By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Sports Writer
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — It was a night of celebration as the Clarkston Boys Varsity Basketball team honored their four seniors in their final home and last game of the regular season during their 52-40 win over Bloomfield Hills last Friday.
“Senior night is always really cool,” said Tim Wasilk, head coach. “It’s good to see Aidan Barnes, Matthew Taverna, Matthew Pflieger and Peyton Fitzsimonds play together. We gave them the start tonight. It was good having them play together. For them being their last time on home court means a lot to them. They have done a lot for the program.”
Fitzsimonds and Pflieger each scored on a 3-pointer within the first minute of the game to open the night with a 6-0 lead.
Leads the Blackhawks had in the first quarter were short as the Wolves quickly reclaimed the lead, ending the quarter, 14-12 off a basket from sophomore Cole Charter.
Junior Quinn Rosenberg opened the second quarter with a basket and Charter scored on a 3-pointer before Bloomfield Hills scored. Fitzsimonds added another 3-pointer to put the Wolves up, 22-15.
Clarkston closed the first half with a 30-20 lead with another basket from Charter with seconds left to go.
The Wolves outscored the Blackhawks 15-7 in the third quarter, which included a combination of three 3-pointers from Plieger and Charter with less than four minutes to go in the stanza.
The Wolves wrapped the night with a 52-40 win.
“It was a good win, a good team win,” Wasilk said. “We defended well in the second half much better taking away what they wanted to do with their players,” said Wasilk. “There were guys who hurt us in the first half that we did a good job of taking them away. We switched some things defensively which we kind of gave them a tough time. We started doing a better job of switching screens on their offense. We gave them some trouble.”
Charter led with 12 points. Pflieger had nine points and Fitzsimonds had eight points.
“Our scoring was very balanced,” Wasilk said, adding sophomore Hayden Flavin scored six points. “Even though Flavin didn’t score a lot of points, he did draw a lot of attention inside with double teams and did a nice job kicking it out.”
The Wolves opened the week with a 84-52 loss to Ferndale, Feb. 20.
Clarkston (11-11, 3-9 OAA Red) is looking ahead to the post-season taking the positives and lessons from the regular season.
“Our season has definitely been full of ups and downs which we knew going in this year that could potentially be the case with a lot of new guys on the floor,” Wasilk said. “We play against some really good teams and beat some good teams. We went down to the wire against a lot of good teams.”
He added the teams has been playing better in the second half of the season.
“I think we have been playing better lately,” Wasilk said. “ Anytime you can get momentum going into districts it helps. We have been cleaning up some things we were struggling with. Defensively we made some adjustments. If we work pretty hard defensively and shoot the ball well, which we are capable of, we can be pretty dangerous.”
The Wolves opened the MHSAA Division 1 Boys Basketball District 28 playoff with Pontiac (13-8) on Monday.
“It is a super competitive district,” said Wasilk. “A lot of good teams across the board. There are quality teams, good players. We have been scouting the teams, and I am sure they have been doing the same with us. We play Pontiac on Monday night they have good players, well coached. We will take it a game at a time and focus on us.”
The Wolves defeated Pontiac on Monday, 58-48. They move on to the district semifinal is on Wednesday against Avondale. The winner faces the Lake Orion/Waterford Mott winner in the district final on Friday. All games are at Waterford Kettering, 7 p.m.
The district champion moves on to the MHSAA Division 1 Regional 7 at Milford. The semifinal is on Tuesday, March 5 at 5:30 p.m.
The Clarkston Girls Varsity Basketball team won both their games last week at home. They defeated Rochester at home last Friday, 53-27. Brooklyn Covert led the team with 16 points. Emily Valencia had ten points and Ellery Hernandez had nine points.
The Wolves opened the week with a 50-33 win over Royal Oak, Feb. 20. Elia Morgner led with 15 points. Covert had 12 points and Valencia had eight points.
Clarkston closed the regular season at Oxford on Tuesday this week.

  Clarkston Athletics