Clarkston keeps Troy in check
BY DAN STICKRADT
PICKING APART: Clarkston's Marcus Hardy rushes past Troy's Mike Sully after a steal during Tuesday's OAA crossover triumph. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
CLARKSTON — Both Clarkston and Troy shared a common thread entering Tuesday night.
The host Wolves shared the lead in the OAA Red Division boys basketball race, while Troy is the sole leader of the OAA White Division. As conference leaders, both have played extremely well in recent weeks.
That’s about all they shared on the court Tuesday during Tuesday’s OAA crossover game.
Clarkston outscored Troy 64-40 over the final three quarters after a slow start to turn in a 74-52 triumph over the Colts.
“We’re still climbing the hill,” admitted Dan Fife, Clarkston’s head coach who has seen his team go from 2-4 to 8-5 overall in the past month. “I was really happy with the win tonight. (Troy) threw a lot at us defensively and things we don’t see very often and things we don’t work on a lot. I think it really put us on our heels early in the game.
“We really struggled mentally in the first half. We came out (in the third quarter) and fought through the negatives in our mind, started to shake it off and play like we’re capable,” added Fife.
Clarkston dominated for long stretches of the game to pull away from one of Oakland County’s more athletic teams.
Senior forward Marcus Hardy finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds on the interior, while junior guard Nick Tatu continued his recent pace with a game-high 21 points and four assists. He finished with a trio of 3-pointers.
Mitch Baezinger had a fine floor game with nine points, eight rebounds and six assists, Max Collins added eight points and both Matt Rodgers and Jordan Dasuqi scored seven apiece for the Wolves, who out-rebounded the Colts 40-29 and shot 26-for-62 (42 percent) from the floor.
More importantly, the Wolves kept Troy’s big guns in check. Sophomore forward James Young was held to nine points and eight rebounds, junior guard Evan Mahone had 10 points, five assists and four rebounds, and senior forward Mike Sully chipped in with nine points and five rebounds.
Troy led 12-10 after the first quarter, all on three-pointers. Senior guard John Stibich canned three triples in the frame, but only finished with 11 points. Young and Stibich combined for a 7-for-26 shooting night.
“We know he’s an outstanding player,” conceded Fife on young. “(Stibich) is an outstanding shooter. We knew we had to guard those kids and be tough with them. It’s tough because they spread you out.”
Troy, at times, couldn’t throw it into the ocean standing on the beach. The Colts jacked up 25 three pointers on 58 total attempts and just made six long distance bombs and 14 overall field goals. The Colts (11-3) were just 24 percent from three-point land and 31.1 percent from the floor overall.
“We have lived and died by the three-pointer all year long and we died by it tonight,” offered Troy coach Gary Fralick. “We took too many threes too many times. When we’re hitting them, we look pretty good. When we’re not hitting them, it’s ugly.
“We had no movement on offense, we had no rebounding tonight. It just looked like we were dead,” continued Fralick. “We were lethargic and out of sync. We had a big emotional win on Friday and we just had a letdown tonight. We couldn’t handle their energy. They just played better than us tonight.”
Five different players scored in a 18-13 second quarter, which helped Clarkston (8-5) grab a 28-25 lead entering the half. In the third quarter, Tatu uncorked 14 of his team’s 22 points in a 22-7 frame to give the Wolves a 50-32 cushion entering the fourth quarter.
The lead ballooned to as many as 24 points on two occasions in the fourth quarter, as Clarkston dominated the entire second half, where they outscored the Colts, 46-27.
The Wolves are a changed ballclub since losing four of their first six games.
“I think it’s our urgency,” offered Hardy. “I think it the urgency to go out and make plays, keep the defenses guessing and dictate our shots and what we are going to do.”
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Category: Clarkston, Prep Wraps, Troy
