Friday Highlights: Clawson, Rochester Boys Win on Road

* home team in all caps

Boys Basketball

Clawson over LAKEVIEW, 48-39

Clawson’s defense did it again. For the second time this week, it held one of the top teams in the Macomb Area Silver division to less than 40 points.

The Trojans beat Lakeview on Friday night 48-39 and they are now in the driver’s seat in the MAC Silver.

“This was huge,” Clawson coach Bill Shellenbarger said. “They were one game behind us coming in and going to their place, we knew it was going to be an absolute dogfight. The win gives us a two game lead going into the second half of division play.”

Shellenbarger said he was very proud of his team’s defensive intensity. The Trojans held Robert Shield, the top scorer in the Silver, to 15 points. Shield averages more than 20 points a game. He would have had even less Friday had he not hit two 3-pointers in the final minute.

DeShawn Gilbert led Clawson with 15 points and Tywaun Watkins had 13. Clawson now is 11-1 overall and 7-0 in the division.

Rochester over ATHENS, 49-42

Paris Pereria was Rochester’s closer on Friday night. The senior guard was spectacular in the final minutes of the Falcons' 49-42 win at Athens High School.

He scored eight straight points down the stretch to help his team hold off the Red Hawks in a key Oakland Activities Association Blue division game.

“He’s a warrior,” Rochester coach John Pleasant said. “He battles. That’s why he should be playing at the next level next year; he’s undersized, but his heart is huge. He finishes with contact and he’s done a lot for us.”

Pereria’s skills were on full display in the final three minutes. With the Falcons (11-1; 3-0 OAA Blue) up 39-36, he used his quickness to push the ball up the court and score fast break layups on three consecutive plays despite some heavy contact.

His scoring burst extended Rochester’s lead to five points, 45-40, with 1:40 to play.

He hit two free throws in the final minute to push the Falcons' lead to seven and then Mike Klotz stole the ball from Athens (9-3; 1-2 OAA Blue) with 22 seconds and scored a layup to put the final nail in the coffin.

“Rochester has a great team,” Athens coach David Scott said. “The biggest thing is, and it’s something we are still learning, is they play hard all the time, they play hard for 32 minutes, at times our effort wasn’t where it needed to be.”

Girls Basketball

Andover over OAK PARK, 58-45

Bloomfield Hills Andover continues to barrel through the OAA Blue. It won 58-45 over Oak Park on Friday night despite being outscored 21-2 in the fourth quarter.

The Barons starters watched from the bench after building up a 19 point lead at halftime that they extended to 56-24 before the fourth.

Shannon Wilson had 15 points, nine rebounds, six assists and four steals in the win that pushed Andover to 12-1 on the season (10-1 OAA Blue).

Royal Oak over HAZEL PARK 49-34

Royal Oak defeated Hazel Park 49-34 on the road Friday night. Royal Oak is 13-1 (10-1 OAA Blue) on the year. Hazel Park is 1-11 (1-9 OAA Blue) on the season.

Sami Stormont had a game-high 21 points, Mariah Gardziola had 10 points and Bella Leone added 9.  Hali Pasden was the leading scorer for Hazel Park with 13.

Southfield over BERKLEY 51-41

Berkley lost at home to Southfield 51-41 on Friday night. It dropped the Bears to 5-7 on the season.

Aarica McCray had 12 points and Diamond Wilford added 10. Southfield’s Kiara Sausbury had a game-high 15 points and Courtney Williams had 11.

Girls Basketball

Clawson over MADISON HEIGHTS, 47-27

rebounded from a tough loss against Marysville earlier in the week with a strong effort Thursday in a 47-27 win at Madison Heights.

“The kids were pretty disappointed on Tuesday, but the kids responded in a very positive way," Trojans coach Kelly Horne said.

Kayla Stafford had 14 points and six rebounds and Ryann May had 10 points and eight rebounds. Clawson used a full-court press early with a lot of success to go up 31-10. The big lead allowed the Trojans to get 11 players in the game.

Clawson is now 7-5 and 5-2 in the Macomb Area Conference Silver.

Boys Basketball

GROVES over Andover, 73-68

It was an exciting finish at Birmingham Groves on Thursday night. Andover was down by as many as 17 points in the second half before storming back behind nine 3-pointers.

The Barons (6-6; 1-2 OAA Gold) grabbed a two-point lead with 1:15 before the Falcons regain control and won 73-68.

“It was an exciting second half,” Andover coach Jeff Rubin said. “We actually set a school record in the game with 12 3-pointers.”

Grant Henderson had a game-high 18 points for Groves. Zach Smoler was Andover’s leading scorer with 17 points.

OXFORD over Lahser, 49-42

Bloomfield Hills Lahser didn’t come out of the gate with a lot of energy on Thursday night in a 49-42 loss to Oxford. The Knights fell behind early and only scored four points in the second quarter.

“We came out very lethargic,” Lahser coach Duane Graves said.

The Knights ended up outscoring Oxford in the fourth quarter 17-11, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the first-half deficit. Yante Maten led the Knights with 11 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. Martez Jones had eight points.

A combination of three games in four days last week and school finals this week took a toll on Lahser (9-4; 2-1 Oakland Activities Association Gold).

“We’ll just try to regroup and rebound next week,” Graves said.

Troy over BERKLEY, 74-55

Ts boys basketball team handled its business on the road Thursday night at with a 74-55 victory. James Young had 21 points and Maceo Baston had 18 to give the Colts a win in the OAA White.

The Berkley Bears fell to 2-9 on the season and 0-3 in the White with the loss.

Berkley's Damon Eldridge had a game-high 27 points, but his big night wasn’t enough against the high-scoring Troy team.

“We just could get points on the board, we played good defense in spots,” Berkley coach David McGlown said. “One guy (Eldridge) carried us the whole game, but one player can’t do it. I can’t complain though, we are getting better and that’s all I can ask for.”

Swimming

WEST BLOOMFIELD over Rochester, 108-78

The West Bloomfield High School boys swim and dive team won on Thursday night over Rochester 108-78.

The Lakers only won one of the individual swimming events, but used a clean sweep of all three relay races – 200-yard medley, 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle. Andrew Jacob was West Bloomfield’s lone individual first place finish with his win in the 50-yard freestyle (23.11).

Rochester had two swimmers win multiple events - Jacob Carl had wins in the 100-yard freestyle (49.69) and 100-yard butterfly (55.05) while Austin Kilpatrick won the 200-yard freestyle (1:55.75) and 500-yard freestyle (5:06.50).

Seaholm over LAHSER' 115-71

Seaholm won 115-71 on the road Thursday night over Lahser. The victory pushed the Maples' streak of wins to 19 straight and kept them undefeated on the season.

Diver Tommy Fink won his fourth straight diving competition at the meet and Seaholm swept all three relays to win the night.

Girls Basketball

ROYAL OAK over Ferndale, 62-44

is a one-woman wrecking crew. The junior finished with a record, and career high, 42 points in a 62-44 victory over on Tuesday night.  She also had 13 rebounds and four steals.

“Sami had an outstanding overall game,” Royal Oak Ravens girls basketball coach Brian Sopata said. “Her shot was on and she did a great job of driving to the basket and getting to the free throw line. Our team did a great job executing the offense and getting Sami the ball in situations where she could be successful as well.”

Micaela Ellis led Ferndale with 15 points.

Royal Oak is 12-1 (9-1 Oakland Activities Association Blue) on the season.  Ferndale is 5-7 (4-6 OAA Blue).

ANDOVER over Berkley, 63-40

Bloomfield Hills offense is hitting on all cylinders. For the third straight game, the Barons (11-1; 9-1 OAA Blue) went for more than 60 points on Tuesday night in a 63-40 win over (5-6; 5-5 OAA Blue).

“Game started off pretty close,” Andover Barons coach Jeff Rubin said. “But the game was definitely played at our pace. For the third straight game, we outscored our opponent in the third quarter by 20-plus.”

Andover guard Shannon Wilson had a game-high for 22 points and Rachael Rea had 16 points.

Marysville over CLAWSON, 55-45

The varsity girls basketball team tried to grab a share of first place in the Macomb Area Conference Silver division Tuesday night. An aggressive Marysville team made sure that didn’t happen by beating the Clawson Trojans 55-45.

A well-executed full court press gave Clawson’s young guards all sorts of problems throughout the game. The Marysville Vikings’ defensive pressure forced more than 35 turnovers, a season-high for the Trojans.

“Their pressure got to our guards, we’re young at the position, our strength is obviously our inside game and we couldn’t get it inside very easily because of their stellar pressure above the three-point line,” Clawson coach Kelly Horne said.

Things went from bad to worse after halftime for Horne’s team. A stretch at the start of the quarter is when Marysville was able to extend its lead to double-digits for the first time.

The Vikings had a 21-18 lead at halftime and in less than 50 seconds pushed it to 10 points. Clawson (6-5; 4-2 MAC Silver) turned the ball over on its first four possessions of the half and Marysville capitalized with a quick 7-0 run.

Boys Basketball

CLAWSON over Marysville, 41-35

Clawson has no problem winning ugly – and that’s exactly what it did against Marysville on Tuesday in a key Macomb Area Conference Silver division game.

Despite scoring only 23 points after the first quarter, the Clawson Trojans held on to win 41-35 behind a terrific defensive effort. With the victory, Clawson maintains sole position of first place in the Silver with a 10-1 record overall and 6-0 record in the division.

The Trojans set the tone early with a 16-3 run to open the game. Clawson forced five straight turnovers after the opening tip and didn’t allow the Marysville Vikings to score a field goal for nearly six minutes.

“That’s what we said we had to do,” Trojans coach Bill Shellenbarger said. “Matt Russell is a fantastic player, Ryan (Biewer) is an absolutely fantastic coach and they are extremely disciplined. The only shot we had was for Tywaun Watkins and Kentrail Holt to make it really, really tough to get any good looks.”

Shellenbarger called the job Watkins and Holt did guarding Russell on the perimeter “inspiring.” The senior guard finished the game with only four points.

Girls Basketball

Andover over HAZEL PARK, 61-31

Bloomfield Hills  girls basketball team coasted to a 61-31 win at Hazel Park on Monday night. Shannon Wilson and Jamie Lederman had 13 points each. Wilson also led the team with six assists and eight steals.

“We pushed our lead to 25 points or so in the third quarter,” Andover Barons coach Jeff Rubin said.

It was the second straight game Rubin has been able to get his bench some extended playing time.

Andover is 10-1 this season and 8-1 in the Oakland Activities Association Blue division.

Previous Weeks 

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