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Defense sends Muskegon to state semifinal win over Orchard Lake St. Mary's

The Big Reds held the Eagles to 26% shooting
Muskegon 65, OLSM 42
Muskegon 65, OLSM 42
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Muskegon beat Orchard Lake St. Mary's 65-42 in a division one state semifinal game at the Breslin Center on Friday by playing great defense.

Muskegon 65, Orchard Lake St. Mary's 42

The Big Reds held OLSM sophomore Trey McKenney, who already has multiple division one offers including Michigan and Michigan State, to just 5-13 shooting from the floor.

"I feel like we did great," Muskegon senior guard Jordan Briggs said about his team's defense. "Anthony (Sydnor III) did great guarding Trey which is a great player over there and other guys also, James Martin a freshman, Montrel (Olver), everybody was connecting on the defensive end, we were locked in."

McKenney did score a game-high 20 points, but was forced to work very hard for everything he got.

"We knew that if Trey came out and had a big game that it could have been tough," Sydnor III said. "He is a great player so I can't take that from him, but I just played great defense,my teammates helped me and it just helped us come out with this victory."

The Big Reds have always been know as a great defense team, and today it showed on a big stage.

"When you are dealing with a player like Trey, you just never know when he is going to erupt, you are just over there praying that hopefully he doesn't,"
Muskegon head coach Keith Guy said. "I thought our guys did a good job on him and we bought into the defensive end. You cannot win a championships in my opinion without being able to stop other teams and our team has bought into that formula."

Muskegon 65, OLSM 42
Jordan Briggs shoots a free throw against Orchard Lake St. Mary's

As for the offense, Briggs led the way with 19 points while fellow senior David Day III added 16.

Syndor III, while playing great defense, managed to score 11 points as the Big Reds never trailed in the game.

Muskegon excited to play for a state championships

Muskegon advances to the division one state championship game for the first time since 2014, it will play Detroit Cass Tech at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday at the Breslin Center.

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