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BASKETBALL: Pershing Defeats Southeastern 63-54 in PSL-East showdown
DETROIT – Two of the top programs in Detroit squared off Friday night in a highly anticipated matchup between Detroit Pershing and Detroit Southeastern. At stake was sole possession of the PSL-East Division lead, and possible bragging rights of being the best team in the city.
In a game that Pershing controlled, Southeastern kept coming back, and the nine point margin of victory did not fully reflect how close the game was. Pershing jumped off to an.early 9-2 lead in the 1st, including two straight 3-pointers by guard Martez Walker. Southeastern would come back to tie the game at 12 on a Leonard Baker lay-up with 1:13 left in the 1st quarter. Southeastern took their only lead of the game at 18-16 on a basket by Daryl Bingham with 6:29 left in the half. Then Pershing made their run. The Doughboys went on a 13-3 run, capped off by two free throws with 4 seconds left in the half to go into the locker room with a 29-21 lead.
Pershing came out in the 3rd quarter with the same first quarter intensity when a 3-pointer by Khalil Felder pushed the lead to 34-21. Pershing would add another basket to push their lead to fifteen at 36-21, their largest of the game. After cutting the lead to 38-29, Southeastern went on another run and cut into Pershing’s lead even more when Jovone Haynes hit a huge 3-pointer with 3:15 left in the 3rd, leaving Pershing up by just two, 40-38. With both teams keeping it close with back to back baskets, Pershing started to take over in the 4th. They drove the lead up to thirteen, 59-46, when Martez Walker, the game’s leading scored with 21, took it the distance for a huge slam dunk but was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim.
Southeastern, however, would not go away quitely, responding with 6-0 run that brought them within seven at 59-52 with 1:59 remaining. Two wide open lay-ups in a row by Felder (17 points,5 rebounds) and Darsean Woodson (17 points,4 assists) with just 18 seconds left, however, sealed the 63-54 win for Pershing.
Leonard Baker led Southeastern with 18 points and Jovone Haynes added 10 points. Pershing will get right back to work next week when they face Monte Morris and the #1 ranked team in Class C, Flint Beecher.
