In a close basketball game, the team that makes plays in crucial moments wins.
After watching powerhouses No. 3 Southfield Lathrup and No. 6 West Bloomfield make plays over the past two weeks, Clarkston discovered how the other half lives as they staved off a hungry Pontiac Northern team on Oct. 6 for a 49-43 victory.
‘We had to come together. That wasn’t our best game and emotions were flying high and people were yelling, but we just had to put our heads together and slow down and play our game,? said senior guard Tamra Green. ‘The heart was there, we just had to have confidence in one another.?
In the fourth quarter, Clarkston nursed a tenuous five point lead with under four minutes left in the game. A change in the Wolves precipitated two steals by sophomore Julie Johnston and one by junior Chelsea Kouri, which led to easy buckets on the offensive end and preserved the victory.
‘We switched to a 1-2-2 half court trap and made some steals off that, which was good for us. We just keep preaching getting stops on the defensive end and hopefully our points will come, whether we have to grind them out or not,? said Clarkston Coach Tim Wasilk.
Pontiac Northern 1-8 (1-4) is a young team evidenced by a lack of any seniors on their roster. The Huskies inexperience in pressure situations hurt them when the Wolves turned up the defensive pressure.
‘We got a little frantic and sometimes we lost our thought process. At this level of competition, if you don’t understand exactly what you need to do you get lost,? said Pontiac Northern Coach Leola Green.
Though Clarkston got out of the gym with a win, in the process bringing their record to 6-5 (3-2), Wasilk felt his team came out flat. That notion was backed up by Clarkston’s inability to build on a 21-15 first-quarter lead, instead allowing Northern to take the lead at one point in the second quarter, before a buzzer beater by Kouri made the halftime score 25-24.
‘Our mental approach has to be there every game,? said Wasilk. ‘A positive is, we got it done in the fourth quarter. We’ve been preaching and talking about learning how to win, getting it done when you need to,? said Wasilk.
Kouri led the Wolves in scoring with 16 points, shooting 6/9 from the field. Green turned in a nice all around game recording six points to go with four assists and six rebounds. Senior Amanda Kaltz added 10 points in the win.
In earlier action, Clarkston trounced Davison 72-35 on Oct. 4 behind 19 points from Kouri and 13 points from junior Sam Carter.
Clarkston is now 4-2 in their last six games; the only losses coming against the aforementioned state ranked juggernauts which along with No. 1 Avondale hog the top of the standings of the OAA Division I.
The Wolves game at Troy Athens finished too late for this edition of The Clarkston News.
Next up on the schedule is a home game against Lake Orion on Oct. 13, followed by a tall test at Avondale on Oct. 18.