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KALAMAZOO — The way Kingston Thomas sees it, to borrow a boxing term, he and KJ Torbert are like a heavy left-right combo.
If opponents contain one, the other is ready to deliver for the East Lansing boys basketball team.
And that left-right combo turned out to be a knockout punch on Thursday, March 5, as the Trojans kept alive their hopes for a second straight state championship.
Thomas and Torbert played key roles for East Lansing as it captured its fourth straight Division 1 regional championship, pulling away for a 68-39 victory over Kalamazoo Central on Thursday, March 5, at Loy Norrix High School.
"I'm so proud of these guys," East Lansing coach Ray Mitchell said. "I knew this was going to be a battle. We came out in the second half and we really were a little bit more focused defensively and offensively. I thought in the first half we let them get a few easy buckets and easy looks and we didn't want to allow that in the second half. Offensively we wanted to try to execute a little bit better and I think we did that as well.
Torbert, a Mr. Basketball finalist, had 28 points and six rebounds and Thomas had 23 points, five rebounds and five assists to help the Trojans (25-1) advance to face Ann Arbor Pioneer in a Division 1 quarterfinal Tuesday, March 10, at Don Johnson Fieldhouse in Lansing.
It was Thomas who delivered first for East Lansing with a big second quarter. The Trojans trailed 20-14 in the early stages of the second quarter when Mitchell called a timeout. East Lansing responded by outscoring Kalamazoo Central, 13-2, the rest of the half to take the lead at the intermission. Thomas scored 11 points in that run while helping quiet the Kalamazoo Central crowd.
"We have on our board, 'Noise equals poise,' " Thomas said. "We knew this is pretty much their gym so it was going to be loud and they were going to try to get in our heads. We just had to be calm and stay patient.
"For me just to come out and really do what I do, we were down big, I think seven or six. Being able to end the half up seven or six is just a huge swing for us. Just being poised is the biggest thing for us."
From there, Torbert took over as the Trojans broke things open. He had 15 points in the third quarter to fuel East Lansing.
'I just had to keep attacking the basket because they really (weren't) playing help defense," Torbert said.
DeQuarius Stewart added eight points and nine rebounds and Kellen Lott finished with six rebounds and seven assists to help put the Trojans one win away from a return to the Breslin Center.
Contact Brian Calloway at [email protected]. Follow him on X @brian_calloway and Bluesky @briancalloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: East Lansing basketball tops Kalamazoo Central for regional title
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