Sports
Canton Boys Basketball Battles Past Novi
'We played like we haven't ever played before,' said Lever, who with Baumgart, accounted for 38 of Chiefs' 50 points.
NOVI — It wasn’t easy, in fact at times it was painful, but the Canton boys basketball team came out victorious Wednesday night against Novi in a Class A district semifinal at Novi High School.
Senior point guard Dietrich Lever II and junior forward Paul Baumgart took matters into their own hands as the Chiefs pulled away in the final minute to take a 50-42 win over the Wildcats.
Lever led all scorers with 23 points and Baumgart added 15.
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“It’s crazy,” Lever said. “We came out on fire. We played like we haven’t ever played before.”
The contest got even more intense when Novi senior Samer Ozeir made a pair of free throws with one minute, 49 seconds left in the fourth quarter, pulling the Wildcats within two, 44-42.
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Lever and the Chiefs seemed content to try and wind the clock out, but Lever was fouled with 40 ticks left. He missed both free throws, but Baumgart was there for the rebound and the putback.
“At that point, I knew we had it," Baumgart said.
Ozeir missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity and the Wildcats were forced to foul.
Canton was in the double-bonus and hit 3 of 4 free throws to open up a 49-42 advantage with 15.2 seconds left.
Novi turned the ball over and Baumgart came down for an easy layup, but was shoved hard in the back by Ozeir. It was an intentional foul and Baumgart made 1 of 2 from the stripe before the Chiefs got the ball back and dribbled out the final 2.6 seconds.
The hard foul wasn’t the first shot Baumgart took in the game. Early in the fourth quarter, the 6-foot-7 junior had part of his front tooth knocked out.
“It was a very physical game,” Baumgart said. "We respect each other, but we’re not the greatest of friends on the court.”
Baumgart and the Chiefs watched Novi and Plymouth on Monday and were able to get a good scouting report.
“They’re bigger than us and they love to shoot 3s on their home court,” Baumgart said. “I don’t know how many they got tonight, but it wasn’t as many as they got against Plymouth. They didn’t score 78 points like they did against Plymouth. Our goal is to hold teams under 50.”
The win is a big one for the Canton program.
“The last three years, Novi has knocked us out of the tournament,” Canton coach Jimmy Reddy said. “This was a great win, but now we’ve got another game Friday.”
The title game is Friday at 7 p.m. at Novi.
