Detroit, MI

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

Published

3 months 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’s Sloppy Chops restaurateur Mike Brown fatally shot, 2 injured

Published

6 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Detroit’s Sloppy Chops restaurateur Mike Brown fatally shot, 2 injured

Detroit restaurateur Michael “Mike B.” Brown was fatally shot early Saturday morning in a triple shooting.
The incident occurred outside a cocktail bar on the city’s west side, and police are seeking information.
Brown was a prominent figure in Detroit’s hospitality scene, known for his “Sloppy” brand restaurants.
His establishments were seen as significant in the rise of new Black-owned businesses in the city.

Detroit restaurateur and nightlife mainstay Michael “Mike B.” Brown was fatally shot early Saturday morning on the city’s west side, a violent incident that also left two other people injured and sent shockwaves through Detroit’s hospitality and entertainment communities.

According to Detroit police, the shooting occurred outside Suite 100, a cocktail bar on Schaefer Highway near Puritan Avenue. Investigators are urging anyone with information to come forward. As of Sunday afternoon, authorities had not announced any suspects or arrests.

“At approximately 4:30 a.m., Saturday, there was a triple shooting that occurred at 15789 Schaefer,” Detroit Police Department (DPD) media relations manager Jasmin Barmore wrote in an official statement Sunday afternoon. “Two of the vicims were found in front of the location and the third across the street from the location. Unfortunately, the victim found across the street from the location, Mikey Brown, succumbed to his injuries.

“The Detroit Police Department extends their condolences to the family and is asking the community for assistance with this incident. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to please contact DPD’s homicide unit or, they can submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers or Detroit Rewards TV.”

Brown, 52, had spent decades building a name for himself across Detroit’s club and restaurant circuits, evolving from party promoter to business owner and, in recent years, a culinary entrepreneur with expanding ambitions. His death comes at a moment when he had been working to grow his “Sloppy” restaurant brand – a move that aligned with the rise of new Black-owned establishments reshaping the city’s dining landscape.

His first major restaurant venture, Sloppy Chops, opened in 2020 on West McNichols just off the Lodge Freeway. The steakhouse featured high-end cuts like ribeyes and tomahawks, but it quickly drew wide attention for its low-cost lamb chop specials – a dish with a fervent local following and long-standing ties to the city’s food culture.

A year later, Brown launched Sloppy Crab, later renamed the Crab Sports Bar, on East Jefferson Avenue near the Renaissance Center. The seafood spot mixed Detroiters’ love for crab dishes with the energetic, nightlife-forward atmosphere Brown had refined during his years in the entertainment scene. Occasional cover charges, signature strong cocktails and celebrity drop-ins helped make the venue one of downtown’s most animated destinations, placing it alongside longstanding nightlife pillars such as Floods Bar & Grille and Sweetwater Tavern.

Both restaurants emerged during a period when Detroiters were increasingly vocal about who new development served. Sloppy Crab’s proximity to the riverfront offered an answer to residents who wondered where Black diners fit into the city’s transforming downtown, while Sloppy Chops demonstrated that restaurants with the energy and polish of downtown destinations could thrive in the neighborhoods as well.

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 1,000 comments expressing sadness and shock had flooded a pinned post on Brown’s Instagram page, along with a number of posts on his Facebook profile.

On her own page, Darralynn Hutson, an award-winning journalist, author, documentarian and media strategist who has provided content to a host of media outlets including the Detroit Free Press, shared photos of herself with Brown.

“I had the opportunity to interview Mike a few years ago for a feature in Food & Wine and I remember how reluctant he was about sitting down to talk,” Hutson recalled. “Interviews weren’t his thing – he was much more comfortable building than explaining. I had to call him more than 20 times to set up the interview. He didn’t care about Food & Wine. But once we ate and got into conversation, what came out was his commitment to creating something for his Detroit.”

Brown’s influence stretched far beyond his menus. His establishments became recognizable gathering places, and his presence – familiar from downtown corridors to Dexter Avenue – made him a significant cultural figure in Detroit’s nightlife and, later, its dining renaissance.

His death leaves both industries mourning a personality whose ambitions were still growing, and whose imprint on the city’s social fabric remains unmistakable.

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Detroit, MI

RECAP: Detroit’s lack of execution results in 5-2 loss at Carolina | Detroit Red Wings

Published

18 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

RECAP: Detroit’s lack of execution results in 5-2 loss at Carolina | Detroit Red Wings

RALEIGH, N.C. – Wrapping up the February portion of their 2025-26 regular-season schedule, the Detroit Red Wings unfortunately spent most of their Saturday night playing catch-up in an eventual 5-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center.

“They’re a heck of a team,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “This is a hard building to play in…They’re the class of the East, and you got to come in here at some point and get points. I just didn’t think we executed. We allowed them to be on top of us and come back in waves on Talbs.”

Goalie Cam Talbot made 30 saves in his first start since Jan. 22 for the Red Wings (34-20-6; 74 points), who moved to 11-5-2 on the road since Dec. 6. Meanwhile, turning aside 27 shots netminder Frederik Andersen helped the Hurricanes (38-15-6; 82 points) win their fifth straight game and extend their point streak to 12.

“We’re leaving without points, so that’s real disappointing,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “I thought that the game was real fast to begin with. There was a lot of pace going both ways. It was a good game for us to play in. A lot of their offensive opportunities came off of basically our tape…[Carolina] really took advantage of our mistakes.”

Detroit held steady against Carolina’s characteristically heavy, initial 10-minute push in the opening frame, but the leaders of the Metropolitan Division went up 1-0 when Taylor Hall blocked Simon Edvinsson’s shot attempt in their defensive zone and proceeded to score on a breakaway at 14:05. Then with eight seconds left in the period, while the hosts were on the man advantage, Sebastian Aho’s shot from the left face-off circle deflected off Edvinsson’s stick down low and into the back of the net to extend their lead to 2-0.

“They come out flying and shoot a lot of pucks,” Larkin said. “You can’t really pay attention to the shot clock because they fire it from everywhere, but I liked our start. It’s just that we had some times where we didn’t execute, and they score with eight seconds left. That’s a tough one, but we responded well. We won the second period.”

The Hurricanes struck again just 2:52 into that second period, as Eric Robinson jammed a wrist shot from the top of the crease to push ahead 3-0. But in a span of just 47 seconds late in the stanza, the Red Wings beat Andersen twice to put the hosts on their heels and make it a one-goal game going into the second intermission.

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Detroit, MI

Teenager injured in shooting near Detroit school, police say

Published

1 day ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Teenager injured in shooting near Detroit school, police say

Nick Lentz

February 28, 2026 / 4:36 PM EST
/ CBS Detroit

A teenage male is recovering and police are investigating after a shooting near a school on the east side of Detroit on Friday night.

According to police, the incident happened at 8:28 p.m. on the 3400 block of St. Aubin Street, the same area where the Detroit Edison Public School Academy’s Early College of Excellence is located.

Officials said an altercation ensued inside a building on the block and continued outside. An individual then fired shots that struck the male, whose age has yet to be disclosed, according to police. He was taken to the hospital where he was in stable condition on Saturday.

According to The Detroit News, the altercation was a fight that broke out during Detroit Edison’s boys basketball game against Detroit University Prep.

As of Saturday afternoon, police haven’t shared whether any arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Duluth Police Department at 313-596-5740 or Crime Stoppers of Michigan at 1-800-773-2587.

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