By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
wprice@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Clarkston Girls Varsity Basketball had a successful week with three wins including a 57-42 victory at home over crosstown rival Lake Orion last Thursday.
Senior Izzy Wotlinski opened the game scoring the first basket for the Dragons.
The Wolves tied the score less than a minute later with a basket inside from senior Ellery Hernandez before Wotlinski put Lake Orion back into the lead with another basket.
Clarkston sophomore Brooklyn Covert scored her first basket of the night to tie the score again at four points each before Dragon senior Charlotte Peplowski hit a 3-point shot. Another basket and a 3-pointer from Wotlinski in the next few minutes put Lake Orion up 12-4 with three minutes left in the first quarter.
The Wolves closed the gap going 4-for-6 on the free throw line and a basket from freshman Bella Flavin to end the quarter behind six points, 16-10.
“We just came out so emotional,” said Aaron Goodnough, head coach for Clarkston. “We wanted to try and put the pedal down early, and we played very loose. I told them after the first quarter we couldn’t have played much worse. I said we’re fine. I knew we were going to recover. We still didn’t play really great basketball. We were kind of inconsistent all the way throughout and had a tough time running offense. But, I honestly, I won’t say I was necessarily all that concerned, but you have to take into account it’s a Lake Orion game. You can talk about it. You put it on the board as much as you want, and it doesn’t matter. They just get themselves revved up.”
The Dragons opened the second quarter with a basket from sophomore Kara Veeder. They wouldn’t score again until there was two minutes left in the first half.
Clarkston went on a 13-point run which included contributions from junior Elliana Robak, senior Marley Mazar, Hernandez, and Covert with seven points which included a 3-point shot.
Lake Orion freshman Ulara Hill scored two points with 1:49 left in the first half of the game.
The Wolves responded with two points from senior Elia Morgner, two points from Makayla Butki and a 3-pointer from Flavin to close the quarter with a 30-20 lead.
“Makayla played really well,” said Goodnough. “We had her chasing their best player (Wotlinski). We said at the beginning of game we want to keep Izzy around 20 points and she had 22. They run everything through her so that’s to be expected. You can work as hard as you want, but when she stays on the court all but two minutes of the game, she’s going to get her points.”
The Wolves continued to hold onto the lead and outscored the Dragons 16-11 in the third quarter.
Robak opened the final quarter with a 3-pointer and the Wolves took the opportunity to bring in more players off the bench.

“We talked about that at the beginning of the game,” Goodnough noted. “It’s up to our starters to get our bench in. It took a little longer than we would have liked because of our slow start. When they were in we got some contributions. Lexi Frey had a really good JV game and she played a quarter for us and hit a three. She contributed right away, We’re trying to continue to work Bella in and see where she can fit and she’s trying to figure out what her role is. We put her in some situations that she hasn’t been in running some high offense and she started getting the feel of that as well.”
Robak led with 20 points for the night. Covert scored 11 points and Hernandez had six points.
Wotlinski led the Dragons with 22 points. Veeder scored six points.
The Wolves opened the week with a 51-39 win over Ferndale, Jan. 14.
“We are pretty sloppy overall but better,” said Goodnough. “We were starting to run some offense, our defense was pretty good. They’re very physical. They had a really tall girl in the middle, and we decided we were going to essentially front her and then have another girl right behind her so when she caught the ball she was going to have a tough time scoring on us. They’re very quick, they’re very young, and they’re very small.”
Covert led with 15 points. Morgner scored 12 points and Flavin had nine points.
“Elia had a really good night,” Goodnough said. “Brooklyn had a good game, too. We’re trying to get her to go more downhill, play a little bit more high pressure defense, and it’s going to give her opportunities. I think tonight she started to see it’s going to come with that high pressure as quick as she is going to get stuff off the court. She must a little bunny right here that ended up getting somebody else a foul but that happens, you’re not going to make them all.”
They finished the week with a 62-48 win over Avondale on Saturday during the MLK Classic at West Bloomfield. Covert led with 20 points. Robak scored 19 points and Mazur had seven points.
The Wolves head to Stoney Creek on Thursday and host Oxford on Tuesday, Jan. 28. JV plays at 5:30 p.m., varsity follows.

  Clarkston Athletics, Girls Basketball