BOYS BASKETBALL: Fitzgerald’s free throws put away Troy
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
WARREN — Troy didn’t have a choice but to foul.
But Warren Fitzgerald just kept making free throws.
Fitzgerald shot 14-for-17 from the line in the second half to ice a 61-58 win over Troy at the third annual Freedom Classic game Saturday.
Both teams played Friday night before a quick turnaround for the noon tip-off Saturday.
After Fitzgerald took an early 14-6 lead, Troy settled down, went to its bench and started hitting shots.
Sophomore point guard Nate Bladecki sparked Troy off the bench by assisting on its first four baskets of the fourth quarter. His fifth assist came with 35 seconds left and cut the lead down to two, the lowest it had been since a tie game with 6:21 left in the third quarter.
“I saw a little gap in the zone that I could attack,” Bladecki said. “Once I got in there, I was able to find Chris (Dorsey), Craig (Duggan) and Ben (Horvath).”
Horvath stole the ensuing inbounds pass and dished it to Zak Noor, who missed a potential game-tying jumper. Fitzgerald didn’t miss a free throw until only 4.9 seconds remained on the clock, hitting four straight.
“We went full-out deny on their guards, trying to make it difficult on them to get it in,”
Leonard said.
Bladecki took the ball up on the final possession down by three, but missed a step-back three-pointer at the buzzer.
He finished with three points and five rebounds. In a balanced scoring effort, Duggan led the team with 14, Noor 13, Joe Leonard nine, Dorsey eight and Danny Wunderlich eight with eight rebounds.
Leonard came off the bench for the first time this season. Troy coach Gary Fralick said he wanted more size in the starting lineup with the 6-foot-3 Duggan over the 5-6 Leonard.
The switch paid off, as Duggan reached double-figure scoring and Leonard hit his first three triples off the bench.
“When a team’s struggling, you can’t just stand still and let things happen,” Fralick said.
“You try to work through some things and get better. We’ve got to play with some more passion. We’ve got to go back to what we do best: run, run, run, shoot threes, work the ball around, get some good shots, things like that.”
Fralick, still weighing the decision after the game Friday, surprised both players with the announcement Saturday morning.
“When you come off the bench and watch the game a little bit, for me, the nerves weren’t as bad as they usual starting off the game,” Leonard said. “It was easier.”
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting [to start],” Duggan said. “I was looking to come in with some energy. We had some heavy legs, but it’s no excuse. We’ve got to come out with some energy.”
Leonard also broke out of a slump with only his third game of the season with at least three long balls. Saturday, he shot the best percentage of those three games.
“They were leaving me open, and Coach has faith in me shooting,” Leonard said. “They
were falling, so I just kept shooting. It felt like a great weight lifted off me.”
Fitzgerald made the difference on the offensive glass, as Troy was at a size disadvantage again. The Spartans had ten offensive rebounds to the Colts’ ten defensive rebounds in the first three quarters.
Troy switched from a zone defense to a man-to-man defense in the first half, but Fitzgerald moved the ball around against both, the fifth straight Troy opponent to score 57 points or more.
But the lineup change helped Troy put up its highest point total of the new year.
“I think what we see right now is going to depend on matchups,” Fralick said. “Craig makes us a bigger team. Joe’s got a lot of energy coming off the bench and hit three threes, so that obviously gave us a lift. [Craig] hit some threes and he got some rebounds and he did some things that we haven’t seen him do so far, so we were happy with that production today.”
Off for three days of final exams, Troy now visits West Bloomfield Thursday to start a three-game league road stretch.
“We’ve got to keep battling,” Duggan said. “It starts in practice. If we bring it every single day, that’s going to carry over to the games.”
(Jake Lourim is a senior at Troy High School and a member of the S.H.P. Media Group / www.northoaklandsports.com Student Correspondence Program. He is publisher of website www.troycoltsportsupdate.com and a member of the Troy school newspaper editorial staff. He can be reached by e-mail at j.lourim@comcast.net)
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