BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Wolves battled Marian in the first game of the season and walked away with a close loss to a tough team.
“It was good,” said Clarkston Girls Varsity Basketball Aaron Goodnough about the 54-48 loss.
“We started out fine. We were even with them after the first quarter. We had them down by six at half time. We had a rough third quarter. Then, played pretty even in the fourth. They are big. Compared to us they are huge. We tried to play them as physical as we possibly could. I think the third quarter they just decided they were going to pound the ball down our throat a little bit – and they did. Their coach has been there for years so she can recognize what her girls are and aren’t doing.”
He added it was a good game overall.
“I knew when I scheduled it it was going to be a tough one. I did that for most of December so it’s okay,” he said.
Maddy Skorupski led with 27 points and Anna Thomas had six points.
Goodnough added it shows the team they can play with anyone in the county.
“I told them there was no reason for them to hang their heads about anything,” he shared. “If we play the defense we are capable of doing and the defense we are working on now, I will take my shot against Marian again in a couple of months to see where we are at. I think when we get where we really want to be with our defense, we will stack up just fine. We took a lot from it. They came in thinking it was going to be a really tough game but they stood up to it quite well.”
Freshman and JV Girls Basketball teams were more successful in their season opener. The freshman team had a 40-34 win over Marian with Lauren Fishtahler leading with 31 points. JV won their game over Marian, 58-25. Claire Walker led with 15 points. Ellery Hernandez had 12 points and Elia Morgner had 11 points.
Games against Walled Lake Central for all levels for last Thursday and all other activities for the day were cancelled following the shooting at Oxford High School, Nov. 30, which left four students dead and seven injured.
Goodnough said they needed the time off.
“It hit the girls pretty hard,” he said. “All of these girls played Wolfpack together for years. It’s that little triangle of Lake Orion, Oxford and Clarkston. They all play with Oxford and Lake Orion girls. They know each other really well. I know there’s three girls on my team who knew Tate Myre very well. It’s hit us pretty hard.
“We had them come in. The way I told my parents we’re getting together as a team and we might throw in a little basketball in for fun. We were there for an hour and then they all went to a vigil. They wanted to do that as a team. I wanted to give them the opportunity.”
The Wolves head to Grand Blanc this Thursday. JV plays at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.
“We played them in some scrimmages,” Goodnough said. “They are another district champion from last year. I think we will be fine. Again, I knew what I was doing when I was scheduling these kind of teams for December.
“We’ll not a tall team and that’s not going to change anytime soon so we need to learn how to deal with our height,” he added. “Our strength is our transition, our speed, and the kind of offense we can generate. I am looking forward to another good match up. We will be focusing on some of the things we could do against Marian and their height and try to carry that over to Grand Blanc as well.”
The varsity team heads to Lakeland High School on Saturday.
The freshman and JV teams host L’Anse Creuse North on Tuesday, Dec. 14 beginning at 5:30 p.m. with freshman.