Allen and senior dunk machine Austin Tori.
On Tuesday, a fourth weapon — McClellan — was firing on all cylinders, scoring a season-high 18 points with four treys and a spectacular driving, mini-left-handed hook shot over a much taller King defender.
Tori was magnificent as well, tormenting the Crusaders with four dunks. He also stepped up on the defensive end, setting the tone by swatting a close-range King shot out of bounds.
Unified team
The Zebras are a confident, all-for-one-one-for-all unit that celebrates their teammates’ success.
Case in point: With less than a minute to play, junior reserve James Reese buried a long three-point shot, creating jubilant, feel-good celebration among the Zebras’ starters, who had been replaced moments earlier due to the lopsided score.
Before the Zebras take to the Breslin court Friday, a word of caution to the arena’s maintenance staff: Make sure those rims are attached nice and tight because they’re bound to get tested by a Wayne team that routinely defies gravity.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
