Kneeling L-R:
Ernest Stewart, Thad Williams,
Courtney Hawkins, Lacy Harris,
Darren Thompson, Norman
Mize, Manager Mario Harris
Standing L-R: Coach Mose
Lacy, Randy Clark, Douglas
Alexander, Ricky Jackson,
Maurice Hughes, John Boyton,
Roy Marble, Warren Walker-
Bey, Henry Dixon, Robert
Schermerhorn
Assistant Coaches Not
Pictured: Solomon Lacy, Dave
Hollingsworth
No obstacle placed in front of them was too difficult for Beecher’s 1984-85 boys’ basketball team.
Not Hastings’ Mark Brown, who scored more points that season than any player before or since in state history.
Not Muskegon Reeths-Puffer’s Mark Hughes, who would become co-captain of Michigan’s 1989 national championship team and a Detroit Piston
for one season.
Not Saginaw Buena Vista’s Mark Macon, a future first-round draft pick of the Denver Nuggets.
Not Macon’s teammate Shoun Randolph, a member of Temple’s top-ranked team that reached the Elite Eight in 1988.
Those players and teams were tough, but not as tough as the daily grind of playing basketball under coach Mose Lacy.
“It was a special team with a lot of special, hard-working, hard-nosed players,” said Courtney Hawkins, who was a freshman on that team. “Really,
our biggest challenges were in practice. With coach Lacy, we used to go at it in practice, so games were a treat.”
Games were never a treat for Beecher’s opponents that season. The Buccaneers, playing a tough nonleague schedule and predominantly Class
A schools, won the state Class B championship with a perfect 27-0 record.
The Buccaneers cruised through postseason victories over Ainsworth (62-48), Birch Run (79-24), Fenton (58-37) and St. Clair (91-44) before the
real challenges arrived.
They went up against Brown and his Hastings teammates in the quarterfinals, pulling out a 52-46 victory. Brown scored 35 points to break the
state single-season scoring record, but the rest of the team had only 11. Beecher didn’t score in the fourth quarter until 1:30 remained, but Lacey
Harris hit five free throws down the stretch to keep Hastings at bay.
Next was a clash against Hughes and second-ranked Reeths-Puffer (23-2). Again, a star player got his points against the Buccaneers, but they
shut down the supporting cast in a 44-42 victory. Hughes scored 26 points. A 28-footer at the buzzer by Andre Johnson missed the mark, allowing
Beecher to move on to the championship game at Crisler Arena.
The state final was the third meeting of the season between two teams that became nonconference rivals, Beecher and Buena Vista. Beecher
swept the regular-season meetings, 61-54 and 50-48. Those were the only times before the state quarterfinals that a team came closer than 14
points to Beecher.
