Turnovers Doom Clawson Girls Basketball Team, 55-45

CLAWSON – The varsity girls basketball team tried to grab a share of first place in the Macomb Area Conference Silver division on Tuesday night.

An aggressive Marysville team made sure that didn’t happen by beating the Trojans, 55-45.

A well-executed full-court press gave Clawson’s young guards all sorts of problems throughout the game. The 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.

Shelby Zeiser hit a long jumper and then Andrea Curtiss stole the ball off the Trojans inbound pass on back-to-back plays. Curtiss turned the steals into points with consecutive layups.

She was fouled on the second layup and hit her free throw to complete the three-point play.

Before the Trojans even had a chance to catch their breath, they were down 28-18 with 7:14 to go in the quarter.

“We talked about it at half time and tried to make some adjustments. Those adjustments didn’t work,” Horne said.

Clawson forward Ryann May did her best to keep her team in the game. She had the Trojans first 10 points in the third quarter and dominated the boards.

“Ryann is an offensive-minded player, when she gets in a zone, she’s the best player on the floor,” Horne said.

The senior finished with a game-high 23 points and 14 rebounds. She went to the free-throw line eight times in the third quarter and for the game made 9-of-13 at the line.

May helped make up for Clawson’s star center Alli Costine’s lack of production. Costine was in early foul trouble and then twisted her ankle in the third. She went to the bench to the ankle looked at by the Trojans’ trainer and missed nearly the entire quarter.

Costine finished the game with only six points.

Clawson cut Marysville’s lead down to seven points twice in the second half, but every time it would inch closer to putting the game within one or two possessions Vikings guard Madison Valko would hit a 3-pointer.

Valko hit four of her five 3-pointers in the second half and led Marysville (9-2; 6-0 MAC Silver) with 21 points.

“I thought we were going to get over the hump, but we just couldn’t get it (the game) within five or six points,” Horne said.

Correction: Marysville Vikings guard Madison Valko was misidentified in the original version of this report.