A basket by junior Brandon Pokley brought his team into the lead in the second quarter of the championship game.
Clarkston’s Varsity cagers kept up the pace and won their 15th consecutive district championship.
They were expecting a tough game, having watched Waterford Mott take Lake Orion and Lapeer East out of the running for the district title. Mott took on the Wolves confident in victory, carrying them through the first period of the game with a lead, 17-12.
But it didn’t last. Clarkston won the game, 65-43.
‘They had everything to gain and nothing to lose,? said Wolves? coach Dan Fife. ‘I thought they played like that early on. We withstood it and came ahead.?
‘We played really well. We played really hard and smart,? said sophomore Matt Kamieniecki. ‘We knew we had to play hard and get our teammates going and being focused.?
‘We played some close games this year,? Fife said. ‘We played some ugly games. Today we had a tough time being consistent. I think tonight we put a lot of things together. Offensively, we moved the ball well. We did much better after that first quarter. When Mott went mad it loosened things up for us, they had to come out of their zone.?
The Wolves took the lead offensively and defensively during the second quarter, bringing their score up to 29-22, and outscored Mott in the last half of the game 36-21.
Kamieniecki led the Wolves in the second half of the game.
‘He does so many things on the floor for us ? defensively, communicates, helps out, changes shots, blocks shots,? said Fife. ‘He probably had four or five (blocked shots) in the first half alone. When they can’t shoot outside on perimeter shots; those early blocks, kids can’t get out of them. If they drive forward, they run right into Kami and they can’t convert that. He just makes a big difference to our team when he does the things he does. It seemed like he got every rebound there in the second quarter and third quarter.?
Also making a difference in the game was Pokley, who has improved in the last year.
‘You can almost watch him mature out there on the floor,? said Fife. ‘He has become less hesitant and really assert himself. He works his tail off. He worked his tail off during the summer.
‘Today, we gave Pokley some buckets and some hooks. He made some great buckets in the second quarter. It really kept us in the game. He made some really key buckets,? said Fife.
Leading scorers for Clarkston were Kamieniecki (20), Julius Porter (16) and Pokley (14). High scorers for Mott were John Schaeffer (15), Mike Myers (10), and Kevin Lewis (7).
Going into Monday’s game against Romeo, Fife knew how strong they would be. The last time Clarkston lost the district title, it was to Romeo in 1993.
Clarkston paid the team back by taking Romeo out of the running for Regionals. The Wolves beat the Bulldogs, 62-52.
They haven’t seen them play during the winter season, but they did play them this past summer.
‘Summer is so different. They are just playing just to play. Romeo is a really competitive team. Their coach does a really good job with them.
‘We have another streak I want to chase down for Clarkston and that is the quarterfinal streak that we have ? and that may or may not happen, there are good ball teams in there.?
For the last few years, Clarkston has lost the quarterfinals to Saginaw.
Clarkston will play Flint Southwestern on Wednesday night for the Regional title. The game begins at 7 p.m. at Lake Orion High School.