With less than a month until post-season, cagers have come a long way.
“We are a lot better now than we were at the beginning of the season,” said Dan Fife, long-time head coach for Clarkston Boys Varsity Basketball. “We played very well at times and very bad at times but our good is outweighing our bad now.”
Before their game at Carman-Ainsworth on Tuesday, the boys were at a 10-2 overall record.
“We probably won a couple of games we could have lost,” Fife reflected. “Maybe we deserved to lose but won the games. This week from now on everyone is in shape now. Everyone has their player. From now on every game is going to be hard fought. Everyone knows what they are doing. Everybody should be used to the speed of the game. Everybody should be in physical shape.”
The Wolves have most of their players back except senior Chance Huth, who has been injured since summer.
Fife said he didn’t know when Huth would be back but he was now practicing with his teammates.
Fife added the biggest challenge the Wolves have faced so far this season is understanding varsity basketball.
“They tend to still go back to their personal habits when they get tired or lost in thought,” he said. “I am getting them to understand Clarkston basketball and not individual basketball.”
The Wolves recently beat OAA Red foes Southfield-Lathrup on Jan. 29, 60-48.
“Lathrup is much improved,” Fife said. “They are a pretty good ball club. It was a good win for us. We had three tough games – North Farmington, Southfield on the road and coming home and playing Lathrup.
Clarkston opened the game with the lead with baskets from Dasuqi, junior Michael Nicholson and junior Nick Owens.
They solidified their lead with a three-pointer from junior Press Kampe off a pass from Owens to put the score 9-2.
Dasuqi closed out the 90 seconds of the first quarter with six points and sophomore Andrew Myers added two from the free throw line to end the quarter, 24-10.
Myers opened the next quarter with a basket to get the boys started. The Wolves continued to add to the board as they held Southfield-Lathrup.
They finished the first half with a 36-18 lead.
The Chargers caught up to the Wolves in the third quarter and cut the lead to three.
“We started to get better shots and scored 2-3 layups on some good plays,” Fife explained as the Wolves came back to put more of a lead on the board.
“It was good execution from our offense. It is a good lesson for us. It was bad we let them get back in. It was good when they got back in we still had enough to come back and not lose a ball game. We could have very easily lost it.”
Dasuqi led the team with 24 points and two field goals. Myers added 12 points and Kampe had 11 points with a field goal. Myers and Kampe shot 8-of-10 free throw attempts.
The Wolves continue their OAA Red battle when they host Troy this Friday and head to West Bloomfield next Tuesday.
“They have to play as best they can mentally and physically all the time,” said Fife. ‘There are no chumps from here on out.”
JV begins at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.