BY HARRY KNITTER
Clarkston News Staff Writer
The Clarkston Wolves demonstrated why their defense has been the strong point of their 4-0 basketball team as they defeated the visiting Dragons of Lake Orion in a one-sided effort, 72-46, Thursday, Dec. 18, at Clarkston .
The defense simply swarms to the ball like an army of bees to a cache of honey. Their opponents thus far haven’t been able to penetrate the swarming defense, which forces turnovers, which result in baskets or fouls.
Coming close to the defensive highlight of the year, when they held Carman-Ainsworth scoreless in the third quarter and half of the 4th quarter of their game on Dec. 16th, the Wolves held Lake Orion to a measly two points in the second quarter of their game Thursday. The end-of-quarter scores Thursday were 18-8 at the end of the first, 34-10 at half, 55-25 at the conclusion of the third quarter, and 72-46 (final).
On the offensive side, it was Brad Goodman’s good fortune to be in the right place at the right time, and he wound up the leading CHS scorer with 20. Chris Johnston was second with 18, including an alley-oop and a spectacular dunk that got the crowd going in the fourth quarter. Johnston spent almost the entire third quarter on the bench. Johnson had led the team with 59 points in the three games preceding their match with the Dragons.
Goodman was deadly from a distance as well as close range. He played a solid defensive game and scored consistently when he had the ball in the offensive end.
Earlier in the week came payback of sorts against Carman-Ainsworth from Flint’s Big Nine Conference.
When your team holds the opponent scoreless for an entire quarter, plus four minutes of the next quarter, you know that there’s some extra motivation involved.
Not to mention skill.
But it took a little encouragement from the coach to light a fire under the Wolves? defense.
After Coach Dan Fife gave him a rather pointed message about his defensive play, Kyle Rademacher responded with a gymnastic layup and followed up with a three-pointer from long distance, bringing the score to 29 to 17.
At the end of the second quarter, the score was 40 to 28, Clarkston in the lead. Twenty points later, the Wolves were ahead 60 to 28, and Ainsworth hadn’t scored a single point during the third quarter against the Wolves? defense. Meanwhile, the Clarkston marksmen were swishing the netting repeatedly as they built an insurmountable margin.
Then forward Zack McGee of Carman-Ainsworth hit a pair of free throws to break the drought.
* * *
The Clarkston JayVees recorded another impressive win over Carman-Ainsworth’s JV squad, 53 to 35.
Top scorers for Clarkston were Brad Goodman with 15, Chris Johnston with 11, including a jam on an alley-oop pass from Kyle Rademacher, and dozens of contributions from the steady stream of competent performers that Coach Dan Fife sent into battle from his loaded bench.
After this game, Clarkston’s record stood at 3-0 and Ainsworth, competing in the Big Nine Conference, is 1-2.