Central Stuns Midland Dow 61-50
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Central Wolves pulled the stunner over the District favorite Midland Dow (15-6) Wednesday by sticking to their plan of attack.
"We had a game plan against Dow to get the ball to Norman and Bush...we put it in the last two days and the kids did all they could to execute the plan, everything," said Wolves coach Mike Maciejewski.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
The Chargers who finished third in the SVL did all they could to stop the Wolves plan of attack.
Central lead 17-13 at the end of one, lead by the three point shooting of Brad Norman but the Dow full court press began to frustrate the Wolves in the second.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Dow kept going to their big men Brad Ostergren and Tyler Schroll, usually after a forced turnover.
The two Dow forwards finished the half with twenty of their teams 29 points as the Chargers went up 29-27 at the break.
The Wolves came out playing like they nothing to lose, because they didn't.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
The 3-14 Wolves played the second half like a 14-3 team jumping out to a 39-33 lead with 4:12 left in the third.
The Chargers made their run by going back to the press and within two minutes had the Wolves tied at 39.
The underdog Wolves never flinched as they continued to scramble for loose balls and crash the boards recklessly to keep the keep the Chargers from possessing the Rock.
Central was back up 44-41 at the end of three.
Both teams had their share of turnovers; it came down to whichever team capitalized on the others generosity.
The Wolves capitalized and held a 47-43 advantage with 5:30 left. With determination and tenacity for rebounding the Wolves bumped the lead to seven with 4:20 left, then 10 with three left.
The team with 16 losses began to think like winners and it showed.
Norman, who was frustrated earlier by the press wanted the ball at every turn to dribble into the Charger defenders who obliged him nearly every time with a foul.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
All the Wolves who went to the line in the fourth quarter knew they were sealing the unexpected victory.
With just over one minute left, Coach Maciejewski could feel it too as he screamed, "hold it, hold it," to Alex Bush who had broke the press and found himself underneath the basket with the ball.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Bush promptly fired it out to Norman on the wing who took it up top to Trenton Robinson who wheeled it down to the opposite corner to Justin Reed who calmly drilled his wide open three pointer to put the Wolves up eight and seal the startling win.
After the Wolves iced a few more free throws the final buzzer went off and the celebration began.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Coach Maciejewski was enjoying the win after the game while discussing his sharpshooter Norman, "he was excited all day in school, he was excited before the game." I had to ask how he kept that excitement in check during game time? "You don't, you let kids be kids," was his sage like response.
Alex Bush led the wolves with 23 while Norman finished with 20 and Justin Reed ended with 8.
The Wolves will be planning a precise game for Fridays Championship at Western (7:00PM)against Mount Pleasant who won 49-47 over Midland High.
Mount Pleasant beat them by 30 at Central then the Wolves took them to overtime before losing in their gym a few weeks back.
They hope to do one better on Friday and win their first District Championship in ten years. MyBayCity asked coach Maciejewski about his predictions for Friday, "The kids are excited, my coaching staff is excited, the whole Central community should be excited. The last time we won a District Championship was in 1998."
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Kevin Leahy |
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