About a minute left between Wolves and rival Lake Orion, the Dragons? Vincent Booker brought his team into the lead.
His three-point field goal put Lake Orion up one point, but it didn’t last.
A few seconds later, Clarkston’s Oliver Kupe put the Wolves back into the lead with a two-pointer.
Two points down, after a penalty shot by Julius Porter, Lake Orion had one last chance.
But Matt Kamieniecki jumped into the air, grabbing the ball and stopping any chance the Dragons may have thought they had.
Clarkston’s cagers won their OAA crossover game with Lake Orion, 48-46, bringing the Wolves to 5-0.
The last game for the Wolves had been two weeks prior. Even with the break, they came out Friday night to play a high-paced, action-packed game of basketball.
‘We showed enough character to win the game and fight back, even though we struggled most of the night,? said Coach Dan Fife after the game.
‘We turned the ball over and kept giving them easy baskets, easy hooks.?
The struggle began in the first quarter and kept going in the rest of the game as each team stayed close to their opposition, matching them point for point.
The game heightened as the last eight minutes of the game began counting down.
The Dragons led going into the last quarter, 37-35. Kupe tied the score one minute into the quarter, and teammates, Brandon Pokley, Porter, and Brandon Verlinden contributed six more points to put the Wolves more into the lead. Lake Orion caught up and took the lead again with Booker’s three pointer.
During the game, Kupe had the challenge of guarding a 6?7? Dragon, Drew Maynard, throughout the game.
‘He was twice the size of me,? said Kupe. ‘It was really hard but I had help from Kami and the guys in the middle. It helped me out on him. He scored 25 points. He was pretty hard to guard.?
High scorers for Clarkston were Kupe with 16, Pokley with 13, Porter with 11 points.
The high scorers for Lake Orion were Drew Maynard with 31 and Jeff Heath with 11 points.
‘You can point to a million things,? said Lake Orion coach Jim Manzo. ‘I’m just proud of the way our kids competed. It was a pretty good high school basketball game. It’s a tough game to lose. I think In the long run that game is going to help us.?
Manzo warned his team, ‘they don’t take nights off over here. They play extremely hard. They’re going to come out and play hard every single night and I think our kids did the same.?
‘It hurt us,? said Fife about the break between games. ‘It looked like we weren’t in game shape.
‘I don’t like time off once the season gets going. I don’t like those kind of down times We have done it before and it didn’t hurt us. But it hurt us tonight.
‘I told our team, I made a mistake just as well as they made enough mistakes. They put 10 years on my life there. I give some credit to Lake Orion, they played last night, to come in here tonight and give us that kind of effort and that kind of game.?
The Dragons played the previous night, winning against Birmingham Groves.
While sports enthusiasts are anticipating what will happen when Clarkston and Lake Orion meet up again in the district finals, Coach Fife plans to take it game by game.
‘We have a long season to go before I think about another game with Lake Orion. We both have to get there. That’s not easy.?
The Varsity team will play Tuesday at Southfield-Lathrup and will host Carmen-Ainsworth at home on Friday.
The JV team will begin at 5:30 with Varsity following.