Clawson Boys Basketball Wins 69-39 Over Andover

BLOOMFIELD HILLS – It was a total team effort for the Clawson varsity boys basketball team on Saturday afternoon.

Eleven Trojans scored and three players went over double digits in a 69-39 win at Andover. Jalen Harrison and Kentrail Holt led the way with 12 points each.

With the game tied 14-14 at the start of the second quarter, Harrison was the one to put his team in control. The senior scored six points in an 11-1 run to give Clawson (1-1) a 25-14 lead.

“He had a good solid disciplined game tonight,” Clawson head coach Bill Shellenbarger said. “He used his size, used his body. We are big when we can be. Tonight we took advantage of it and Jalen was a catalyst there.”

The Barons (1-2) didn’t have anybody with the size to match Harrison or center James Steffen.

“We just got eaten up down low,” Andover head coach Jeff Rubin said. “They did a better job of slowing down the game. If it’s going to be a half court game, we are going to struggle because we are very small.”

Things went from bad to worse in the third quarter when Shellenbarger had his team go to a zone defense and the Trojans athletic guards Holt and DeShawn Gilbert picked up the tempo.

Clawson forced some early turnovers in the third quarter and the guards pushed the ball up the court to extend an eight-point halftime lead to 25 points midway through the quarter.

“The zone seemed to really shut them down,” Shellenbarger said.

Rubin said the game might have been closer had his team shot the ball better, especially early in the game.

Andover shot more than 40 percent from the field in its first two games, including a win over Cranbrook-Kingswood on Friday night, but on Saturday the Barons shot closer to 30 percent.

“It started in the first quarter; we missed around six or seven baskets right around the rim,” Shellenbarger said.

The Barons didn’t have the kind of energy playing their second game in 24 hours as the Trojans did.

“We just didn’t have any intensity,” Rubin said. “Every loose ball Clawson fought for harder than us, every loose rebound Clawson fought harder than us.”

Shellenbarger relied on his bench player to close the game out in the fourth quarter and they did.

Bryan Lakey had a pair of baskets and Tavonte Bezue made a couple of nice plays. Bezue blocked a shot on what looked like an easy layup for Myron Butler in transition and later in the quarter he scored on a fast break.

 “It’s awesome,” Shellenbarger said of his bench seeing extended minutes. “It’s always good to have the opportunity to give my guys the chance to get in and enjoy the hard work they put in.”

Clawson’s next game is Friday against University High School at home. The game starts at 7 p.m.