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Renaissance starts fast, blows by King, 65-44, in PSL semifinal
Detroit- Detroit Renaissance will make a return trip to the Detroit Public School League boys basketball final after defeating Detroit King, 65-44, in a semifinal on Friday at Detroit Cass Tech.
Renaissance jumped out to a 15-8 lead after the first quarter with Mr. PSL candidate Justin Turner leading the way with seven points.
All eight points for the Crusaders came from senior guard Mascio McCadney.
The Phoenix never trailed during the game and Turner came out with a scoring mentality. He finished the game with a game-high 25 points.
During one stretch Turner made seven consecutive baskets in the first half as he went 7-of-8 from the field.
King could not seem to get into a rhythm offensively. Senior guard Anthony Randall led King with 15 points.
Turner said that he came into this game focused.
“I felt really good today, got into a rhythm and was able to help the team tonight with the victory,” said Turner.
The Phoenix lost to Detroit Western by one point in last year’s final.
Turner said it would be very important to the team on winning this PSL championship.
“It would be very important to us, we lost by one point last year and were the closest team to give Western a run and that’s all we’ve been working for this summer,” said Turner.
Defensively the Phoenix were strong and physical. They contested King’s shooters and did not allow the Crusaders get comfortable.
Richard Talley added 15 points for Renaissance and Daniel Little had nine.
Renaissance coach Vito Jordan said the victory over King helped them as they play for the championship game.
“This win helped us, the regular season was up and down for us even though we had a good record and to me the players didn’t seem to be in it mentally,” said Jordan. “After the first round of the playoffs I could see that the boys started to finally get their heads together.”
