Moss’ big night helps Troy drop Pontiac in season opener
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
j.lourim@comcast.net
TROY — The game was as even as any at halftime. Troy junior point guard Karin Moss decided it was time for her to take over.
Moss recorded 23 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, and seven steals in taking over the second half of a season-opening 60-50 win over host Pontiac in a girls basketball.
She outran, outhustled, outshot, and out-jumped the athletic host Phoenix.
Troy clearly controlled the majority of each of the first two quarters, but the Phoenix owned the waning minutes of each and took a one-point lead at the break.
“Karin was superb,” Troy first-year head coach Dennis Koch said. “She did a great job of handling the ball and the pressure. She knew when she needed to pass the ball and she did that, and she knew when she needed to shoot the ball and did that.
“She played a great game; I’m very happy for her.”
Moss gave Troy the lead in the first two minutes of the second half with a pair of free throws and a couple of assists. An 11-2 run in the third quarter gave the Colts an eight-point lead.
In the spurt, Moss tallied a three-pointer and two assists, totaling four in the quarter.
Then, she opened the fourth quarter with a three-ball and a fast-break layup. Moss’s pass to junior Katy McCuish with 6:28 to go yielded a jumper by McCuish that sealed Pontiac’s fate.
In the final moments of a foul-filled opener—the referees called 56 total in the game — the Phoenix never pulled back within single digits.
Troy turned it over to the clock to down Pontiac.
It was Pontiac with the late runs in the first two quarters — 8-0 and 5-0 — that ended the first half right.
Those few minutes were the only minutes for Moss on the bench.
The runs gave the host Phoenix a few minutes to cheer for some good plays; when Moss was putting on her show, the gym was still pretty loud.
“That place was rocking,” Koch said.
Fighting through foul trouble, senior center Liz Siepker anchored the inside for the Colts with 13 points and ten rebounds. Freshman Sydney Heath started in her varsity game and grabbed ten rebounds.
Siepker put in all four of her field goals on assists from Moss, who controlled much of the game.
The Oakland Press rated Pontiac second in the OAA Red and sixth in the county, while it pegged Troy fifth in the league.
Moss stated her case with a highlight reel of plays, the greatest of which came in the final minute of the third quarter.
The junior ran down the court and, though set to make a layup easily, dished behind her back to a waiting Gabbi Ellis for the deuce.
Moss ran back down the court pumping her fist.
Asked about the pass after the game, the floor general just laughed.
“I was in my zone,” she said.
(Jake Lourim is a sophomore at Troy High School and a student correspondent at www.northoaklandsports.com.)
Category: Prep Wraps, Troy
