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	The Ypsilanti Courier A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

Purple and Gold take home nail-biter victory

Ypsilanti basketball improves to 5-4 overall, 2-0 Mega Red

By Bruce Mason, Special Writer

PUBLISHED: January 25, 2007

It was a brutal game but well worth it.

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That's how Ypsilanti varsity basketball coach Steve Brooks said his players felt the morning after defeating Monroe, 59-53, in a nail-biter Friday.

"We just knew it was going to be that type of game," Brooks said. "(Monroe) are very physical. They're always tough."

And bigger too, Brooks said. But it seems that every team is bigger compared to Ypsilanti as the roster features a starting center at 6-foot, 3-inches tall. Monroe, conversely, has a guard listed at 6-foot-2.

Despite the mismatches, Ypsilanti prevailed in the contest and is now 5-4 overall and 2-0 in the Mega Red Conference.

L.J. Frazier scored 15, and Torin Burns and Marvon Sanders chipped in 14 each for Ypsilanti. The victory for Ypsilanti gave Monroe, a team that had previously defeated Belleville by 15 points, its first loss of the season.

"They've got a great coach down there," Brooks said. "As we all say, the Mega Red is no joke."

The schedule Brooks has aligned for his team, outside of the Mega Red, is no joke either. Every team Ypsilanti has played — seven out of nine opponents — at one time or another has been state-ranked.

Ypsilanti lost to Muskegon Heights and Detroit Public School League powerhouses Detroit Finney, Detroit Central and Detroit Southwestern.

Meanwhile, they've beaten Detroit Community and Detroit Consortium Prep, which are two teams Brooks said will probably contend for Class C state titles.

And it certainly doesn't get any easier throughout the second half of the season, Brooks said. But the purple-and-gold head coach isn't terribly concerned about the team's upcoming match-ups with Mega Red opponents in the likes of Dearborn Heights-Robichaud amd tjem Belleville on Friday. Ypsilanti will face two more tough teams the following week against Romulus and Taylor Truman.

"I'm kind of satisfied," Brooks said about the state of his team. "The rotation is starting to form."

Brooks said he uses eight to nine players in that rotation. He starts the same three guards each game, but switches around the four and five positions depending upon match-ups, game flow and instincts.

During this last game, junior Jordan Fraser started at the four spot. Fraser is 6-foot-2 and gives up some height to most players — given the position — but has guard skills to go along with his crafty play.

For a team that starts only one senior and carries four juniors and five sophomores, Brooks likes the recent production.