Detroit, MI

MHSAA basketball: Cass Tech’s Stevie Hall erupts for 36 in opener

Published

1 month ago

December 8, 2025

MHSAA basketball: Cass Tech’s Stevie Hall erupts for 36 in opener

In basketball, a dominant performance from a star player can feel inevitable, no matter what a defense throws their way.

On Saturday, Dec. 6, during the Horatio Williams Foundation Tip-Off event at North Farmington High School, Detroit Cass Tech junior guard Stevie Hall could not be slowed by a long, athletic and swarming Belleville defense.

Hall erupted for 36 points to lead Cass Tech to a 61-54 win over Belleville in the season-opening game for the Technicians in the 2025-26 Michigan high school basketball season. The 6-foot-3 guard took control of the game in the second and third quarters, scoring 24 of his 36, including a personal 10-0 run in the third quarter to give the Technicians a 14-point cushion they held for the rest of the game.

“He’s been consistently playing that way,” Cass Tech coach Steve Hall, Stevie’s father, said. “We had some early-season [exhibition] games and he’s consistently played that way. It was good to see him come out and show the leadership he showed today.”

Belleville opened with a 15-9 edge after the first quarter, dominating the offensive glass against Cass Tech’s 2-3 zone and flustering them on the other end with their length.

To open the second quarter, Hall was aggressive, getting into the lane before whipping a one-handed pass to junior Ransom Thomas for a wide-open 3, and then getting to the foul line off a drive.

The two plays sparked a 10-0 Cass Tech run, capped by Hall stealing an inbounds pass for an easy layup. By the end of the quarter, Cass erased the deficit with three steals leading to buckets, tying the game at 27.

Hall continued filling it up in the second half with 14 points in the third quarter and eight points in the fourth, as Cass Tech’s defensive intensity picked up to pull away from the Tigers. He got buckets in every manner: backdoor cuts, attacking the basket off the dribble, catch-and-shoot 3s, lulling a defender to sleep with crisp crossovers and behind-the-back dribbles, before launching his lefty jumper.

“Being aggressive, but not too aggressive and turning the ball over and things like that,” Stevie Hall said. “Just keeping my composure, playing together with my teammates, really helped me out.”

Belleville found success in the paint, but couldn’t hit enough jumpers against Cass’ zone to keep pace in the second half. Junior Adam Coats led the Tigers with 19 points.

The Technicians played all 15 players on their roster and also switched up their look on both ends. They primarily played zone because of Belleville’s strong paint presence, and oscillated plays between Hall and Sebastian Thrower as the primary offensive initiator.

“I’m still trying to figure some things out right now,” Steve Hall said in terms of his rotation.

Both Cass Tech (1-0) and Belleville (0-2) gained valuable experience as they prepare for things to ramp up in December.

“We’ve got 10 games in December,” Steve Hall said. “We’ve got league games, games that have playoff implications. So you want to go into those as ready as you can.”

Xavier Pendergrass leads Waverly past Detroit King

Xavier Pendergrass rattled the North Farmington rims more than anyone during the two-day Horatio Williams Foundation event. The 6-foot-7 senior Lansing Waverly forward lived above the rim in a 75-71 win over Detroit King on Saturday.

Pendergrass finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, including two in the waning moments as King furiously closed Waverly’s lead. He brought the crowd to its feet by stuffing King guard Steven Jones on a transition dunk attempt in the fourth quarter.

“For this game, [my team] needed me getting downhill and finishing at the basket and rebounding,” Pendergrass said. “So that’s what I did.”

Pendergrass is a leader for Waverly, which enters the season with an experienced group motivated by last season’s end. The Warriors finished 20-4 in 2024-25, but three losses came to league rival East Lansing, the Division 1 state champions, including in the district semifinals.

“The goal is always to win the conference,” Waverly coach Rod Watts said. “We’ve got East Lansing that we have to deal with to win our conference. Then win the district, and once again, East Lansing is in our district. We know it is not going to be easy.”

A win over a strong team in King helps bolster that confidence early in the season. Outside of Pendergrass controlling the paint, guards Cayden Ali (20 points), C.J. Gomez (12 points) and Derek Thomas (11 points) stepped up in the win.

Ali scored all 20 of his points in the first half before sitting most of the second due to foul trouble. Gomez came in to run point and calmly found his shot to keep King’s comeback attempt at bay.

“That’s a great confidence builder for [Ali], for a guy like him so we are really proud of that,” Watts said. “He was feeling it so much, he got a technical.”

On King’s side, there were plenty of teaching moments for coach George Ward’s group. The Crusaders trailed by 16 at halftime after giving up 26 second-quarter points, but started the second half with an 18-4 run. However, King could not maintain that intensity in the fourth, eventually falling in a tight game.

“When we got back in the game, we didn’t play smart,” Ward said. “I knew at some point our defense would get us back in it. Now, once you get back in, how smart are you going to be? It seemed like we were a little anxious, playing with some anxiety that we did not have to play with. That’s a learning lesson for the guys.”

Jones led King with 26 points. The 6-foot-2 guard finished strong in the paint and hit some late 3s to keep the game within reach. Derrick Kilgore had 19 points and Mareon Knott had 13 points.

“When [Jones] gets downhill, when he’s aggressive and assertive with the basketball, he makes us a much better team,” Ward said. “For him, the maturity level is going to be when he plays 32 minutes like that.”

Nominate a high school athlete for the Detroit Free Press boys and girls athlete of the week.

Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com; Follow Jared on X or Bluesky.

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Detroit, MI

Detroit man arrested following manhunt for double murder in Tennessee

Published

31 minutes ago

January 12, 2026

Press Room

Detroit man arrested following manhunt for double murder in Tennessee

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – A 28-year-old man from Detroit has been arrested for the murder of two people in Tennessee.

Troy Hutchinson and Rodrell Jeter were shot and killed Nov. 16, 2025, outside Nashville, Tennessee. A third man was hospitalized with critical injuries.

Police believe four men were traveling from Detroit to Atlanta in a Ford Bronco when the fourth man opened fire on the victims before leaving in the vehicle. The Bronco was found abandoned in Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati in Ohio.

Jeter and the man who was hospitalized were both from Detroit, while Hutchinson is from Atlanta.

A motive for the shooting remains unknown.

In late November, police identified the suspect as Dashonn Moten. He was indicted on 17 counts, including two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and two counts of felony murder.

After nearly two months, Moten was arrested Friday, Jan. 10, in Sterling Heights and is awaiting extradition to Tennessee for his arraignment.

If convicted, Moten faces possible execution.

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Detroit, MI

Thompson: The new year brings a promising future for Detroit students

Published

13 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Thompson: The new year brings a promising future for Detroit students

Detroit Public Schools Community District often gets a bad rap due to declining enrollment issues or longstanding challenges that led to the historic takeover of the school system before voters returned it to an elected board.

And in many cases, that is the lens through which the school system’s performance is examined and viewed across the state. But there are hidden stories of progress within a school system that is still struggling to define itself and to give young Detroiters hope for a meaningful future.

I saw that first-hand last week at Denby High School, part of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, on the city’s east side, where hundreds of young Black and Brown male students gathered in the basketball gym for the annual policing and prosperity forum.

The annual event initiated and led by tenacious Detroiter Sharlonda Buckman, the district’s assistant superintendent for family and community engagement, is one of the hidden jewels of the public school system and brings together male students from various high schools to discuss their interaction with law enforcement. On the panel were senior and junior police officers from the Detroit Police Department, as well as the district’s public safety chief, Labrit Jackson, all of whom took hard questions from the students about how to navigate the complexities of the criminal justice system.

Before the start of the forum, I met three students: 17-year-old Justin Montgomery, 17-year-old Exavier Ward and 16-year-old Wesley Lewis, all students of Denby.

The three of them live on the east side and are serious and determined students who believe they have an obligation to be worthy ambassadors of their communities.

“I just got a scholarship from Cleary University for track and field and cross country and I just signed the papers so I can be committed,” Ward told me. “I am excited for the new year and I’m ready to live my adult life.”

His parents are also joyful about his future because, “out of all of my siblings, I’m going to be the first one to go to college. I want to major in cybersecurity,” he says.

Montgomery is scouting Oakland University or Central Michigan University and is also interested in a trades school. He’s keeping his options open.

“I have been here for a while and I’m ready to get out of high school. The experience has been good for me,” he says.

For Lewis, graduating in 2027 will make him the first in his family to be committed to college. That alone keeps him upbeat for the new year as he prepares for the challenges and the pressures of being an 11th grade student.

“I’m really ready to go to college. I’m looking at Kentucky State University, Wayne State University and Michigan State University,” he says. “I probably would major in music in college because I currently play the piano. But sometimes I get nervous about college because I feel like it is going to be harder than high school.”

These impressive young men speak to the vitality of the school system and the need to continue to nurture and support them.

The forum on policing and prosperity reinforces that need.

“This forum is so important because we give the students an opportunity to have a voice and talk about the things that are important to them and how they interact with law enforcement,” says Marty Bulger, the district’s senior director of male mentoring.

“Even a more dynamic piece is the fact that because the city has seen a reduction in violent crime, we believe as we reach our young people, we will continue to see a decline. These young men are our future leaders.”

X (formerly Twitter): @BankoleDetNews

bankole@bankolethompson.com

Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.

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Detroit, MI

How are Lions fans feeling after Bears’ thrilling win vs. Packers?

Published

1 day ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

How are Lions fans feeling after Bears’ thrilling win vs. Packers?

The NFL showed on Saturday why they’re the best league in professional American sports. Both Wild Card games were phenomenal, and the dramatic finishes in each game were jaw-dropping. But let’s put aside the thrilling Rams vs. Panthers finish, because the nightcap was far more interesting to Detroit Lions fans.

The Chicago Bears somehow mounted yet another fourth-quarter comeback against the Green Bay Packers in what is already a defining moment in Ben Johnson’s career as the Bears head coach. I got a sense from most Lions fans that they were rooting against Johnson and the Bears for obvious reasons: It’s tough to watch your offensive coordinator go out there and win the division and beat the Packers in the playoffs in his first year.

But there was also a strong contingent of Lions fans out there after Saturday’s outstanding drama reminding people that the Packers remain enemy No. 1—a sentiment I happen to agree with.

So today’s Question of the Day is:

How are you feeling after the Bears’ wild win over the Packers?

My answer: I was definitely among the people rooting against the Bears on Saturday night. For me, it was less about Ben Johnson and more about the Bears being exposed as somewhat fraudulent. Their defense is bad and over-reliant on turnovers, and the last-second comebacks are completely unsustainable. In both of those senses, Saturday was a miserable failure for those narratives. I mean, this statistic is absolutely ridiculous:

And as much as I hate to do it, I have to give the Bears defense credit for changing up their gameplan out of the half, making Jordan Love look uncomfortable for the final two quarters, and holding Green Bay to just six second-half points without even forcing a turnover. As for the comebacks, they can’t keep getting away with it, right???

All of that said, I was still grinning ear-to-ear after the game. For one, I just love dramatic, entertaining football. I’ll take that result any day over the Packers beating the Bears 42-0.

Additionally, the Packers just had their hearts ripped out. One of the most pompous and smug franchises in all of sports now has to sit there and come to terms with blowing an 11-point lead in the final five minutes to their biggest rival. They have to marinate in a 1-4 record in their last five playoff games. And now they have to seriously consider whether their coach—once billed as one of the winningest coaches in NFL history—is the right guy to lead them into the future.

So I’m still brimming with schadenfreude this wonderful Sunday morning, and no amount of “did you write this article from Cancun?” comments will hurt me.

What are your thoughts on the game and the NFC North? Scroll down to the comment section and sound off!

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