Ferndale grabs key victory over Wolves
Ferndale’s gruesome twosome of junior hoopsters, Jason “Deuce” Drake and Treyvon Lewis, took over Tuesday’s OAA Red affair on the boys hardwood against defending league champion Clarkston in the fourth quarter and carried their visiting Eagles to a come-from-behind 56-49 victory.
Suburban superpower Clarkston was undefeated entering the contest.
Drake, a coldblooded 6-1 combo-guard transfer from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, scored 12 of his game-high 22 points in the closing stanza. Lewis’ leaner off the glass with 5:53 remaining gave Ferndale (2-1) its first lead of the night at 42-40 and the Eagles never trailed again.
On the ensuing possession, Lewis stole the ball at midcourt
and coasted in for a thunderous one-handed tomahawk jam. The 6’5” Lewis is one of the premier wing guards in the state and finished the game with a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Quite astoundingly, Clarkston (3-1) has won at least a share of the OAA Red in each of the last 14 seasons.
Junior power forward Mike DePillo, considered a top-flight college football recruit at quarterback, notched his own double-double for the host Wolves, netting 13 points and corralling 11 rebounds. Zach Austin scored 12 points out of the Clarkston backcourt in defeat. DePillo fouled out late in the fourth quarter with the
game’s outcome still hanging in balance.
The home team held a 2717 lead at halftime and was in front 39-34 going into the fourth quarter before Drake and Lewis took their games into maximum overdrive for the stretch run.
Drake opened the night’s final frame with six straight points to tie things up 4040 in less than two minutes. When he fed sophomore shooting guard Caleb Renfroe for a 3-pointer in the left corner with just more than three minutes to go, Ferndale jumped ahead 47-40.
“We got it going when it counted the most,” Drake said. “We calmed down, we stopped forcing things and let the game come to us.
“That flipped the switch. We were a different team in the fourth quarter.”
Clarkston got within three points at 49-46 in the closing 90 seconds, but Drake and point guard Cameron Reed buried free throws and Lewis scored on a tip-back to make it 5446 and seal the win. Reed
sheeted 10 points and five assists in the game.
“Deuce and I have confidence in ourselves, each other and in our teammates, so it was only a matter of time until our shots started falling,” Lewis said. “We picked up the intensity on defense, really got after it on the glass. Once we grabbed a lead, we didn’t look back from there.”
Ferndale coach Juan Rickman thought his club played harder and smarter in the second half.
“The little stuff made a big difference,” he said. “The intangibles won us this game late. The hustle, the defense, the diving on the floor, the rebounding, the getting to 50/50 balls. We got more deliberate on offense and made the most of our opportunities.”
Clarkston coach Tim Wasilk saw his team’s lead slip away fast in the fourth.
“The momentum swung in what seemed like a blink of an eye,” he said.
“We were up, we were in command, then all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, we’re facing a deficit and reeling. This group knows how to compete. They’ll learn from this and respond.”
AEye Inc., a start-up that makes lidar systems for selfdriving vehicles, is going public by merging with blankcheck company CF Finance Acquisition Corp. III in a deal valued at $2 billion.
The merger will net $455 million in cash for AEye, which the company will use to further develop its lidar and software systems. AEye is banking on growth in systems like General Motors Co.’s Super Cruise assisted driving system and, eventually, self-driving cars.
Lidar is a technology using laser-based sensors that allow a car’s computer to “see” its surroundings. The deal shows that investors still have interest in companies working on self-driving technology. Capital is still flowing into autonomous technology, but has tightened up in the past year as it has become more apparent that it may take longer for cars to truly drive themselves.