The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Phoenix too much for Monroe
Torren Burns and Marvon Sanders lead team to easy win
By Dave Merchant, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 31, 2008
The equation for victory on Friday night for the Ypsilanti Phoenix was simple: let Marvon Sanders and Torren Burns have the ball.
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This type of play resulted in an easy 62-50 victory over the Monroe Trojans at home.
In the first quarter, the game stayed fairly close. After sustaining a short Phoenix lead, the Trojans battled back and went ahead on a triple by Michael Bosanac. Monroe led 5-4 with just more than five minutes to play in the first quarter. Ypsilanti quickly came back and took a 13-12 lead on a three ball made by Burns with 1:31 left in the first quarter.
The Phoenix were up 16-14 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter it was time for Burns to put on a shooting clinic, as he scored eight points including the first four points of the period and the last two points at the buzzer.
Ypsilanti had a 33-29 lead at the half.
The first half was quite physical for both teams and the Phoenix had nine fouls and the Trojans had seven.
In the third quarter, the Phoenix seemed to come out firing on all cylinders. Terry Lopez hit a bucket with 4:31 to play in the third to give his team a 44-33 lead. In the first five minutes of the quarter the Phoenix outscored the Trojans 11-6 with both teams missing quite a few shots.
In the fourth quarter, Burns scored four points and Sanders had five. For the game, Burns had 18 points and Sanders pitched in 12.
"It was a tough loss on Tuesday for us," senior guard Sanders said. "We had too many fouls in the first half against Monroe."
Burns said that the talk they had in the locker room at the half was important for his team.
"We knew we had to get in the middle and penetrate," Burns said. "We know we have a good defensive team and once we get that going our team seems to flow."
Ypsilanti Coach Steve Brooks knows he has a good group of players after the tough 1-6 start they had this season.
"A lot of kids would have folded after that type of start," Brooks said. "Ours didn't and that speaks a lot to their character."
On Friday, school was dismissed and instead they used the time to have a team breakfast and prepare for the Trojans. This strategy seemed to work for the Phoenix.
"We asked some of they guys in this game (deeper in the bench) to come out and play," he said. "Sophomore Connor Heine (six points) came out and played well."
Brooks said he was pleased that his team got on each other at the half and knew what they needed to do to win in the second half.
"They challenged one another and they knew what to do," he said. "This team gets it done with their defensive intensity."
On Tuesday in a battle for first place in the Mega Red, the Phoenix fell to Romulus 71-48. Burns had 17 points and Sanders was next with 16 points.
"Romulus is a good team," Brooks said. "The shots were fairly close but it seemed like Romulus knew they were playing for first place and we really didn't."
Brooks said he didn't want to use it as an excuse but his team had a half-day at school and they never really seemed like they were ready to play.
"They caught us off guard and we really didn't play well off the perimeter."
The Eagles snapped Ypsilanti's four-game winning streak. Romulus jumped out to a 25-6 lead and cruised to the win.
Romulus is in first place in the league and in the top five in Class A in the state.
Brooks said it is tough for any team to come back from that can of deficit and against a team like Romulus it is nearly impossible.
Ypsilanti is 6-7 overall and 5-2 in the Mega Red. On Thursday they will play in a crossover at River Rouge.
Contact Staff Writer Dave Merchant at 697-8255 or dmerchant@heritage.com
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