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Brooks leads Douglass to state championship

Pierre Brooks scored 15 points and added 11 rebounds and five assists in his final high school game.
Pierre Brooks scored 15 points and added 11 rebounds and five assists in his final high school game.

Michigan State signee Pierre Brooks II is a state champion.

Brooks scored 15 points and added 11 rebounds with five assists in leading Detroit Douglass Academy (17-5) to a 47-41 victory over Grand Rapids area powerhouse Wyoming Tri-unity Christian (14-3) in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 4 final at the Breslin Center on Saturday morning.

Brooks was held to half of his scoring average on the year, but every shot he made in the championship game was a big one, even his first two field goals in the opening quarter mattered, as they answered Tri-unity baskets.

Brooks played his final high school game on the same Breslin Center floor where he will play out his collegiate career at Michigan State.

"I didn't have a good offensive game," Brooks said afterward. "Just getting my teammates involved was a great feeling. I am still trying process this feeling of winning a state championship. It was a great experience to play on my home floor. It was a great feeling all around to be with my teammates in my last game and to play on my next home floor."

Tri-unity was led in scoring by junior point guard Brady Titus, who scored all 21 of his points inside the 3-point arc. Titus, who shot 10 of 25 overall, missed eight attempts from behind the 3-point line.

Douglass center Javantae Randle was an X-factor in the championship game. Randle, a 6-foot-10 senior with a handful of D-1 offers, tied Brooks for the team lead in scoring, and was one off the team lead in rebounds with 10.

Randle was efficient, making all but one of his six shots against Tri-unity. He was also clutch at the free-throw line where he made all five attempts.

Douglass and Tri-unity exchanged leads three times in the first quarter of a low-scoring, closely contested final. Tri-unity held a one-point lead, 12-11, after one quarter.

Tri-unity opened the second quarter on a 5-0 run, taking a six-point lead, 17-11, on an Austin Treece 3-pointer with 6:03 remaining before halftime. The Defenders maintained that margin until the three-minute mark. That’s when Alexander Wiltz scored four quick points for Douglass, igniting a 9-0 run to close out the first half.

Randle tied the game, 19-19, with a pair of free throws with 48 seconds left in the first half. After getting a stop on defense, Douglass cleared the defensive rebound and held the ball for a final shot.

With the shot clock winding down, Brooks knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer with three seconds remaining in the first half to give Douglass its first lead, 22-19, since the 5:34 mark of the first quarter.

Brooks’ go-ahead 3-pointer was from well behind the 3-point line. In fact, Brooks launched the shot from the crest of the Spartan helmet closer to midcourt than the 3-point line.

Tri-unity stayed within a field goal of Douglass for most of the third quarter, largely because of clutch buckets from Titus. Douglass, however, closed the third quarter as it had closed out the first half, putting together a big run.

In the final minute of third quarter, Douglass got a jumper from Damonn Tiggs, a three-point play from Randle, and a dunk from Brooks with 14 seconds left in the third quarter to take a nine-point lead into the fourth the quarter.

Tri-unity pulled within four points of Douglass in the fourth quarter on two separate occasions, but couldn’t put together the run it needed to deny Brooks and his teammates a Division 4 championship.

With his high school career completed, Brooks will soon begin his transition to the college ranks as one of three talented incoming freshmen in Michigan State’s 2021 recruiting class that includes McDonald’s All-American Max Christie and combo guard Jaden Akins, the No. 47 ranked player in the Rivals150.


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