Opening their game with a 15-point run set the gym on fire Friday night when the Wolves hosted Harrison.
By the time the buzzer ended the game, Clarkston tacked on another win to their record to the tune of 89-49.
“It is a win,” said Dan Fife, long-time head coach for the Clarkston Boys Varsity Basketball team. “We will take it. I am happy with the way our boys competed. We didn’t get sloppy.”
“It was a good game to build up from,” said senior Nick Tatu. “We just have to keep building up. We are on the second leg of league play so we just have to keep getting better.”
Harrison started the game in the lead after they scored on two free throws.
Tatu put the Wolves on the boards moments later with a 3-point shot.The Hawks brought themselves back into the lead with another basket.
Senior Mitch Baenziger brought the Wolves back up on the board with two free throw shots and a basket, putting the boys at 7-4 and starting the momentum for the team to score.
They closed the half with a 51-21 lead.
The Hawks came back with some fire and opened the have with a 11-2 run.
Tatu and Baenziger slowed their streak with shots of their own as defense began putting more pressure on the Hawks.”
“We did get sloppy at the beginning of the second half,” said Fife. “We have been talking about it. We haven’t been practicing as hard as I would like or competing as hard as I would like. We talked about it before the game. I even had my oldest boy, Dugan, who played at Michigan come in and talk to them.”
The boost in score allowed the Wolves to try different things during the game, Tatu pointed out.
“This game helped us run the ball a lot more,” he added. “It gave us an option since we were up by 40 points and we could practice it a littl more.”
Junior Jordan Dasuqi added they have been working on getting the point guard to one side of the court.
“Everyone got to work on it even our subs,” he said. “We try to keep making improvements for when it is big game time we will be able to execute.”
Tatu led the boys with 23 points and scored five 3-point shots during the night. Baenziger added 17 points to the board with one field goal. Dasuqi scored 16 points and Chance Huth and Nick Owens contributed 11 points. Huth scored one 3-pointer.
“I was happy with all of our kids,” Fife added. “Baenziger played very well tonight. He has been fighting to learn the point guard position and he did a great job.”
The boys beat West Bloomfield on Jan. 31, 70-41. They opened the first half with a 35-25 lead and kept the Lakers to 16 points in the next half.
Dasuqi led the game with 22 points and had one 3-point shot. Baenziger and Tatu scored ten points each to the score, with six of them from Tatu’s two field goals.
The boys head to North Farmington in Thursday to improve on their current 14-1 record. The Wolves already know it will be a tough game because the Raiders beat Southfield-Lathrup on Friday night.
“It sets us alone by ourselves in the league,” said Fife. “Now it is in our hands to finish it up.”
“Now we have a tougher schedule,” Dasuqi added. “We have a target on our back now. We need to come out in games and keep building our confidence for the playoffs.”
The Wolves are back home on Tuesday when they host Pontiac.
“It will be a tough week for us,” said Dasuqi.
JV begins at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.