Oakland Christian pounds ball inside to down rival Lutheran Northwest
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
AUBURN HILLS — The last time Auburn Hills Oakland Christian faced rival Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest, the Lancers failed to get the ball inside to Josh Peterson.
This time around Oakland Christian did not make the same mistake.
The Lancers went inside early-and-often to its post players, mainly the 6-foot-7 senior Peterson, en route to a 64-52 MIAC Blue Division victory over the visiting Crusaders.
Peterson finished with a game-high 21 points, making 8-of-14 shots in the paint, to go along with seven rebounds and six blocked shots in the victory.
Senior forward Nathan Piasecki added 14 points and 11 rebounds, senior forward Charles Hayden picked up 10 points and nine boards and freshman DJ Stevens supplied six points and six rebounds for the Lancers (13-4, 7-4).
Jon VanNoord was also 3-fo-6 from downtown off the bench for nine points for Oakland Christian.
“We transitioned a lot better. We did a good job running the offense and most importantly we got the ball inside early in the game and established the post,” offered Oakland Christian coach Dennis Hopkins, whose team has gone through some offensive struggles in the past months that has led to an uncharacteristic four league losses.
“We moved the basketball well and we got the ball inside, which is what we talked about before the game. The last time Josh Peterson didn’t touch the ball as much as he should,” continued Hopkins. “We had to do a better job of getting the ball inside to Josh. In our losses, he wasn’t touching the ball enough and we were settling for jump shots way too much.”
The smaller Crusaders, behind some quick guard play and the ability to crash the boards — Northwest held a 41-36 edge in rebounding — slowly clawed back and cut the deficit down to six points to 47-41 with 5:23 left in the game.
Lutheran Northwest again trimmed the game back down to a six-point deficit (53-47) with 1:48 to go on three free throws by junior guard Nathan Drews.
Each time, Oakland Christian’s Peterson and Paisecki had an answer. Piasecki and Peterson both scored six in the fourth quarter, where the Lancers held a 19-18 edge.
Oakland Christian outscored the Crusaders 11-5 after that point. The Lancers made 7 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter, including 7 of 10 inside the final two minutes.
“They just killed us inside,” said Northwest coach Dan Pontillo. We did a nice job coming back on them and we got a lot of and-ones, but we couldn’t stop them inside. They are too big. We did a nice job containing them the last time.”
Drews kept Oakland Christian honest and led Northwest with 22 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and three assists. He finished 13-for-13 from the foul line.
Senior Gurther Rashore added 11 points, junior Josh Morrison added eight points and six rebounds, and junior Evan Rouce supplied five points nine rebounds and three blocked shots off the bench for Northwest (9-7, 6-5).
Oakland Christian led 16-8 at the end of the first quarter and 32-21 at the half.
“We have a lot o to work on before districts. I think we just need to concentrate on playing our style of basketball and not let the other team dictate,” said Hopkins. “We’re in a very tough district and we have to learn how to make other teams play our style, not the other way around. I think we did a better job of that tonight.”
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