Oakland Christian stays undefeated by surviving overtime thriller with Lenawee Christian
BY TIMOTHY PONTZER
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
AUBURN HILLS — After a snowy week that cancelled plenty of games around the area, fans were eager to see some basketball over the Super Bowl weekend.
On Saturday, Auburn Hills Oakland Christian faced the Adrian Lenawee Christian in a rare Saturday matchup. It turned out to be a game more suited for the state tournament than early February.
The Lancers survived a huge scare, posting a 55-53 overtime triumph over the visiting Cougars in a non-league boys basketball contest to remain unbeaten on the season.
The Lancers, riding their best start to a season in over a decade, struggled early against the independent Cougars. At the end of the first, Lenawee Christian led the game 17-14.
Oakland Christian was plagued by poor shooting and lack of offensive rebounding failed to notch a basket for the first four minutes of the second quarter. However in the last couple minutes of the half, freshman John Van Noord hit back-to-back 3-pointers for the Lancers (11-0) to cut the deficit to three with the score 25-22 at halftime.
Oakland Christian head coach Dennis Hopkins was frustrated with his squad’s slow start to the game. “Offensively we were a little rusty early, they were able to transition back well and make baskets,” he said. “We were making too many mental mistakes on our half-court offense.”
That rustiness could be attributed to the fact that the Lancers had two games cancelled due to inclement weather earlier in the week. However, the Cougars, an independent team, had only played three games since Dec. 29.
In addition to the Lancers’ lack of games in the past week, OCS suffered from too many fouls in the first half with starters Drew Perrin and Josh Peterson having to sit most of the second quarter due to foul trouble.
“When Peterson was in the game, he controlled the inside, but he was in foul trouble. We felt he could dominate inside, but we had to sit him early as well as Drew (Perrin) because of some early calls,” noted Hopkins.
In the second half both teams were firing on all cylinders and featuring all their starters. The score was knotted up after three 31-31 setting up the pivotal final quarter. Both Perrin and Peterson showed how much they were missed in the first half by accounting for 20 of the 24 Lancers’ points after halftime. The Lancers were able to take the lead after a technical foul was assessed to the Cougars’ bench with less than 50 seconds remaining in the game.
Lenawee Christian head coach Corey Cox was unsure of why the technical was issued.
“I heard something from the assistant coach, but we just roll with it and don’t worry about it,” he said.
The call proved crucial as the Lancers were able to keep a three-point lead with only three seconds left. However, on the final play, Cougars senior Corey Greene took the inbound pass on the final play and hit a buzzer beater three as time expired to force overtime.
Hopkins was agitated by the shot, but impressed nonetheless.
“He (Greene) just spun off and hit it. It takes a lot of gusts to take and hit that shot,” said Hopkins.
At the end of regulation the scoreboard read 48-48, meaning yet another four minutes would be needed to decide a victor. The game marked the first overtime affair for both teams this season, and it proved to be close with the Lancers pulling away, aided by two late free throws by Peterson near the end.
However, just like at the end of regulation, the Cougars had one last play to try and win it with another buzzer beater.
The Cougars inbounded the ball with less than five seconds remaining and set up Greene with another shot, this time giving him an even better look. The shot clanked off the rim and fell harmlessly away, insuring the Lancers would stay undefeated for at least another weekend.
“We had a shot to win it there at the end, but it hit the front rim. We put up a lot of good shots there at the end, we just couldn’t get them to roll in,” Cox recounted.
Despite the loss, the first-year varsity coach was proud of his team’s effort.
“We played really well defensively, they’ve got a deep team with lots of weapons, and we really were able to shut them down,” Cox said.
The Lancers coming off two straight performances of over seventy points, struggled to score. Hopkins attributed the lack of offense to the hustle of the Cougars. “They’re slasher-type players, they were chasing the ball down better than we were. But we were fortunately able to make the plays at the end to pull out a win.”
Drew Perrin led the Lancers’ attack with 19 points while Peterson added 14.
Corey Greene had 19 for Lenawee Christian and Blake Hohlbein notched 15 points.
(Timothy Pontzer is a senior at Auburn Hills Oakland Christian and part of the student correspondent program at www.northoaklandsports.com.)
Category: Auburn Hills Oakland Christian, Prep Wraps
