Ferndale’s ball movement stymies Troy

BY JAKE LOURIM

STUDENT CORRESPONDENT

TROY — Another big performance from star junior James Young was a step forward for the Troy boys basketball team. A poor defensive performance and a league loss were steps back and Ferndale was the benefactor.

Troy got outrebounded against Ferndale Friday and gave up a season-high point total in an 83-74OAA White Division loss to the Eagles.

“We deserved what we got tonight,” Troy coach Gary Fralick said. “I think we thought we could just trade baskets with them, but we didn’t come to play defense and we didn’t come to rebound tonight.

DRIVING UPCOURT: Troy junior guard James Young brings the ball down the middle of the court during Friday's OAA White Division contest with Ferndale. Larry McKee, www.lmckeephotography.com

“Our defensive efficiency was really not good tonight, and it was not anywhere near where it needs to be to beat a team of this caliber,” added Fralick.

The punch-for-punch style worked for most of the first half for Troy (6-4, 1-1), but Ferndale continued to pound the inside and went into the paint for three easy baskets in the last minute of the half to go up by eight points.

Midway through the third quarter, the Eagles mounted an 8-0 run bookended by two 3-pointers to go up 62-48. Early in the fourth, Ferndale went inside again for an 8-2 run on only points in the paint, going up by 17 this time around.

A brief Troy spurt trimmed the deficit, but Ferndale (7-3, 2-0 OAA White) went into ball-control mode and killed the clock.

“‘Why are you trying to shoot me out of the game now? We just had five layups in a row!’” Ferndale coach Tom Staton said he joked during a time-out before icing the win.

It was a game where Troy had the fireworks, but wasn’t consistent enough with its offense. Ferndale, meanwhile, scored repeatedly and got second-chance points. The Eagles pulled down 16 offensive rebounds, another issue that plagued Troy.

“We keep running rebounding drills,” Fralick said, “but right now, we’ve got too many guys that want to float around on the perimeter and not go down and help with defensive rebounds.”

The final rebounding margin was 36-31 in favor of Ferndale, and Troy’s Young had a game-high 14 boards. But those numbers were padded by Troy’s late free-throw rebounds with Ferndale in the backcourt.

Young continued his terrific play with 33 points, giving him an average of 34 in the last three games. He shot seven-for-seven in the first half.

Troy couldn’t keep it up, though. Three times in the second half, the Colts went almost three minutes without scoring.

Ferndale coach Tom Staton said he tried everything to slow down the Troy offense: switching to a zone to prevent the corner 3-point shot, clogging the lane to stop penetration, and clamping down on Young’s supporting cast. Still, he said, he didn’t know if his team could stop Troy.

“I looked up and we were up by 10 points, and I was like, ‘Okay, thank you!’” Staton laughed.

Troy will have to play more consistent defense in road league games at Berkley and Oak Park coming up. The Colts finished 59 percent from 2-point range and 28 percent from outside the arc.

“We need to come with better efforts every day,” Fralick said. “If we don’t, we’re going to have a lot of nights like this. We couldn’t get stops.”

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