SpartanMag.com - Appling's Record Performance Propels Pershing to Class A Crown

March 28, 2009

Doug Warren
SpartanMag.com Staff Writer

It was a performance for the ages for Keith Appling.

Detroit Pershing's junior point guard scored 49 points to propel his Doughboys' to a 90-73 victory over the Kalamazoo Central Maroon Giants in the Class A state championship at the Breslin Center Saturday evening.

Appling shot 17-of-24 from the field (including 5-7 beyond the arc and 10-for-12 from the free throw line). By contrast, his Doughboy teammates combined to shoot 17-of-48 for the game. Appling also added 7 rebounds and 5 assists in the win.

Appling's 49 point outburst broke a 26-year old state finals record set by Detroit Southwestern's Antoine Joubert, who hit for 47 points in a 1983 title game loss to Flint Central.

Joubert went on to play for the Michigan. Appling, who was born a decade after Joubert's record was set, was asked about his new scoring record ? and the player he had just surpassed ? after the game.

"Who?" Appling said when asked if he knew who Joubert was. "I never heard of him. I didn't even know it was a record. I could care less about the past. I just wanted to win the state championship."

Last season, the Doughboys reached the state title game, but fell to Draymond Greenand Saginaw High, 90-71.

This year's win gives Pershing their fifth state championship in school history and the first since 1993.

Appling's teammate, senior Derrick Nix, who will play for Michigan State next season, finished with 4 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

It was clear from the beginning of the game that Kalamazoo Central was going to center their defensive efforts on Nix.

Nix (who earlier in the week was named the 2009 recipient of the Hal Schram Mr. Basketball Award) rang up 17 points and 22 rebounds in Pershing's 74-73 semi-final win over Romulus. The Maroon Giants swarming defense made it difficult for Nix to get into any kind of rhythm. In addition, a technical foul given to Nix early in the first quarter for hanging on the rim after a missed dunk didn't help matters.

The Giants however had no answers for Appling, a 2010 Michigan State verbal commitment, who hit shots from long range, drove at will to the hoop and earned multiple trips to the free-throw line.

"Keith Appling. That's all I can say. Keith Appling," Kalamazoo Central coach Michael Thomas said afterward. "I'm going to have nightmares about him. It was one of those days where everything was falling. We did a good job on Nix but forgot about Appling. We stopped Mr. Basketball, but Keith was just amazing. He was the game, period."

The Doughboys led 21-16 at the end of the first period. But a spirited 23-13 second quarter run by Kalamazoo Central ? punctuated by three high flying dunks by senior Doug Anderson ? gave the Maroon Giants a 39-34 lead at halftime. The lead might have been larger if not for Appling, who scored all of his team's points in the second period.

The third period saw the teams switch mojo ?with Pershing outscoring Kalamazoo Central 25-13 in the period. After their hot second quarter, the Maroon Giants went cold in the second half (10-for-30 overall). They also went struggled at the free-throw line(12-of-22).

For Appling, it meant something for him to make history on the same floor he will one day play on as a Spartan.

"I feel comfortable here (in the Breslin Center) because I know I am going to be playing here in a couple of years," Appling said. "I was hot and my teammates just kept going to me and the coaches just kept telling me to be aggressive."

"Keith just does what he does," Pershing head coach A.W. Canada said after the game. "It's good that we have him for one more year. Then he will come up here to East Lansing and you will get to see him more often. Keith is just blessed with tremendous ability. We are just trying to work with him to improve on all parts of his game so he is more than one dimensional. You saw it today. He is passing the ball. He is rebounding and he is playing defense.

"Against Romulus yesterday, a kid hit for 19 on us in the first half, we put Keith on him in the second half and he didn't score a point. You can say enough good things about the kid. He has charisma, he is very humble, he is a hard worker and he just wants to win."

With a record setting performance, Appling was the best player on the floor on this day. The amazing thing is that he still has 12 months of high school basketball left to experience. That means for the time being, he will have to remain a Spartan spectator as his future teammates in the Green and White seek Michigan State's seventh trip to the Final Four Sunday in Indianapolis.

"I want them to win the national championship," Appling said of the current Spartans. "If they knock off Louisville they can do it."

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