Cagers knocked North Farmington out the first place spot in the OAA Red last Friday with a 50-31 win.
“It is always a challenge in our league especially North Farmington – they play hard,” said Dan Fife, long-time head coach for the Clarkston Boys Varsity Basketball team, heading into the game.
Before they went into the game, North Farmington, Clarkston and Southfield were in a three-way tie for first place with a 4-1 record in the league.
The Wolves dominated the first quarter with a 17-2 lead to boost them through the rest of the game.
Senior Jordan Dasuqi led the team with 27 points while scoring six field goals. Senior Dylan Hancook added 10 points and junior Nick Owens had seven points and one field goal.
The Wolves opened the week with another win on the road when they beat Oxford, 59-34.
“On a cold, miserable night, it was a good win,” said Fife. “It was a win we should win. We played pretty good.”
Oxford opened the game with two missed field goal opportunities and it was the Wolves who took the lead with one point from junior Michael Nicholson and two points from junior Press Kampe off his steal.
“We scored a lot off our defense tonight,” Fife added. “We don’t always do, so that was a good thing.”
Dasuqi added six points to the score and another two points from sophomore Andrew Myers made the score 11-0. Oxford scored two points with 43 seconds on the clock.
The Wildcats opened the second quarter with four points but Clarkston came back with four points of their own from Myers and Owens.
Oxford connected the ball more easily in the second quarter but it wasn’t enough to catch up and they were still nine points behind, this time 24-13, when the half ended.
Fife added a big help during the night was the boys having only eight turnovers and noted they usually have turnovers up in the teens.
He said what helped with the turnovers was the team talking about it, concentrating on their cuts to be open better, and getting open.
“We still made some mistakes that frustrate me,” Fife said. “Again, they are young varsity players and young with experience.”
Dasuqi led the team with 20 points. Myers had 11 points and Owens added eight points.
“Myers had a lot of assists,” Fife noted. “He got some easy baskets, too.”
Oxford is a team the Wolves normally don’t see during the basketball season because they are in a different division in the OAA league. Fife explained Oxford has a new coach and wanted to upgrade the schedule.
“They have played in the Flint Metro League for years,” he added. “It was good for his team to understand the speed of the game and the changes of the game they need to play with.”
The wins put the Wolves at 9-2 , 5-1 in the league. They head to Carman-Ainsworth on Tuesday. JV is at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.