BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
Junior Nick Wells opened the second half with two points against Walled Lake Western which sparked a 17-2 run.
“I wish they would have let me that – coach, don’t worry we have the second half. We have the third quarter in our hand,” Dan Fife, long-time Clarkston Boys Varsity Basketball head coach, joked after the game.
The spark put the Wolves team into the lead after battling back and forth during the first half. They would finish the third quarter with a 21-point lead.
Fife admitted he didn’t say anything different to them during half time.
“Just move the ball. Take care of the ball,” he shared. “All the things coaches would say.”
What probably did spark the Wolves was the 3-point shot from junior Foster Loyer right before the buzzer sounded which gave the boys a 2-point lead going into half time, 30-28. His shot followed Warriors’ Delano Smith breaking the 27-point tie with one shot on the free throw line.

As the Wolves raked up points in the third quarter they also blocked the Warriors from making their shots or getting close to the basket as Walled Lake Western only scored 15 points during the entire second half.
“That’s a good ball club,” Fife said about Walled Lake Western. “We tried to change the tempo a little bit because they were in control of it. We wanted to get them a little faster. I don’t know if that hurt them or not. I think we just shot and moved the ball better.”
He added sophomore Taylor Currie had a good second half against the Warriors.
“He is learning you have to post but have to post strongly,” he said. “It’s a learning thing. He’s a good kid and doesn’t mind getting in there. The fact that he’s tall and he’s long, he changes shots. He gives us a presence when he drives in there. You have to run into that guy.”
Loyer led the team with 27 points, scoring four 3-pointers and going 7-for-7 on the free throw line. Wells added ten points. Currie, senior Dylan Alderson and junior CJ Robinson added eight points each.
The Wolves are 7-0 overall after giving Walled Lake Western their first loss and also defeating Flint Carman-Ainsworth on Jan. 3, 60-47. Loyer led with 38 points. Alderson had 17 points and Currie had 11 points and 13 rebounds.
“We still have work to do,” Fife admitted as they get ready for OAA Red league play. “People maybe don’t notice it, but I do. We play a lot of games where it gets down to the big games a lot of little things hurt you. They kill you a lot and that’s what has happened a lot over my career. Just trying to get them to understand it doesn’t matter. The fifth game or the 20th game you have to come out with the same idea to play with the same mindset. They have been with me for so long and heard the same things, I know this with my own boys, by the time they are seniors they know all of it. It is hard to convince them how hard games can get the higher you go up.”
The Wolves host Hazel Park on Thursday. JV begins at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.

  Boys Basketball, clarkston