Michigan St. Recruit Cassius Winston Leads UD Jesuit To Class A State Championship

DAVE HOGG
Associated Press

EAST LANSING (AP) — Cassius Winston finished his spectacular high-school career with a huge game and a state title.

Just as importantly, he got a date to prom.

After the third quarter of Detroit Jesuit's 69-49 victory Saturday over North Farmington in the Class A championship game, Winston accepted the Mr. Basketball trophy while wearing a T-shirt that read, "ARIN PROM?"

"Yeah, that definitely worked," Winston said with a laugh.

Winston, who won Michigan's Mr. Basketball award earlier in the week, scored 31 points on 14-of-16 shooting in front of Tom Izzo — his next coach at Michigan State University. That's impressive for a post player, but Winston is a point guard with 3-point range who also added nine assists.

"We thought if we could keep Cassius out of the paint, we would have a chance," said North Farmington coach Todd Negoshian. "That's the best game I've seen him play in four years. That's why he's going to Michigan State."

Scott Nelson added 13 for the Cubs (28-0), who won the school's first state title.

"People have been dreaming about winning a state title for a long time here, so this is incredibly special," Jesuit coach Pat Donnelly said. "This comes after more than 100 years of basketball history at our school, and someone just told me that we're also the first Catholic League school to win the Class A title in 40 years."

Billy Thomas led North Farmington (24-3) with 23 points, but no one else reached double figures.

"I thought we were getting a lot of good shots, and early in the game, we knocked some of them down," Negoshian said. "After a while, we started coming up short on a lot of them."

That was the Jesuit plan, especially against Thomas.

"He scored, but we really made him work for those shots," Donnelly said. "He took 21, and that takes a toll on your legs."

Winston dominated the first half, scoring 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting. Playing on what will be his home floor this fall, he also had three assists and four turnovers in the half.

The Cubs were up 39-27 at the half, and Winston added seven more points in the third quarter as Jesuit expanded the margin to 15.

"I was scoring the basketball, so my teammates kept feeding me," he said. "The key is that we have other guys who can score this year, so I don't have five guys waiting for me in the paint."

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