Detroit East English Prep junior Kamari Newman did not appear in the starting lineup against Taylor Kennedy. Quite the oddity for a Detroit Public School League All-City first team member.
“I didn’t practice yesterday because my ankles,” Newman said following the game. “So I had to come off the bench, so that was nothing.”
And nothing it was.
Newman poured in a team-high 23 points off the bench as the number 20 ranked Bulldogs routed twenty-fifth ranked Taylor Kennedy 85-63.
“Everybody contributed to offense, everyone played solid defense, it was a good solid overall win for our team,” said Newman.
Aside from Kamari, three other Bulldogs contributed double-figures scoring wise. 6’4″ forward Cedric Lattimore tallied 19, front court mate Jaylin McFadden added 14 points to go along with seven rebounds, and senior point guard Fred Jones contributed 11 points. Compared to Kennedy with just two players with more than nine points.
“It doesn’t matter whose scoring,” Newman added. “Me, Chris (Rollins), Ced (Lattimore), Nate (Bowlware). It doesn’t matter everybody can pretty much go-off.”
As much as the Bulldogs are talented offensively, The Village’s defense also impacted the game. EEVP’s full-court pressing defense caused 22 Kennedy turnovers. 10 of those occurred in the third quarter, where East English outscored the Eagles 25-10 after a narrow lead of six at intermission. Other than senior guard Andia Marsh, only one additional Eagle scored more than five points in the second half. Marsh finished with 21 points to lead Kennedy.
“Our defense, that’s one of the biggest things about our team,” Newman mentioned. “We lock-up, we play defense at practice just like we play in a game.”
East English Village decided to take 13 days off since their last game, a narrow four point loss to Renaissance in the city semi-final. Much has been expected of this Bulldog squad since the pre-season. East English won 10-12 contests against league competition, the other loss was against Detroit Western, the state’s number one ranked team. In March, however, the Bulldogs could possibly only face one PSL team en route to the Breslin Center, a rematch with Detroit Western in the regionals. The Village isn’t short on talent to have reservations for East Lansing in late March.
“The city championship loss, that just made us hungry,” Newman said. “So we can get ready for this state playoff run.”
“Defense and rebounding, that’s going to be our main goals.”
The Prep Ball Report 
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