Rochester hammers Hamtramck, advances to finals of Holiday Classic

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

ROCHESTER HILLS — Rochester was not pleased with its performance in last year’s Rochester Holiday Classic. The Falcons blew a late lead to Mt. Clemens in the championship game.

Rochester is trying to make amends of last year’s mishap.

The Falcons opened up with a 25-5 run in the first quarter and never looked back in punishing Hamtramck in the second semifinal of the second-annual tournament, 65-38.

Rochester will host Roseville, a 54-51 winner over West Bloomfield, in the finals Friday at 7:45 p.m.

“This week we’re trying to treat this like a district to prepare us,” said Rochester coach John Pleasant. “We played Monday and (in this tournament) we had a Wednesday game and Friday game. Our goal is to win a district and playing three games will help. We play a good team in Roseville Friday, and the guys tonight should be rested. I was worried playing three games this week.”

The Falcons had two additional players as opposed to its win Monday over Detroit Cody.

“(Having more guys) helped. We got a lot of guys in, which is good,” said Pleasant. “You never know, with foul trouble or injuries, you never know when you need for guys to step up.”

Rochester forced the Cosmos into eight turnovers in the first quarter alone and used a vaunted press that featured nine players in the first seven minutes alone.

The Falcons (4-1) used 11 players by the 12-minute mark and simply wore the Cosmos down. By the half, Rochester was in complete control, Holding a 40-14 lead while forcing 11 turnovers and holding Hamtramck to only five first-half field goals.

Rochester, which played Monday in the Motor City Roundball Classic at Detroit Country Day and posted a 48-44 victory over Detroit Cody, did not suffer from tired legs. In fact, Rochester was missing three players against Cody and benefitted from the added depth against the outmatched Cosmos.

The Falcons outscored Hamtramck 18-14 in the third quarter to open up a 58-28 lead. Rochester rotated freely in the fourth quarter, getting bench players a significant majority of the minutes.”

Rochester sent nine different players into the scoring column and only had 11 available players overall.  Western Michigan-bound Taylor Perry finished with a game-high 23 points, including 9-for-10 from the free throw line, to pace Rochester.

Paris Pereira added 12 points and four steals, Sean McCann scored nine, 6-foot-7 Arman Camaj chipped in with five points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots and Jason Lee, who didn’t play against Cody due to the flu, was a huge lift off the bench for Rochester, supplying three points and five assists for the Falcons, which collected 19 steals as a team.

“Jason defends like crazy. He’s our best on-ball defender, he plays the point for us and he can take Paris or Mike (Klotz) off the ball,” said Pleasant.  “It sometimes looks like he takes an extra couple of dribbles, but he finds post players slipping in.”

Nadis Ahmic scored 13 to lead Hamtramck (0-5).

The Falcons will play a highly-athletic team in Roseville Friday.

“Roseville is athletic, they seem to be disciplined, too. They don’t hurry, (they were) very patient against West Bloomfield,” said Pleasant. “But we’ve played four games this season that tested us for these types of games.”

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