By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Wolves celebrated as time expired on the scoreboard – they won their game over the Troy Colts on Friday, 50-48.
“I am proud of the guys for their effort,” said Tim Wasilk, head coach for Clarkston Boys Varsity Basketball. “Seven of our games have been right down to the wire. We have had one overtime game, a 2-point game, and five 3-point games. Every situation is the other team has the ball and they have to score at the end. We happen to find a way to show a lot of toughness and get stops at the end of the game. It’s good because our guys have been in that situation.”
Both teams finished the first quarter tied at 11 points after Troy scored six points in the last two minutes to catch up to Clarkston’s lead.

The Colts finished the second quarter with a 4-point lead, 25-21.
The Wolves caught up during the the third quarter and stayed within a few points of Troy.
Junior Brody Kosin hit a basket with 35 seconds left in the quarter and added one more from the free throw line to boost the Wolves to a 37-35 lead.
With four seconds left, Troy’s Zach Penoza scored on a three-point shot bringing the Colts back into the lead, 38-37.
The fourth quarter opened with more back and forth action with the teams tying the score, 41-41.
With 3:34 left in the game, Desman Stephens scored three points, two from a basket and one on the free throw line to put the Wolves up 44-41. From there, the Wolves held onto the lead.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well from outside tonight, but we were really good inside,” Wasilk said.
Kosin led with 20 points and Stephens had 18 points. Junior Matthew Plfieger scored two field goals and senior Brayden Wiley scored one.
“We shot 22 free throws tonight so 14-for-22 which isn’t bad. Working inside out. It was good. We will take it,” said Wasilk. “Wiley and (Cavanaugh) Diton didn’t score a whole lot, but they were really good defensively. They rounded out our line up. Wiley played the point well and controlled things which was great. We had a couple guys come off the bench tonight and give us a few minutes. It wasn’t a lot but try to develop those bench players. We are just trying to get better and figure it out.”
The Wolves (8-2) opened the week against Walled Lake Western on Tuesday.
They play their first OAA Red league game against Ferndale on Thursday. JV plays at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.
“They are really good,” said Wasilk. “We have a week to get a lot better. They are one of the better teams in the state. We have to get back into the gym and shoot. Hopefully clean up some of our mistakes.”
He added going against Troy help heading into league play.
“As many non-conference games as we can get to figure out our rotations, figure out who plays best where, who our best defensive players are,” Wasilk said. “These are all good things to help us adjust and figure out what we can do before league play. We are getting better. We have a long ways to go but we are getting better.”
The Wolves host Rochester on Friday. JV plays at 4 p.m. and varsity plays at 7 p.m., following the girls varsity basketball game.

  Boys Basketball, Clarkston Boys Basketball