BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
Clarkston cagers responded to Oak Park’s pressure with a 63-54 win in the OAA Red last Friday.
“Ugly game, ugly win, but we will take it,” said Tim Wasilk, head coach for Clarkston Boys Varsity Basketball. “We grinded it out. Wins aren’t always pretty and it was a talented team and a good league win.”
The Wolves finished the first quarter with a 9-8 lead and opened the next stanza with a 3-pointer from sophomore Nathan Steinman.

The Knights fought back with a 8-point run to take the lead. Clarkston took a 30-second time out and came back with a basket from senior Matt Nicholson and a 3-pointer from sophomore Fletcher Loyer with an assist from sophomore Keegan Wasilk to put the score 17-16.
The first half closed with the Wolves holding the lead, 22-19, after Loyer scored two points on the free throw line.
“I give a lot of credit to Oak Park,” said Wasilk.“They are a great, talented team. They played hard against us. They did a good job of pressing us and changing up defenses and having our kids adjust to those things. We adjusted better in the second half to what they were trying to do. The press slowed us down but at the same time it didn’t really hurt us. We have seen a little bit of press this year and we are slowly getting better at it. we are going to get everybody’s best shot, our kids know that.”
Both teams battled for the lead at the top of the third quarter and with four minutes to go the Wolves went on a 10-2 run to create a gap in the score, 37-30. They scored six more points with in the last minute which included a 3-pointer from Wasilk to close the quarter, 43-35.
“We started attacking better against the press in the second half,” said Wasilk. “We got the ball inside some more, hit some jump shots which was good.”
He added Oak Park’s Maliq Carr was on a mission during the night.
“Maliq, one of their better players, it is his last week of playing basketball,” Wasilk said. “He is heading to Purdue next weekend to go play football. I don’t normally see him play that aggressive, but he was on a mission tonight and did well.”
Loyer led with 27 points and four assists. Nicholson had 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks; Wasilk had seven points, nine assists and three steals; and Steinman had two field goals and four rebounds.
“Keegan for us did a pretty good job handling the point. He handled the ball tonight and got us in to what we wanted to do,” Wasilk said. “Fletcher heated it up in the second half and hit some shots. Matt was much better in the second half as well.”
He added they role players stepping in with Steinman, Donchez and sophomore Mike DePillo.
“Mike stepped in and did some nice things tonight,” Wasilk said. “He was battling mono and now he’s good. He is trying to get back into things. It was good to see him out there with extended minutes. He did a nice job. Cole and Nate are both playing solid for us.”
The Wolves posted a 59-39 win over Bloomfield Hills, Jan. 7. Loyer led with 21 points and four assist. Nicholson scored 13 points and had 11 rebounds and seven blocks. Wasilk had 11 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Steinman had six points and four rebounds and Donchez had four points and four rebounds.
“We played really hard,” said Wasilk. “We were up 35 to 15 at the half. It was a good pressure by our guys. I loved how hard we played and we were aggressive defensively. We did a lot of good things.”
Clarkston doesn’t play until Saturday as the players focus on exams this week. They head to Ferndale to play Detroit King at 5:30 p.m.
“We have not seen them play,” Wasilk said. “I know it will be a good one. We played them last year and I know they want us back.”