Four-peat: Oakland Christian captures fourth straight district title by knocking off Our Lady of the Lakes

BY TIMOTHY PONTZER

STUDENT CORRESPONDENT

CLARKSTON — Tradition is built by repetition. The tradition of a program is built by success.

Auburn Hills Oakland Christian continued its tradition by winning its fourth straight Class D district title on Friday night with a win over Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes.

The district final, hosted at Clarkston Everest Collegiate, was a rematch of the first game of the season for both teams. In that December game, Oakland Christian rallied in the fourth quarter to post a 53-51 victory on the road.

Fans for both teams packed the Everest gym in anticipation of another hard fought tilt between the co-champions of the Michigan Independent Athletic Conference (Oakland Christian ) and their rivals from the Catholic High School League.

This time it wasn’t as close, as Oakland Christian cruised to a 56-39 triumph.

Oakland Christian head coach Dennis Hopkins was pleased with the victory and the district championship to go with it. He pointed to his scrappy defense as a major reason for the victory.

“Our goal is to keep our opponent under 45 points every game, and we did that,” he said. “We were hedging hard, chasing hard and shutting down their ball screen, which helped us get the win.”

Friday night’s game proved to have a wider margin on the scoreboard than initially expected. Both teams struggled early, suffering from poor shooting and bad turnovers on the way to a 9-8 advantage for the Lancers after one quarter.

In the second frame, Oakland Christian (21-1) took off, opening the quarter with an 11-0 run, keyed by seven different players scoring for the Lancers’ attack. Oakland Christian carried all of the momentum into the locker room with a 24-13 lead at halftime.

Our Lady of the Lakes (14-8) head coach Sean Wightman pointed to the first half as a disappointment, and as the reason for his team’s loss.

“Very disappointing, we play better than this,” Wightman said. “We were nervous and didn’t shoot well. We can’t compete with that few of points in the first half. We tested them out, but after that run (11-0 by OCS) we tried too much and couldn’t answer.”

The third quarter was more of the same for Oakland Christian, notching an impressive 19 points on the way to 43-25 lead heading into the final quarter. Lakes started the fourth quarter strong in the attempt of a comeback, scoring a quick 10 points in the first three minutes and narrowing Oakland’s lead to only

11, but the deficit proved too much.

The Lakers were forced to foul down the stretch and the Lancers hit nearly all of its fourth quarter shots from the charity stripe on their way to a 56 – 39 victory.

Wightman pointed to the fourth as a good period for his squad, but one that didn’t come fast enough in the overall game.

“It was too little too late. We were desperate and trying to get anything we could,” said Wightman.

Hopkins also pointed to the play of his 6-foot-6 junior center Josh Peterson as a big contributor to the offense. Peterson picked up a double-double with a game leading 16 points and 11 points. Peterson also made his presence felt on the defensive side of the ball, notching five blocks, several of which brought the Lancers’ supporters to their feet.

“He was a weapon for us tonight,” Hopkins said, “They (Lakes) couldn’t stop him.”

Coach Wightman agreed with Hopkins’ take on Peterson, citing him as the major difference in the game.

“He (Peterson) has good post moves, he is good at getting clean-up shots … he does a lot of stuff people don’t see from the stands, but it helps them a lot,” he said. “He really killed us inside. My post players couldn’t handle him and that inside game of theirs destroyed us. That’s what cost us the game.”

In addition to Peterson’s 16, Oakland Christian junior Drew Perrin dropped 10 points and freshman John Van Noord had nine points, going 3-for 4 from downtown. For the Lakers, sophomore Garret Ross had 14 points and senior Austin Karbowski had 12 points on a team that lacked balance with only four players scoring overall for WOLL.

Wightman pointed out the play of Ross as a key component to the overall team.

“He had to score for us tonight, he had a lot of good shots, and he rebounds extremely well, it is hard to take him off the floor because he is my best rebounder,” offered Wightman.

Despite the victory, Coach Hopkins saw several aspects that his squad could improve on, including their awful performance from the free throw line, going 15-for-28 in the game.

“We stunk, but when the game was on the line and we felt the pressure of a championship game we were able to hit our free throws,” offered Hopkins.

Overall, Hopkins was pleased with the team’s fourth straight district crown, but is already looking ahead to the next stage.

“Now it is onto the next step, we’re taking it one game at a time,” said Hopkins.

Oakland Christian continues on Monday night at Roeper High School in the first round of regional play.

The Lancers will face bitter divisional rival Parkway Christian, whom they swept both games from earlier in the season.

Tags: boya basketball, boys basketball districts

Category: Auburn Hills Christian Acadamy, High School, Prep Wraps, Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes