Young, Troy bounce back to upset No. 2-ranked Community

BY JAKE LOURIM

STUDENT CORRESPONDENT

WARREN — Eight games into the season, Troy finally got what it was searching out of star junior James Young.

Detroit Community probably would rather not see it again.

Young piled up 32 points and 12 rebounds and junior Maceo Baston added 21 and seven rebounds  as Troy upset Class B second-ranked Detroit Community Saturday at Warren Fitzgerald, 69-63.

“Tonight we played with more energy and hustled more,” senior captain Jeff Holmes said. “We’ll use this to learn the playing hard turns into victories.”

Young said earlier this year he’s always dreamed of a 40-point game, and he was on pace for it at halftime, but he spread the ball around instead as Troy frustrated Community.

“The points (were) nothing,” Young said. “It was all about the win for me.”

“He went to the basket,” said senior Bryan Martin of Young’s success. “He didn’t settle for the trey-ball, no long 3’s.”

In three games against Okemos, Southfield, and Birmingham Seaholm, Troy was 1-2 and Young scored 33 points on 42 shots. Saturday, he scored 32 points on 21 shots.

The teams traded just free throws for almost four minutes in the fourth quarter, and Troy came out of it up by two. The Colts got a stop, and Young’s driving layup with 1:30 left put them up by four. Community raced down the floor and hit a 3-pointer, though, to trim the deficit.

Young brought it up, worked the ball around, and showed terrific ball movement in feeding Baston for an easy layup.

“Our basic game plan tonight was to share the ball more,” Troy coach Gary Fralick said. “We made a few extra passes every possession, and we played very, very unselfish basketball most of the night. Any time we do that with the players we have, we’re going to have a good chance to win.”

“That’s what makes (Young) amazing,” Martin added. “When he goes in, the defense has to go in on him and that leaves at least one person open.”

Community missed the ensuing potential game-tying 3-pointer, and Troy milked some more clock to send Baston to the line with 33 seconds left.

But Troy wasn’t done yet. Baston missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving Community one last shot for the tie. They had it open, but Young stuck his long arms out and swatted it away, calling time-out as he fell out-of-bounds with the rebound. Then, he finished what he started, going to the line and sinking a clinching free throw.

Baston stole a pass on the ensuing possession and iced the victory with an easy lay-in.

Community was scorching out of the gates, but Troy had to play solid defense to pull off the upset. An energetic 2-3 zone flustered the Hurricanes just enough for Young to outlast them. In a crucial fourth-quarter stretch, Community went almost six minutes without a field goal.

Fralick had to go back to the league title-clinching win over Berkley last season for a bigger victory. Troy was 2-2 in its last four with some rough efforts, including a 23-point loss to Okemos.

“Hopefully, we turned it around tonight,” Fralick said.

The players agreed that the challenge against top-ranked Community brought out the effort.

“We felt like we were the underdogs,” said junior point guard Zak Noor, who had two big assists in the second half. “We didn’t have pressure on us, we could just go at them with no pressure on us.”

“All our other games we were favored to win,” Holmes said. “We had something to prove here and did it.”

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