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Detroit Edison ends Covenant Christian's season

Every bit of Detroit Edison’s 16-point lead was gone; vanished into thin air.

Grand Rapids Covenant Christian was in full rally mode Thursday afternoon and clearly had the momentum and its boisterous fans on its side.

How did the Edison players react?

“I just brought everybody together,” senior Gary Solomon said. “I told them: ‘I got this’"

OK, but this was a Class C state semifinal game and the Breslin Center was rocking. Surely there was some concern on the Edison bench about blowing a big lead.

“We’ve lost games that way before,” Edison coach Bo Neely said. “We’ve lost 10 games this year and we’ve lost a game just about any way you can imagine. We’ve never been blown out; we’ve always competed. We wanted to maintain our composure and just understand what we needed to do.”

The Pioneers needed to get the ball to Deante Johnson and Solomon did that, enabling the 6-foot-9 center to hit a couple of baseline jumpers and a free throw to help Edison pull out a hard-fought 55-43 victory.

The win sends Edison into its first state championship game, Saturday at 4:30 against Maple City Glen Lake.

This one began as if Edison (16-10) was going to run Covenant Christian (22-5) back to Grand Rapids. The Chargers hit 6 of 24 shots in the first half, missing all six of their 3-point attempts, and trailed 28-14 at intermission.

“I thought the story of the game was our first half shooting,” Covenant coach Tyler Schimmel said. “We had to shoot the ball today. We didn’t in the first half and it cost us. In the second half we started playing Charger basketball.”

Edison’s lead began to evaporate early in the third quarter when Tyler Cammenga hit two 3-point shots and Trenton Koole and Carson Meulenberg, who each had 12 points, both threw down fast-break dunks.

Johnson blocked three shots and his presence, when he wasn’t on the bench in foul trouble, messed with Covenant’s offense.

“Not only do they have guys that are 6-9, but they’re also super athletic so it was hard to get shots off,” Meulenberg said. “They can get to the hoop and they can also hit the mid-range so it was kind of hard to defend.”

In the end, the Pioneers were impossible to defend, thanks to Johnson’s baseline jumpers.

“I work on that every day,” said Johnson, who signed with Cleveland State. “I had to come up big for my team. I was in foul trouble a lot throughout the whole game. I wasn’t the presence in the middle I’ll usually be. So, I had to make it somehow, someway, in the fourth quarter for my team.”

Johnson played only 20 minutes so 6-5 Solomon, who signed with LIU-Brooklyn, came through with 15 points and 10 rebounds as well as hitting clutch free throws down the stretch.

“I was just trying to be a role player that would do any kind of thing to win,” he said. “I really crashed the boards today. Losing our big fella, I had to fill in for him while he was in foul trouble.”

Edison is a member of the talented Detroit Public School League, which it won this season. In addition to surviving the PSL season, Edison also played nonconference games against U-D Jesuit, Belleville, Hazel Park, Saginaw Arthur Hill and Southfield Christian.

That is why the Pioneers began the state tournament with a 10-10 record, but well-prepared to play on the final Saturday of the season.

It is also why point guard Pierre Mitchell Jr. (13 points), who signed with Central Michigan, and his teammates didn’t fold like a cheap suit when Calvin Christian came roaring back.

“We’ve been through this the whole season,” Mitchell said. “We play in the PSL. There’s a whole bunch of battles every Tuesday and Friday.”

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