Dragon Ladies problems solved???: Dragon Boys may have some issues

Written Saturday January 23rd, at 9:28 PM

Well this week in Dragons Basketball, it's hard to believe that Scripps is going to play Waldon Monday night at 5 PM in the inaugural Middle School Tournament Championship game for the 8th graders at Waldon Middle School. It should be an interesting game between the two rivals. However in their previous two meetings Waldon has blown out Scripps both times, but beating a team three times is always hard to do.

Anyway things are looking good for the Dragon Varsity ladies, they finally have two wins to close out the week. They had a home game Tuesday night against Southfield, and Thursday night traveled to meet West Bloomfield in a OAA Red showdown. The Dragons were both victorious in both their meetings this week as I said. If I was a teacher grading the Orion ladies for the week it would be a low A- to a high B+ because of the turnover issues they have been going through, but a 2-0 week will fix those problems quickly.

After a tough heartbreaking loss last Friday night at North Farmington (misleading 57-45), nobody knew where the Dragons mindset would be at, not even Orion head Coach Steve Roberts knew how his players would respond after their tough stretch in the season.

Once the Dragons played Southfield, they began to find their rhythm a bit on the defensive end. Southfield was a 4-5 team coming into the game. It was an ugly game though, neither team could gain any momentum in the contest or set any source of structure in the game, and both teams kept turning the ball over, whether it was traveling, or throwing the ball out of bounds, it was just ugly. Until the second half when the Dragons got it going again, the offense was balanced though lead by Marissa Secontine's ten points, Jackie Hood, and Alexis Hann had nine points each. The lady Dragons played brilliantly defensively, only limiting Blue Jay star Lashentie West to just seven points the Blue Jays to just ten points in the first half, and 13 in the 2nd half. They went on and won 42-23 despite committing 31 turnovers, to the Blue Jays 24 turnovers.

Thursday night was literately defense anyone at West Bloomfield??? There was a combined 108 points combined by both the Dragons and the Lakers in this one, points were at a plenty as the Dragons had three scorers (Alexis Hann (20 points), Jackie Hood (12 points, and Marissa Secontine (11 points all in the second half) in double figures and did just enough to hold Lakers freshman star Sydney Davis to 28 points in a 59-49 victory over the Lakers. The Lakers came in 2-8 into this one and 1-3 in the OAA Red. This was a fast pace tempo game, sort of like the Phoenix Suns of the NBA would be proud of. An 11 point lead the Dragons had wasn't even safe at halftime (31-20). A minute into the third quarter the Lakers went on a 5-0 run thanks to a three pointer by their second freshman Kheri Motley and a quick steal by Davis cut the Dragons lead to 31-26 before Roberts called a quick timeout to calm the ladies. Once they were calm the Dragons kept the petal to the medal, and played the Lakers up tempo offense head on. But the turnovers are still a problem for the ladies, as a team Orion had 24 turnovers for the entire game, seven of those were by Davis. The Lakers had 18 turnovers themselves.

The ladies record is now 8-4 overall, and 2-4 in the OAA Red, 3 games behind North Farmington and Rochester. This week the Orion ladies will play two home games instead of going on the road for a change. One game will be on Tuesday as Clarkston comes to Orion for a rivalry showdown between the two teams. The Wolves enter the game 3-8 overall and 2-4 in the OAA Red feature center Kaleigh Kenny, who signed to play at Division II Findlay State. They also feature little sister of Kaleigh in small forward Delaney Kenny, and shooting guard Megan Hastings, who torched Lathrup for 18 points, in their upset win (50-48 in double overtime) at Lathrup Village. The Wolves also lost a game in triple overtime to Troy Athens 39-31 earlier in the season, so they are battle tested.

Orion then plays on Friday against Rochester in a rematch of the disaster that ruined the Dragons unbeaten streak, at Rochester. The Falcons used balanced scoring led by their trio of Megan Heiden, Ashley Keyes, and Hillary Braun. The Falcons upset the Dragons 47-32 on that December night. The Falcons come in at 6-5 overall but is one of the co-leaders of the OAA Red with a 5-1 record, they took down North Farmington 47-41 at home and also Braun returned for that one after a knee injury, that forced her to miss some time. Also the Falcons survived a tough one at Oakland University, when they defeated arch rival Rochester Adams 43-39, after a slow start in that one. Rochester also plays on Tuesday, they travel to Sy Green Gym and play the Phoenix of Pontiac before playing the Dragons. So this week for the Orion ladies should be interesting with arch rival Clarkston and Rochester on the horizon.

The freshman ladies this week went 1-1. They did not have a good start against Southfield, it wasn't good as the Blue Jays rolled onto victory on the Dragons home floor but the Dragons returned the favor and knocked off West Bloomfield 35-19 at West Bloomfield. The freshman ladies are now 4-7 overall, and 2-5 in the OAA Red. The freshman go to Clarkston Jr High school for a showdown with the Wolves on Tuesday afternoon, then they have a showdown with a very good Rochester team on Friday at home. It was the Falcons who limited the Dragons to just eight points total in the meeting in December.

The JV ladies continued their three game winning streak with two wins this week. They beat Southfield at home on Tuesday night and also won a shocking 32-13 win over the Lakers at West Bloomfield on Thursday night. The JV ladies is also 8-4 overall, with a 5-2 record in the OAA Red. They play Clarkston at home on Tuesday and Rochester Friday. The JV Dragons knocked off the Falcons 26-25 at Rochester, so Thursday should be interesting.

If I was a teacher grading the Dragon boys, I would give them a D for the week, for disaster which happened Tuesday night and literately almost disaster Friday night. This week the Dragon boys took on Stoney Creek at the Core (Stoney Creek) on Tuesday night and Troy Athens Friday night at home. The Dragon boys escaped this week by going 1-1, instead of 0-2, which they should have been with the magic they had to pull out in this one.

The Dragons entered the Stoney Creek game, after going through a tough emotional loss to Birmingham Seaholm 62-54 Friday night at Seaholm, thinking that this could be a huge step toward competing with the rest of the OAA White, and thinking that they are back. The Cougars entered the game 8-2 overall, and 2-1 in the OAA White. The Dragons were trying to bounce back from the Seaholm game, and also winning at a place they won last year, Stoney Creek. However Stoney Creek's gym has not been good to the Dragons in the past, in 2006 the Dragons when both the Dragons and Cougars played in the OAA Division three, they blew a 13 point lead and lost 58-57 on a Ben Taormina three-pointer. Sadly for this year's team the trip to Stoney Creek Tuesday night unfortunately would be for the Dragons would love to forget.

After a good first half the Dragons were only down 24-22 at half, then disaster struck in the second half. The Dragons were then outscored 27-13 in the third quarter and then 17-4 in the fourth quarter, in rout to a 68-49 loss to the Cougars if this is a preview of the districts at Clarkston then the Dragons could be in some serious, serious trouble because the Dragons and the Cougars play each other in the first round of the district tournament, also they have another game later in the season at Lake Orion that they have to play as well.

The game on Friday described the pure word of luck and that the Dragons should have not even been in this game against Troy Athens. The Red Hawks came into this game 4-5 overall, and 2-2 in the OAA White, they went into Adams and upset the Highlanders 54-51, and beat Rochester at Rochester 63-50, so the Red Hawks have been described as road warriors and also the three point happies, and boy did they live up to their reputation against the Dragons.

The Red Hawks hit ten three pointers in the game (30 points), five of them were by star center Mike Devita, who had 21 points overall for the Hawks. Athens then climbed to a 41-32 lead after three quarters and then increased the lead to 46-32, that's when the Dragons started coming, and getting going. The Dragons kept fouling, sending Athens to the free-throw line for one and one opportunities. Athens could not hit them and the Dragons started chipping away at the Red Hawks lead. The Dragons then went on a 14-0 run to cut the Hawks lead to two 46-44 with only 58 seconds remaining in the game.

However the Hawks responded back, and hit two free throws to increase their lead to four 48-44, then Orion got a huge two point layup after a Athens turnover by SF Derek Schrauben, cutting the lead back to two 48-46. The Dragons quickly fouled and sent Athens back to the line for the one and one. The Hawks then missed again, and the Dragons quickly ran the ball down the court. Once in the Athens zone, from the right corner Shooting Guard Brian Wandschneider drained a three pointer, sending the LO-Zone, and the Dragon faithful crazy with 8.9 seconds left in the game. Orion lead 49-48, it was their first lead of the game. The Dragons defensively then pressured Athens, and Athens could not get a final shot up. The Dragon fans then stormed the court as they won 49-48, the players from Athens were devastated. They controlled most of the game, and had the lead throughout until those final 8.9 seconds on the clock.

The Dragons in my mind are the luckiest 6-5 team right now, and is 3-2 in OAA White play. They are two games behind unbeaten Birmingham Seaholm, and tied with Stoney Creek (Now 8-3 overall, 3-2 in the OAA White) for third place in the OAA White. This week the Dragons take Tuesday off, before returning back to action for Thursday's huge showdown against second place Rochester Adams at Orion. Adams enters this huge showdown for second place with the Dragons 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the OAA White, Adams does play Southfield on Monday night at home in a non conference tilt between the OAA Red and the White before coming to Orion on Thursday.

The freshman boys just can't put together a good first half. In the game against Stoney Creek the Dragons trailed by seven points at halftime, then the genius of Dragon coach Randy Maynard came to be. The Dragons went nuts against the Cougars, showing no mercy in rout to a victory over the Cougars by 17 points. Then on Friday the Dragons traveled to Athens and played the Red Hawks of Troy Athens, and good friend in Matt Abro. Ah I remember the good memories I had with him in football in 2004, when he threw that interception that set up our winning touchdown. We won that game at Athens 34-16, good times, good times. Anyway back to the game, Athens found themselves down by one point at halftime, then the genius that is of Randy Maynard showed his head. Maynard lead his team after the break and increased the deficit of the Red Hawks by 23 points. The Dragons went on and won that game by 24 points. Orion's record now stands at 9-1 overall, and 5-0 in OAA White play. They play Adams Thursday at Adams.

The JV boys had a good week as well going 2-0, they went on and beat Stoney Creek by seven points. On Friday the Dragons took on Troy Athens at home, in a wild affair. Orion trailed by 10 points 30-20 midway through the second quarter before storming back, only trailing 34-31 at halftime. The Dragons and Hawks kept battling back and fourth, until Orion seized control in the fourth quarter winning 62-54. The JV Dragons improve their record to 10-1 overall and 5-0 in OAA White play. They will also play Adams at home on Thursday night.

Both teams need to get better once February rolls around, especially the Dragon boys. This week the Dragon boys play only one game. The Dragon girls play two games, and better not look ahead to Rochester with Clarkston, this week should be fun because all the games this week is at Orion, so the scoreboards should be lighting up with perfection hopefully.