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All Basketball - Boys Stories
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Truman sits alone atop the Downriver League standings as the last undefeated team in league play after a pair of wins over Trenton and Woodhaven last week.
Last Tuesday’s matchup between the Cougars and Trojans pitted a pair of 3-0 teams against each other and Truman came away with a hard-fought 69-66 victory at Trenton.
“For a high school game, I don’t think you could have been in a better spot to see a good game,” Truman Coach Chuck Suttles said. “Trenton was very prepared for us and it was a hard-fought battle.”
“It was one of those games where it was back-and-forth all night. I was impressed with the way they played and (Rick) Morrow does a real nice job with them.”
The score was tied 38-38 at the half and Trenton held a two-point lead, 51-49, entering the fourth.
The Cougars outscored the home team 20-15 in the final period to secure the victory.
“We battled with them and, sometimes, it’s unfortunate that both teams can’t walk out winners,” Suttles said. “I don’t think anybody wanted their money back after that game.”
“It was what high school basketball is all about.”
Aaron Foster-Smith led all scorers with 23 points to go with five blocks and four rebounds.
Robert Whitehorn had a stellar all-around game with 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists, four blocks and three steals for the Cougars. Devain Newbill also scored 13 and Devin Goodwell added nine in the win.
Jason Zahran and Dan Mercure each scored 19 points for the Trojans and Dan Hall was an efficient eight-for-nine from the field for 18 points.
On Thursday, the Cougars traveled to Woodhaven and upended the Warriors 80-35.
After taking a seven-point lead after eight minutes, Truman outscored Woodhaven 59-21 over the next three quarters.
Anthony Wartley-Fritz led Truman with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Foster-Smith added 13 points while Newbill scored 12 and Whitehorn had 10.
Truman (7-2, 5-0 DRL) traveled to Melvindale on Tuesday and will face a stiff test on Thursday at home against Roosevelt.
Trojans recover
The Trojans traveled to Wyandotte on Thursday and bested the Bears in a low-scoring, hard-hitting affair 37-30.
"Wyandotte's a good team," Trenton Coach Rick Morrow said. "They play hard-nosed defense and that's what keeps Wyandotte in game. They play really good, hard, solid defense."
Roosevelt struggled mightily on the offensive end all night, but the Bears had their most trouble at the beginning and at the end.
Trenton scored the game's first seven points and held the Bears scoreless for nearly five minutes. Roosevelt's Divon Robinson finally broke the drought with a bucket late in the first and the Bears trailed 7-2 after eight minutes.
The Roosevelt offense woke up in the second quarter and the Bears took their first lead, 10-9, three minutes into the quarter. Both teams traded leads leading up to the half before going into the break tied 15-15.
It was more of the same throughout the third quarter as the teams traded leads before Roosevelt pulled ahead 25-21, its largest lead of the game, with less than two minutes remaining. Later in the quarter, Trenton's Jason Zahran completed a three-point play with less than 30 seconds remaining to tie the game 27-27 heading into the final quarter.
The score remained close for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter as Trenton took a 31-29 lead with three minutes left in regulation. That lead gradually grew as Roosevelt's offense went ice cold down the stretch, scoring only one more point for a fourth-quarter total of three.
"Lack of ball movement, lack of dribble penetration, lack of patience in moving the ball," Roosevelt Coach Dave Cramton said. "We had a lot of good looks, but the shots just weren't falling."
The Trojan defense forced dozens of turnovers throughout the game and came away with an impressive 21 steals on the night.
"Our defense we run is a matchup defense and I've run that for basically 20 years," Morrow said. "Primarily, we keep people out of the paint and that helps our rebounding. We are becoming more fundamental, but we can still get better."
"We really had a lot of turnovers and couldn't take care of the ball," Cramton said. "We had a lot of nonchalant passes down in the post and we did a bad job of moving the ball. Just stagnant."
Zahran had 13 points, eight rebounds and three steals, Dan Hall had six points, 10 boards and three steals and Christian Mercure had six points, seven steals and four rebounds.
Damon Singleton had 10 points, five rebounds and three steals for Roosevelt while Robinson added nine points and Jacob Lavis had seven points and eight rebounds. Devan Stewart, Roosevelt's leading scorer entering Thursday's game, was held scoreless.
Trenton (7-2, 4-1 DRL) traveled to Allen Park on Tuesday in a battle of 4-1 teams and will host Melvindale on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Roosevelt defeated rival Anderson in convincing fashion 57-24.
The Bears got off to a hot start and outscored the Titans 20-4 in the opening quarter.
After taking a 29-13 lead into the half, the Bears held Anderson to only two points in the third quarter and pulled away with a 47-15 lead entering the final eight minutes.
“There was a lot of sharing the ball,” Cramton said. “It was one of our better games of getting everyone involved.”
Stewart led Roosevelt with 16 points. Singleton had 10 points and eight rebounds and Lavis and Robinson each scored eight.
Roosevelt (7-2, 3-2 DRL) traveled to Woodhaven on Tuesday and will hit the road for a showdown with Truman on Thursday.
Anderson (5-3, 2-3 DRL) hosted Kennedy on Tuesday and will remain home against Trenton on Thursday.
Jags win two
Close, scrappy wins have been a common theme for this year’s Allen Park basketball team and the Jags came away with two tight league victories last week against Kennedy and Anderson.
On Tuesday night, a pair of scoring runs powered the Jags to their third Downriver League victory of the season in a 52-45 home win over Kennedy.
The game wasn’t decided in the first four minutes, but it greatly affected the outcome as Allen Park scored the game’s first 14 points and held Kennedy scoreless until the four-minute mark in the first quarter.
“Coming out like that was huge for us,” Allen Park Coach Jim Victor said. “Earlier in the year, we dug ourselves a lot of big holes. We knew we could compete and we knew that we had to get a jump on these guys because you’ve got to protect your home court.”
The Eagles did not go quietly and scored the next eight points and ended the quarter trailing 16-8.
Kennedy stayed within eight points for much of the second quarter, but Allen Park’s Tyler Warga scored the quarter’s final five points, including a buzzer-beating half-court heave to put the Jags ahead 29-16 at the half.
Allen Park completed a 10-0 run by scoring the first five points of the third quarter for a 34-16 lead early in the second half. Kennedy chipped away and climbed to within 12 points entering the fourth, 38-26.
The Eagles continued to hang around in the fourth and climbed to within six points, 48-42, with less than two minutes remaining. After pushing the lead back to nine points, the Jags had a difficult time holding on to the ball and running out the clock.
“Now we have to learn how to preserve a win,” Victor said. “The bottom line is that we haven’t been in that position at times.”
Kennedy got back to within six points with less than ten seconds remaining, but could not get any closer in a game that Allen Park led wire-to-wire.
“We have a lot of young guys on the floor and they need to learn to make the correct decisions, but make no mistake, that was a huge win for us.”
Warga recorded a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Trevor Simms also scored 16 in the win and Richie Slate added seven.
Matt Woloszyk and Andia Marsh each had 11 points and nine rebounds for the Eagles and David Cheeks added eight points and four rebounds.
On Thursday, the Jags improved to 4-1 in the Downriver League with a 61-57 overtime win over Anderson.
The teams traded leads throughout the contest and overtime was eventually forced when an Allen Park shot in the final seconds narrowly missed being a game-winner.
“We had a shot to win, but a layup at the end rimmed in-and-out to force overtime,” Allen Park Coach Jim Victor said.
The Jags would score the first four points of the extra period and held on for the four-point victory.
“We just made a few more plays down the stretch,” Victor said.
The game’s main attraction was the three-point contest held by Anderson’s Shane Freitag and Allen Park’s Trevor Simms.
Freitag knocked down seven three’s and scored a game-high 23 points while Simms scored 15 points on five triples for the Jags.
“It was fun to watch those to go because they were going head-to-head,” Victor said. “(Trevor) didn’t have the best shooting night, but every time we needed a big shot, he made it.”
Tyler Warga added 14 points for the Jags and Aaron Letinski added a spark off the bench and contributed six points and some solid defense throughout.
Connor Phee scored 15 points for the Titans.
Allen Park (6-4, 4-1 DRL) heads into the teeth of its schedule this week as the Jags hosted Trenton on Tuesday and will travel to Lincoln Park on Thursday.
LP improving
After a rocky start to the league season, the defending DRL champions have won three-straight league games and improved to 3-2 with a pair of wins over Carlson and Melvindale last week.
On Tuesday, the Railsplitters traveled to Gibraltar and defeated the Marauders 51-40.
The score was within two points at the end of each of the first three quarters, but the Rails pulled away in the fourth by outscoring Carlson 16-7 over the last eight minutes.
“We hit a three at the end of the third that really gave us a lift,” Lincoln Park Coach Todd Tobin said. “To play a good team like Carlson on the road and get the win was big.”
Tywan Cage led the Rails with 12 points. Dawone Gray added 10 in the win and Lucas Espitia had nine.
Tobin also acknowledged freshman Will Deparo for providing a significant all-around spark in the second half.
“It was just a pretty clean game,” Tobin said. “We didn’t turn the ball over much, played good defense and we didn’t kill ourselves.”
Daton Aaron led the Marauders with 11 points, five steals and four assists and Larnell Tidwell added 10 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.
On Thursday, Lincoln Park outlasted Melvindale in a low-scoring slugfest 40-34.
“It was a typical Lincoln Park/Melvindale grind-it-out kind of game,” Tobin said. “We never trailed, but they kept it close and, slowly at the end, we were able to pull away a little bit.”
The Rails took a 24-19 lead into the half and held a slim advantage the rest of the way.
“We know each other almost too well,” Tobin said. “Both teams scrapped and we kind of have the same philosophies.”
Espitia scored eight points in the win while Delvon Byner-Simmons and Deshawn Cornett each scored seven.
Lincoln Park (5-4, 3-2 DRL) was on the road against Kennedy on Tuesday and will host Allen Park on Thursday.
BOYS' BASKETBALL: Downriver League roundup (PHOTO)
Last Tuesday’s matchup between the Cougars and Trojans pitted a pair of 3-0 teams against each other and Truman came away with a hard-fought 69-66 victory at Trenton.
“For a high school game, I don’t think you could have been in a better spot to see a good game,” Truman Coach Chuck Suttles said. “Trenton was very prepared for us and it was a hard-fought battle.”
“It was one of those games where it was back-and-forth all night. I was impressed with the way they played and (Rick) Morrow does a real nice job with them.”
The score was tied 38-38 at the half and Trenton held a two-point lead, 51-49, entering the fourth.
The Cougars outscored the home team 20-15 in the final period to secure the victory.
“We battled with them and, sometimes, it’s unfortunate that both teams can’t walk out winners,” Suttles said. “I don’t think anybody wanted their money back after that game.”
“It was what high school basketball is all about.”
Aaron Foster-Smith led all scorers with 23 points to go with five blocks and four rebounds.
Robert Whitehorn had a stellar all-around game with 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists, four blocks and three steals for the Cougars. Devain Newbill also scored 13 and Devin Goodwell added nine in the win.
Jason Zahran and Dan Mercure each scored 19 points for the Trojans and Dan Hall was an efficient eight-for-nine from the field for 18 points.
On Thursday, the Cougars traveled to Woodhaven and upended the Warriors 80-35.
After taking a seven-point lead after eight minutes, Truman outscored Woodhaven 59-21 over the next three quarters.
Anthony Wartley-Fritz led Truman with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Foster-Smith added 13 points while Newbill scored 12 and Whitehorn had 10.
Truman (7-2, 5-0 DRL) traveled to Melvindale on Tuesday and will face a stiff test on Thursday at home against Roosevelt.
Trojans recover
The Trojans traveled to Wyandotte on Thursday and bested the Bears in a low-scoring, hard-hitting affair 37-30.
"Wyandotte's a good team," Trenton Coach Rick Morrow said. "They play hard-nosed defense and that's what keeps Wyandotte in game. They play really good, hard, solid defense."
Roosevelt struggled mightily on the offensive end all night, but the Bears had their most trouble at the beginning and at the end.
Trenton scored the game's first seven points and held the Bears scoreless for nearly five minutes. Roosevelt's Divon Robinson finally broke the drought with a bucket late in the first and the Bears trailed 7-2 after eight minutes.
The Roosevelt offense woke up in the second quarter and the Bears took their first lead, 10-9, three minutes into the quarter. Both teams traded leads leading up to the half before going into the break tied 15-15.
It was more of the same throughout the third quarter as the teams traded leads before Roosevelt pulled ahead 25-21, its largest lead of the game, with less than two minutes remaining. Later in the quarter, Trenton's Jason Zahran completed a three-point play with less than 30 seconds remaining to tie the game 27-27 heading into the final quarter.
The score remained close for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter as Trenton took a 31-29 lead with three minutes left in regulation. That lead gradually grew as Roosevelt's offense went ice cold down the stretch, scoring only one more point for a fourth-quarter total of three.
"Lack of ball movement, lack of dribble penetration, lack of patience in moving the ball," Roosevelt Coach Dave Cramton said. "We had a lot of good looks, but the shots just weren't falling."
The Trojan defense forced dozens of turnovers throughout the game and came away with an impressive 21 steals on the night.
"Our defense we run is a matchup defense and I've run that for basically 20 years," Morrow said. "Primarily, we keep people out of the paint and that helps our rebounding. We are becoming more fundamental, but we can still get better."
"We really had a lot of turnovers and couldn't take care of the ball," Cramton said. "We had a lot of nonchalant passes down in the post and we did a bad job of moving the ball. Just stagnant."
Zahran had 13 points, eight rebounds and three steals, Dan Hall had six points, 10 boards and three steals and Christian Mercure had six points, seven steals and four rebounds.
Damon Singleton had 10 points, five rebounds and three steals for Roosevelt while Robinson added nine points and Jacob Lavis had seven points and eight rebounds. Devan Stewart, Roosevelt's leading scorer entering Thursday's game, was held scoreless.
Trenton (7-2, 4-1 DRL) traveled to Allen Park on Tuesday in a battle of 4-1 teams and will host Melvindale on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Roosevelt defeated rival Anderson in convincing fashion 57-24.
The Bears got off to a hot start and outscored the Titans 20-4 in the opening quarter.
After taking a 29-13 lead into the half, the Bears held Anderson to only two points in the third quarter and pulled away with a 47-15 lead entering the final eight minutes.
“There was a lot of sharing the ball,” Cramton said. “It was one of our better games of getting everyone involved.”
Stewart led Roosevelt with 16 points. Singleton had 10 points and eight rebounds and Lavis and Robinson each scored eight.
Roosevelt (7-2, 3-2 DRL) traveled to Woodhaven on Tuesday and will hit the road for a showdown with Truman on Thursday.
Anderson (5-3, 2-3 DRL) hosted Kennedy on Tuesday and will remain home against Trenton on Thursday.
Jags win two
Close, scrappy wins have been a common theme for this year’s Allen Park basketball team and the Jags came away with two tight league victories last week against Kennedy and Anderson.
On Tuesday night, a pair of scoring runs powered the Jags to their third Downriver League victory of the season in a 52-45 home win over Kennedy.
The game wasn’t decided in the first four minutes, but it greatly affected the outcome as Allen Park scored the game’s first 14 points and held Kennedy scoreless until the four-minute mark in the first quarter.
“Coming out like that was huge for us,” Allen Park Coach Jim Victor said. “Earlier in the year, we dug ourselves a lot of big holes. We knew we could compete and we knew that we had to get a jump on these guys because you’ve got to protect your home court.”
The Eagles did not go quietly and scored the next eight points and ended the quarter trailing 16-8.
Kennedy stayed within eight points for much of the second quarter, but Allen Park’s Tyler Warga scored the quarter’s final five points, including a buzzer-beating half-court heave to put the Jags ahead 29-16 at the half.
Allen Park completed a 10-0 run by scoring the first five points of the third quarter for a 34-16 lead early in the second half. Kennedy chipped away and climbed to within 12 points entering the fourth, 38-26.
The Eagles continued to hang around in the fourth and climbed to within six points, 48-42, with less than two minutes remaining. After pushing the lead back to nine points, the Jags had a difficult time holding on to the ball and running out the clock.
“Now we have to learn how to preserve a win,” Victor said. “The bottom line is that we haven’t been in that position at times.”
Kennedy got back to within six points with less than ten seconds remaining, but could not get any closer in a game that Allen Park led wire-to-wire.
“We have a lot of young guys on the floor and they need to learn to make the correct decisions, but make no mistake, that was a huge win for us.”
Warga recorded a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Trevor Simms also scored 16 in the win and Richie Slate added seven.
Matt Woloszyk and Andia Marsh each had 11 points and nine rebounds for the Eagles and David Cheeks added eight points and four rebounds.
On Thursday, the Jags improved to 4-1 in the Downriver League with a 61-57 overtime win over Anderson.
The teams traded leads throughout the contest and overtime was eventually forced when an Allen Park shot in the final seconds narrowly missed being a game-winner.
“We had a shot to win, but a layup at the end rimmed in-and-out to force overtime,” Allen Park Coach Jim Victor said.
The Jags would score the first four points of the extra period and held on for the four-point victory.
“We just made a few more plays down the stretch,” Victor said.
The game’s main attraction was the three-point contest held by Anderson’s Shane Freitag and Allen Park’s Trevor Simms.
Freitag knocked down seven three’s and scored a game-high 23 points while Simms scored 15 points on five triples for the Jags.
“It was fun to watch those to go because they were going head-to-head,” Victor said. “(Trevor) didn’t have the best shooting night, but every time we needed a big shot, he made it.”
Tyler Warga added 14 points for the Jags and Aaron Letinski added a spark off the bench and contributed six points and some solid defense throughout.
Connor Phee scored 15 points for the Titans.
Allen Park (6-4, 4-1 DRL) heads into the teeth of its schedule this week as the Jags hosted Trenton on Tuesday and will travel to Lincoln Park on Thursday.
LP improving
After a rocky start to the league season, the defending DRL champions have won three-straight league games and improved to 3-2 with a pair of wins over Carlson and Melvindale last week.
On Tuesday, the Railsplitters traveled to Gibraltar and defeated the Marauders 51-40.
The score was within two points at the end of each of the first three quarters, but the Rails pulled away in the fourth by outscoring Carlson 16-7 over the last eight minutes.
“We hit a three at the end of the third that really gave us a lift,” Lincoln Park Coach Todd Tobin said. “To play a good team like Carlson on the road and get the win was big.”
Tywan Cage led the Rails with 12 points. Dawone Gray added 10 in the win and Lucas Espitia had nine.
Tobin also acknowledged freshman Will Deparo for providing a significant all-around spark in the second half.
“It was just a pretty clean game,” Tobin said. “We didn’t turn the ball over much, played good defense and we didn’t kill ourselves.”
Daton Aaron led the Marauders with 11 points, five steals and four assists and Larnell Tidwell added 10 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.
On Thursday, Lincoln Park outlasted Melvindale in a low-scoring slugfest 40-34.
“It was a typical Lincoln Park/Melvindale grind-it-out kind of game,” Tobin said. “We never trailed, but they kept it close and, slowly at the end, we were able to pull away a little bit.”
The Rails took a 24-19 lead into the half and held a slim advantage the rest of the way.
“We know each other almost too well,” Tobin said. “Both teams scrapped and we kind of have the same philosophies.”
Espitia scored eight points in the win while Delvon Byner-Simmons and Deshawn Cornett each scored seven.
Lincoln Park (5-4, 3-2 DRL) was on the road against Kennedy on Tuesday and will host Allen Park on Thursday.
Last Updated: 1/22/2013 1:44:26 PM EST