EAST LANSING >> With stellar defending and a raucous crowd from just two miles down the road from the Breslin Center, East Lansing defeated defending D1 state champion Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 51-44 in Friday afternoon’s semifinal.

The points allowed by the Trojans marked the fewest the Eaglets have scored in a game this season. Previously, they had only failed to hit the 50-point barrier this season twice, both in wins, and even when the two teams played in East Kentwood back on Jan. 11, East Lansing won 69-68. That game was played without Eaglets senior and recently named Mr. Basketball Trey McKenney.

“We knew we could beat this team,” Trojans head coach Ray Mitchell said. “That’s no disrespect to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s. We beat them early in the year. Of course, they didn’t have Trey. We felt we matched up really well with these guys.

“If you check our scores, you’ll see we hold most of our opponents to a season low … I truly feel we’re the best defensive team in the state. Our issue was on the offensive end.”

Luckily for the Trojans, their work on the opposite end meant they didn’t need much offense in that fourth quarter, where they held St. Mary’s to 3 of 13 shooting in the fourth quarter, and limited the Eaglets to just 32.7% overall on the day.

Opening the fourth up 37-36, St. Mary’s senior Sharod Barnes scored 34 seconds into the quarter to make it 39-36. But East Lansing junior guard KJ Torbert Jr., the best player before halftime, knocked down two free throws, then sophomore guard Kingston Thomas sparked the Trojans with three consecutive buckets, altogether putting East Lansing up by five with 3:25 left.

“Any one of us can go on a run and get buckets,” said Thomas, who finished with 12 points to go with a team-high seven boards. “I knew it was my time, shots were falling for me, everything was going good.”

All the while, St. Mary’s turned it over once and missed four shots in a row during that span, finally getting it back to within three on McKenney’s layup from an inbounds dish with three minutes remaining.

St. Mary’s, though, went on and missed two shots inside, then a 3-pointer the following possession that could have tied it up with a little under two minutes to go. From there, Jayden Savoury fouled out by picking up two personals within 18 seconds of one another, the second of which was probably required from at least one Eaglet in order to prevent East Lansing from dwindling out time.

Senior JL Branson hit his pair of free throws from the second of those fouls that made it 46-41, but McKenney responded by coming off a screen to knock down a wing 3-pointer with 41 seconds left.

That turned out to be the last of the scoring for the Eaglets (20-7). Senior Cameron Hutson (Saint Louis) hit a pair of free throws with 30 seconds remaining, then McKenney and Barnes were unable to connect from deep in front of the St. Mary’s bench. The latter of those missed 3-pointers led to numbers in transition for East Lansing, and also a technical foul on the Eaglets for preventing an easy bucket.

Torbert split his pair of free throws resulting from the tech, then Thomas made two more with 10 seconds left to ice the game.

“It wasn’t our best night, but that has a lot to do with East Lansing,” St. Mary’s head coach Todd Covert said. “It was a few bounces here … The ball bounced the wrong way if you’re us, the right way for them. I was telling (assistant coach Brad Crighton), if I’d told you tell we’d hold them to 47, 48 points, or whatever it was at the end, I’d have thought we were in good shape.”

McKenney led all scorers with 21 points, though it came on 7-of-18 field-goal attempts. He attempted nine 3-pointers, accounting for the only three the Eaglets made on 16 total tries from the outside.

“They played somewhat good defense,” said McKenney, who led the Eaglets with seven rebounds, one more than Savoury. “I (usually) hit those types of shots, and I didn’t tonight, and that was the outcome of the game.”

Branson, who plays AAU ball with McKenney on The Family, was tasked with the state’s top senior and did arguably as well as anyone else assigned with him all season.

“(Trey’s) hard to guard,” said Branson, who has been playing with him since before high school. “The offense runs through him. (I thought) if I was able to stop him, we would be able to win the game … I watched film on his moves, studied all that stuff.”

Mitchell called Branson the best defender in the state. “I don’t care who wants to argue that,” Mitchell said. “This man is is incredible. We’re not here without him. We don’t win this game without him.”

They don’t win it without Torbert, either. The son of the former Michigan State standout and 2001 Mr. Basketball (Kelvin Sr.) only cemented his status as a top talent himself with 14 points in the first half. Three of those came as part of back-to-back 3-pointers by he and Hutson that gave East Lansing (27-1) its first lead with 3:52 left in the half, a torrid comeback after St. Mary’s jumped out to a 12-2 advantage to start the day.

“(KJ) does that every game,” Mitchell said of Torbert, who finished with 19 points and six rebounds. “This man is a bucket. All our guys can go, but he’s our leading scorer and we play through him. We expect that from him. When he hit that one, I’m trying to get it to him again, because I know he has the eye of the tiger … You guys better keep an eye on this dude. I truly believe he’s the best junior in the state.”

Those aforementioned threes occurred as part of a 10-0 run in the second quarter during which the Eaglets went just over three minutes without scoring. That drought ended thanks to a pair of makes from free-throw line by Barnes and a 3-pointer by McKenney, but Torbert replied with a triple of his own to give the Trojans a one-point lead going into intermission.

Regarding his familiarity with shooting at the Breslin Center thanks to his proximity and lineage, Torbert said, “I’ve been shooting here since I was a little kid. Getting to play and make shots on this court is like a dream come true.”

Barnes, who ended with 11 points and a game-high four steals, complimented Torbert, saying, “He’s super athletic, super quick, fast. I knew it’d be a challenge (guarding him) coming in. He’s gotten way better over the years.”

Savoury ended with eight points, while Luke Crighton and Isaiah Hines both scored two points to round out the scoring by the Eaglets, whose bench didn’t attempt any shots. The other son of a Spartan, Mateen Cleaves Jr., logged nine minutes, the only significant time by a St. Mary’s reserve.

Hutson had nine points for the Trojans, who will meet Wayne Memorial in Saturday’s D1 final after the Zebras defeated Flint Carman-Ainsworth in the game that followed St. Mary’s and East Lansing.

Eight players, including Barnes and McKenney, will graduate for St. Mary’s. Covert termed their legacy “unbelievable.”

“We’re an airball away (in the quarterfinals against De La Salle) from being here four years (in a row),” Covert said. “I know it’s been done before, but not too many times. Trey’s a generational talent. I don’t care what happened today, whether we won or lost today or tomorrow. He’s a generational kid. Sharod’s effort, the culture he brought to the program … These two young men, along with our other seniors, that’s how you set a culture. That’s how you get a standard at a school.”