Girls/Boys Basketball Recap

Written Monday December 21st at 11:55 PM

The Dragons Den Congrats the Dallas Stars on Saturday's Victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

Anyway what is going on with the Lake Orion Girls Basketball team, after a 4-0 start to the season? League play has started to become a nightmare to see for the Dragons and their fans. This week the Dragons were 0-2 for the week with shocking losses to Rochester (47-32) and to Pontiac (52-37). Now the Dragons stand at 4-2 overall, and 0-2 in OAA Red play. Both losses were each by 15 points, which has Dragons coach Steve Roberts puzzling. The Dragons have been outscored 99-69 in both of their losses, which is also a major concern to Roberts. The junior varsity ladies are 3-3 in their young season, after suffering a tough loss to Pontiac on Friday, while the Freshman ladies are 2-4 in this young season, and have lost three in a row recently to Adams, Rochester, and now to Pontiac.

Pontiac was and is still is a really good basketball team, even with the loss of coach Leola Greer to cancer. The Phoenix have been playing inspired basketball with the loss of their coach and beloved figure of Pontiac, and also the merger of both Pontiac Northern and Pontiac Central high schools has also helped make Pontiac into the way they are right now. But back to the Dragons mistakes against Pontiac, allowing five three-pointers against a team like the Phoenix who is a pretty good three-point shooting team is not going to be pretty. The effort was there though by the Dragons but a win wasn't meant to be on that Friday night at Lake Orion High School.

Rochester was perhaps the most disappointing loss for the Dragons in this early young season. The Falcons had just three starters back from a disastrous season, a new coach, and they were win less (0-2) coming into the game. The Falcons played one of their best games of the season and had balanced scoring throughout. They made the Dragons lives miserable by causing turnovers and hitting timely shots when they had to do so. Those are prime candidates to be in line for an upset is three point shooting, and causing teams to turn the ball over, that's what happened in that game Tuesday night at Rochester High School.

Perhaps these two losses were a good thing for the Dragons. They are still a very young and inexperienced team but their some things that need to be corrected, especially the turnovers before Tuesday January 5th when the Dragons return for a non league game at Madison Heights Madison, and then back to OAA Red play on Thursday January 7th when the Dragons travel to Lathrup Village to play a hostile Southfield Lathrup Chargers team, who is loaded, and has also played a tough non conference schedule to prepare themselves for the OAA Red season.

The Lake Orion Boys Basketball team had an emotional 44-42 win over Romeo on Friday Night, at the Dog Pound in Macomb County. The win at Romeo snapped a tough three game losing streak for the Dragons (All of those losses came by less than 11 points). The Dragons are now one win away from matching last years win total of three games, when they finished 3-17 last season. The Dragons freshman and junior varsity teams are also playing well as well, both teams are 4-1 so far, their only losses were to Southfield, the freshman loss was in double overtime (63-60), and the junior varsity was a four point loss to the Blue Jays, an OAA Red division team (67-63).

On the Varsity side you have to give credit to head coach Mike Shafakalas, in just his first year, and also his players. They have been very competitive throughout this non conference season, with wins over Bloomfield Hills Lahser, who were projected to win the OAA Blue division (72-56), and now Romeo, a Macomb Area Conference Red division and also a Macomb County powerhouse. Things should be looking up for the Dragons, after the tough back to back schedule they had to play this season. The team also believes that the OAA White is winnable and they can win every game, they play with the back to backs and the schedule they were put into to start the 2009-2010 basketball season.

The Dragons losses however haven't been good though, but they been competitive and had chances to win those games, all those games were tough losses to handle. They had one game that was stolen from them by the home book keeper against Avondale (63-59), they came back in that game from down 51-27 at the end of three quarters until the screw job happened. In the game against Southfield the Dragons had Southfield on the ropes, the game was tied 36-36 after three quarters. But the fourth quarter was a nightmare for them, they allowed a 20-6 run in the fourth quarter, and fell 56-42 to the Blue Jays at Orion. Hartland was a long travel into Livingston County after a tough setback against the Blue Jays, but they were competitive throughout, but they fell short once again 48-37 in that contest to the Eagles.

The Dragons are 2-3 so far this season, and league play (OAA White) kicks off for the Dragons beginning in 2010. They play host on Tuesday January 5th against the Berkley Bears, who upset Catholic League power Orchard Lake St. Marys earlier in the season, and also on Friday January 8th when the Falcons of Rochester pay a visit to Lake Orion for a OAA White showdown of division rivals.

Maybe 2010, can be different for both boys and girls basketball teams, but 2009 especially for the girls was a special one to watch as they went to the MHSAA State Semifinals, as for the boys, eh not so much.

Anyway have a Merry Christmas and see you in 2010. GO DRAGONS.