In the blue: Rochester stakes claim to first league title since 2000
REIGNING FALCONS: Rochester's Billy Klotz and the Falcons staked claim to their first league championship since 200o Thursday, topping Birmingham Groves, 69-54. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt. For photo galleries on dozens of local sports events, please visit www.lmckeephotography.com
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
ROCHESTER HILLS — It’s been more than a decade, but Rochester can call itself a champion in boys basketball.
The Falcons put the finishing touches on the outright OAA Blue Division championship Thursday, topping Birmingham Groves, 69-54.
“It feels good. It has been a long time for this program,” admitted third-year head coach John Pleasant.
Rochester’s last league title came in the OAA Division II back in 2000 aided the program’s top-two all-time leading scorers in Walker Russell Jr. and Paul Davis. The latter, Davis, went on to win Mr. Basketball two years afterwards in 2002 before a successful college career at Michigan State and a short NBA career.
The Falcons (14-4, 11-1) still have to face the next highest teams in the league standings next week, Hazel Park and Bloomfield Hills Lahser, but neither of those teams can catch Rochester in the league standings.
The win over Groves marked the 10th straight win for Rochester, which last dropped a league contest to Royal Oak in early January with multiple players out with injuries. The Falcons have dropped four games by less than a combined 20 points this season.
“We’ve won 10 in a row, but to be honest, we could easily be 18-0 right now,” admitted Pleasant. “We gave away our first game to West Bloomfield and lost in overtime. We lost to (White Lake) Lakeland in December and we dropped a close one to Mt. Clemens in our Christmas tournament. We could have won all of those. Our other loss was to Royal Oak when we had some guys out. We still should’ve won that game, too.”
Junior point guard Paris Pereira nailed seven 3-pointers and scored a game-high 25 points — both which are career highs — to pace the Falcons. Pereira missed a month of the season with a leg injury.
Senior Billy Klotz and junior Taylor Perry both added 13 points for Rochester.
“I remember Paris made five 3-pointers in his first game on varsity as a freshman, now he comes out and does it in a game that clinches the league for us,” said Pleasant. “It’s good to have him back.
“I like our balance on this team,” continued the coach. “We’ve have a lot of guys contributing — and it’s different guys each game. One night its Billy Klotz and Nick Bradley, one (night) its Taylor Perry. Kurt Apostal has been steady for us. Jason Lee, our freshman, did a great job stepping in the point guard spot when Paris was out with an injury. Now, Paris comes through and has a great game like this.
“I’m proud of these guys for battling back,” continued Pleasant. “We lost Allante (Thompson) over the summer (for disciplinary reasons) and he was our starting center, then we lost three of our first four games. Now we are league champs. We hope to add district champs next.”
Rochester led 13-10 after the first quarter and used an 11-3 run to go up 24=-13 at the half. Rochester outscored Groves 41-36 in the second half, but at one point led by 29 points in the fourth quarter before pulling off the attack.
Groves had a late run to close the final back down to 15 points.
Justin Meredith scored 11 for Groves.
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Category: High School, Prep Wraps, Rochester
